NHTSA Complaint #11428254 — 2020 SUBARU FORESTER

The battery on my 2020 Subaru Forester Premium /LFF14 drains within a week if not driven. There appears to be a parasitic battery drain problem. The car will not start. I replaced the original factory battery with a larger, after-market battery having been told by several sources that this problem is common to Foresters and is caused by defective batteries being supplied to Subaru. However, the new battery did not solve the problem. I regularly test the battery with a battery tester that indicates that the battery is OK, but is discharged and requires charging. I now keep a trickle charger on the car continuously. This seems to keep the battery charge up to 98%. I have retained the original battery which holds a charge indefinitely out of the vehicle. I am aware that driving the car to recharge the battery is extremely hard on the alternator and will cause it to prematurely fail. The car was purchased in August of 2020 and currently has less than 500 miles. This is a recurrent problem.