2000 Subaru Forester shut down while driving

A car can stop in its tracks for hundreds of reasons, but in a car like yours, first suspicions would be either the fuel pump or something like the crank-angle sensor. If the problem had been a clogged fuel filter or a dud spark plug, the problem would probably have made the engine run poorly, but not stopped it dead in an instant.

Electric fuel pumps don’t last forever and, when they die, they die quickly and without notice. Same goes for crank-angle sensors, without which, the computer doesn’t know where the individual pistons are in each cylinder and, therefore, can’t inject fuel or create spark at the precise time it needs to.