NHTSA Complaint #11441218 — 2021 SUBARU OUTBACK

When I bought my new 2021 Subaru on Sep. 27, 2021. It was twilight and the sales lady said it had a small rock chip in the windshield but they were going to fix it. Driving home, I saw the windshield had a spider web of cracks all over it. I took it back on Sep. 30 and they replaced the windshield. On Oct 31, I drove 660 miles. When I looked at the Subaru in the motel parking lot the next morning, the new 5-week old windshield had cracks. There was a rock chip where the cracks crossed. They were not spread all over but covered an area about 14" wide and 8" high. I didn't want to drive it but I had to get it back to the dealer. Later I saw the State of New Jersey had filed lawsuits against Subaru for cracked windshields on 2.5M vehicles. I felt sick and didn't know what to do. I found a "Service Bulletin" No. 12-192-12R dated 10/26/15. It was only for 2015-2016MY Legacy and Outback models and MY's but it described the crack issue and illustrated it. It was very limited. It just offered an extended warranty and one repair on specific models. I believe this is a serious Safety Defect because it is spread over a large population of vehicles and Subaru is not admitting any defect or safety problem. If this occurs on a trip, it's likely the driver will continue to drive to their destination with a dangerously compromised windshield. FMVSS 205 states that Glazing in Auto windows is to reduce injuries resulting from impact to glazing surfaces, to maintain transparency for visibility and minimize the chance occupants are ejected from the vehicle in a collision. It also appears the windshields do not meet Fracture Test 7 in SAE Z26 for tempered glass and multiple glazed units. The size of fragments observed in the spider-web patterns are 1" to 3" and more and likely weigh more than the 4.25 grams in the Fracture Test. In my 65 years of driving, I’ve never had a windshield crack like the two windshields cracked on my Outback in the period of five weeks.