NHTSA Complaint #11713259 — 2025 SUBARU FORESTER

I bought a Subaru Forrester 2025 in March of 2025. I drove this car for almost 9 months to the day. On 12-19 -25 I was driving down the aisle in the Walmart parking lot at less than 10 mph. I turned right into a handicap parking lot and applied my brake as I was settling into the parking space. I was driving less than 5 mph as one normally would when parking and coming to a stop. My car accelerated quickly and with great speed and since my front wheels were still turned toward the right, my car sped toward the cement encased parking sign at a high rate of speed. I was in disbelief. I backed up to be in the proper space and got out and surveyed the damages. Thankfully I was alone in the car and due to the handicapped parking signs ahead and to the right of the parking spot I did not cross the marked lot lines and no other vehicles were involved. The car was not driveable so I had the it towed to the dealership and found they did not have a body shop. Then engaged a body shop to repair. Estimate of damages is $6,820. My car is still there today. It is now Jan 25 and we are waiting on a few replacement parts. At first I thought I might have stepped on the gas instead of the brake as I was parking that night. But all common sense tells me that my foot was properly on the brake as I was finishing up my parking maneuver at a very slow rate of speed. I looked around the internet and see that these same circumstances were replicated by other drivers esp. on the 2012-2020 models of Forresters. I had no prior knowledge of what I consider to be a significant fault in this vehicle. I did receive widespread bruising to my chest from the seatbelt. Once my car is repaired I will take it back to the dealer to have several systems checked for errors. I am leery of driving it again. I am really not in a position to buy a different vehicle but it may come to that. Altho the police report states that I may have hit the gas, upon further reflection I don’t feel that is true