The 2004 Subaru Legacy has 8 recalls, the most serious being a defective front passenger airbag inflator that can rupture and send metal fragments into the cabin, causing serious injury or death.
Prior repair attempts did not fully resolve the inflator issue, and multiple campaigns have addressed the same defect across different vehicle populations over time. The core danger is the same throughout: in a crash that deploys the airbag, the inflator can explode and scatter sharp metal pieces toward the driver and passengers. There is also a separate fuel system concern, where a loose or mispositioned fuel filler hose clamp can allow gasoline to leak near the engine, raising the risk of a fire if the fuel contacts an ignition source.