Tailgate problems of the 2017 Subaru Forester

The contact owns a 2017 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that upon opening the tailgate, the tailgate quickly fell unintendedly and struck the contact's head while the contact was retrieving items from the trunk. The contact sustained head soreness but had not received medical attention. The contact stated that the failure had occurred on several occasions. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, where it was diagnosed, and determined that the tailgate sending unit needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired due to the cost. The failure mileage was approximately 85,000. The VIN was not available.

On March 1, 2017 I was stopped at an intersection. After proceeding straight through the intersection and reaching a speed of approximately 10-15 mph I heard an alert in my car, and simultaneously heard cars behind me sounding their horns. I quickly looked up into the rear view mirror and saw that the tailgate of my car had opened without warning while I was in motion, causing my dog to fall out of the back. This occurred after traveling for approximately 6-8 miles without ever receiving a dashboard alert that the tailgate was open. There have been electronic issues with the car since I purchased it new. Sometimes the car won't recognize the key fob and the doors won't unlock, or the car won't start and I get an alert that there is no key detected (when it is in the cup holder mere inches from the push-button ignition start. ) twice the fasten seat belt alert has lighted and chimed, when the driver has the seat-belt fastened and there are no other passengers in the car. Oftentimes the tailgate won't open with the key fob or by utilizing the outside button - on this particular day it took me several minutes of fussing with all the controls before I could get the tailgate to open at all. This was the first time the tailgate opened on its own. The only other thing that I recall about what happened that day is that as I was going through the intersection my right front wheel dipped into a pothole with a significant jarring.