The 2019 Subaru Ascent Is the Subaru SUV We've All Been Waiting For

this is a

2019

subaru

ascent

and it's a mid size suv from

subaru

finally the ford explorer came out 25 years ago the honda pilot came out 15 years ago and it took subaru that long to put together a decent three row family suv but now it's finally here and it's more than decent first a little history now the family SUV segment started to heat up in the 1990s with the Ford Explorer and really started to become more popular in the 2000s with the Honda Pilot and Toyota Highlander. The Mazda CX-9 and many other Subarus took their first crack at a three-row midsize family SUV in 2006 with a vehicle that was inexplicably named the Tribuca B9 and was horribly strange looking with a giant open mouth on the front that It looked like that.

It was surrounded by wings, they eventually redesigned the b9 Tribeca and called it just Tribeca, but the damage was done, it was a flop and Subaru canceled it after the 2014 model year. It took Subaru four more years to work up the courage to re-enter . the midsize SUV segment and this is the model they have chosen to do it with the Ascent and it seems quite reasonable, nothing strange, nothing controversial, nothing that will make consumers recoil in disgust. I borrowed this climb from Subaru Orange Coast here in Orange County. California, where they say promotions fly out of the showrooms.

It's an incredibly popular car that they sell to everyone who gets in. It looks like Subaru finally has a midsize SUV on its hands and today we'll find out why. First, a quick overview. The Ascend is a three-row crossover and comes standard with all-wheel drive unlike basically everything else in this segment, it's powered by a 260-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder and the only transmission is a CVT automatic The Ascend starts around 35,000 this is a limited luxury model, but if you get the top of the line touring version that starts at 46,000 and goes from there with options that make the climb the most expensive subaru of all time, today you will I'm going to take you on a tour of the Ascension and I'm going to show you all the quirks and features of Subaru's newest model, then I'm going to take it out on the road and drive it and then I'm going to give it an excellent rating and learn more of my thoughts on the Ascension, do Click the link below to visit autotrader.com oversteer, where I also compiled a list of the most expensive SUVs currently for sale on autotrader.

Now I'm going to start with the quirks and features trying to verify a claim that Subaru has created a lot of marketing materials for this car and that is the fact that the Ascent has 19 cupholders. Now let's look at it, starting at the driver's side door panel, you have two, two on the front of the passenger side. door panel you have two more that are four in the middle of the front seats you have two more and there are six then we go to the rear seats in the rear door on the driver's side you have two more you have up to eight and in the rear door in the passenger side you have two more and now you are up to ten, then there is one more in each individual rear door near the top which is 11 and 12. you open a small cubby behind the center console in the second row of seats and there are two more and now you have 14.

So we've covered the first two rows and we have 14 cup holders and you're thinking well, how could this end up at 19? How could they have an odd number? There's one number left to go, you move to the third row, and there is actually an odd number on the passenger side. There are three cupholders on the driver's side. There are only two cupholders, so one of the rear passengers can only carry two drinks while the other. It bathes in liquid luxury with three drinks, but either way I can verify that there are 19 cupholders in this vehicle which, frankly, is about 13 more than I imagine you'd actually need, but now it has them.

Next up is a Subaru. We are known for its practicality and simplicity and it is also a family crossover, so you would think it wouldn't be so quirky and it really isn't, but I found a few elements worth highlighting, one of them being the fact that it was snooping around this car. and I discovered that hidden in a small compartment in the center is a pen and a notebook that says subaru. I figured it was something to give as a gift, but it's actually a pen and a notebook that says the following on the inside. In the coming weeks, you will become more acclimated to your new vehicle.

During this time, you may have additional comments or concerns that you would like to review. with us. Use this journal to record any questions you may have, in other words, as you acclimatize. all the new technology and everything you might have some questions so they give you a little journal to write down if you're confused about something that's actually a really good idea and this isn't even close to the most technically complicated car out there. I have reviewed. Frankly, that's something other automakers should consider doing, too. Next up, another interesting quirk of this car. If you look at the mirrors, the outside mirrors you will see that there is a small Subaru logo that is illuminated.

Initially I thought it was the blind. blind spot monitor I was thinking how cool the blind spot monitor is when it flashes to alert you of a car's nearby blind spot. It has the Subaru logo, but actually the blind spot monitor is located here on the edge of the mirror closest to the inside of the car. Well it turns out it's an approach light when you walk up to the car, if you unlock the doors that light comes on, I guess to help you find your car in a parking lot, yours will be the one with the mirrors. which are illuminated, it's very strange when you close the door, the light goes off and then you drive and only the Subaru logo is there on your mirror, but when you open the door again, the light turns on another interesting lighting element. on the way up it's on the sun visors, lower the sun visor, it's a pretty standard sun visor, then you look at the lights on the sun visor mirror and they are strangely complicated, I don't know why they couldn't just put a light in here. like everyone else, they have all these strange lines running through them, but that's what they chose to do now.

If you take a general view of the interior of this car, you will see that there is some kind of off-white contrasting piece. Leather under the dash now, interestingly, forms a storage cubby to the left of the steering wheel. It has like a little place where you can put, I don't know, coins or something else that may be loose and that you want to access on the left. of the steering wheel where you can easily grab it and that's cool and interestingly it actually forms the same thing on the right passenger side obviously this car has a glove box where you can put things if you want them out of sight but up.

That and above the small off-white trim piece is a small storage cubby where you can store loose items, pens, whatever in case you want easy access to them without opening the glove box. Then moving towards the center there is a button that says total breaks the dynamic system of the vehicle and other critical components are optimized, you know it's good, but I want those things to be optimized in general, like when I'm driving. It would be nice if the brakes were optimized, like when I'm driving, but anyway, you put the X mode on, it's supposed to be for slippery, icy or rough roads. roads if you are in an SUV your climb is another interesting element in the middle, if you look closely you can see that the center console cover is obviously the armrest for the driver and passenger seat, but the passenger armrest is longer like half half. inches What's the problem?

Subaru, why does the passenger have more room in the armrest? Come on, that seems unfair. Next, there is an interesting feature on the upper center console near the rearview mirror. If you push a small piece of plastic in the center it appears and reveals a sunglasses holder which is not unusual, almost all cars have them, the strange thing is that if you put it in the middle position it will snap into place and then it is a mirror and you can use the mirror to look at all the passengers in your car, this is not exactly the honda odyssey camera that monitors the back seat passengers, but it is close enough if you want to monitor what your kids are doing in the back. rear without having to turn around.

Now, since we're in this area, we could Also, we talked about the view, now the view is really cool, it's a kind of safety technology group that includes blind spot monitoring, forward collision, automatic braking, it's basically all the modern safety features you could want. Now the view works using a couple of cameras located up here. above the rearview mirror, obviously it's very important for the cameras to be able to see to do what they do, so there's a little warning not to touch up there because if you smudge the cameras with your hands even a little bit, apparently they become inactive. and you have to clean them now, in addition to being just a general group of good and important safety features, the view has a couple of interesting quirks worth noting, one of which is called the main vehicle motion monitor in English, this is what it does. you're sitting at a stoplight and you're texting now I don't do this I don't text at traffic lights but you do and I know it because I'm behind you all the time anyway you're sitting on the stoplight like you're texting a text message, the car in front of you starts moving, but you're so engrossed in your phone conversation that you don't even notice that the moving monitor of the lead vehicle in view will beep to let you know: " Hello boy". in front of you moved, it's time for you to move too so you can sit there and text and you don't have to hold me because the view will let you know when the car is moving and you don't have to sit there looking like that.

An idiot, it's a good idea and here's something even cooler from the view. You can choose the acceleration feature of the cruise control. You're sitting in your car and have you ever felt like the cruise control just isn't fast enough to get you back up to speed? like entering the flat, if everyone else is going fast, well you can choose between four different cruise control settings, you have dynamic, you have regular, you have comfort and you have echo and if you have any dynamic, when the car in front of you start moving and you're using adaptive equipment, this thing will rev it up and go as fast as it can when you have an eco mode, it'll go as slow as possible to preserve your fuel economy.

I love the idea that you can set how fast your cruise control accelerates, that's brilliant and I wish all cars had it now, the next one still in front, we move on to a warning label placed here on the door that says caution If our differential temperature light comes on, slow down and stop in a safe place until the light goes off, serious rear differential damage could occur, that sounds like a pretty serious warning label. Fortunately, Subaru has placed it in an easy place that will be very clear and obvious to anyone trying to figure out what that light means now.

We move to the back seat or at least to the second row on the way up, where there are a couple of interesting elements. One is the rear sunshade which is built into the door panel on the limited model so you can attach it and it blocks the rear window so a baby who might be sensitive to the sun won't be covered in the sun for years, when I was a kid, Moms with small babies would like to stick sunshades on the rear windows and would put them on the same target and that feature was only reserved for luxury sedans for some reason, obviously that feature makes more sense on family SUVs like this one, so It's good to see that more and more family SUVs are starting to offer it.

Our next interesting item in the back of this car is the heated rear seats. This car has heated rear seats, a nice luxury feature, but the heated rear seats only have two stages, two small lights that you can choose from, while the heated front seats have three stages. Who do you think the guys who made that decision don't have to limit the back end? heated seats to only two, we can't allow them to be very comfortable back there, not like the ones in front, now another interesting element of the rear seats is the fact that they move, you can easily move them to be able to go to the third row, but that also has a hidden benefit which means you can move the seat back and forth.

You can see I'm a littlecrushed against the front passenger seat. We will check this. I can slide it back to have more leg room. That's not so unusual. You've

been

in any modern family SUV, basically everyone can do this, but when I grew up the back seats didn't move at all, they were just fixed in place and I think it's a cool little trick, speaking of the seats. and back and moving, you might be wondering how easy it is to get into the third row of seats, especially for someone like me as I'm not exactly small, well actually it's surprisingly easy, all modern family vehicles have done it pretty easy and this is one of the easiest of all is you just pull a little lever right here the seat moves forward and voila there's enough room to easily climb back in when you're in the third row.

It's worth noting that there's not much particularly interesting back here, it's just nice. of an auxiliary row of seats for when they are needed, but you may wonder why the third row has three cupholders on one side and two on the other. Well, I can't actually figure it out myself, clearly there is room for three couplers. on both sides, but for some reason Subaru decided not to. Honestly, I wonder if Subaru's marketing department thought 19 cupholders sounded a little louder. They caught more than 20 cupholders, so they decided to ruin one of the third-row seat passengers, but again, never mind, no.

It's like if you ever have five or six drinks you want to transport in the third-row cupholders. and by the way, getting out of the third row is as easy as getting in, even for someone tall like me it requires a little maneuvering, but you can do it now and then move on to the cargo area. There's nothing particularly interesting or unusual back here, although I will say that if you lift the floor of the cargo area you'll see that there is a small compartment that you can lift up as well. In that compartment is a screwdriver and that screwdriver is not just a Phillips screwdriver.

You can turn it over and it works like a flathead screwdriver because Subaru is always infinitely practical now, as you can see, the cargo area with the third row of seats in place is not particularly large, there is some space back here, a difference from other cars, but there is not much, however, if you want to put more things back here, folding the third row of seats is a really easy procedure, you just pull this little strap, push the seat forward and then it goes down Obviously you do the same on the other side and the other seat is down and now you have a lot more cargo space if you want to raise the seat again, it's a little more complicated procedure, it's two steps instead of one, you pull this loop and that takes it up to here and then you pull this loop and something like that.

Adjust it where you want the backrest to be most comfortable for your rear passengers. Now there's a quirk I like with these little nylon straps. This would simply be floating and hanging in place, so Subaru has a fixed velcro on the end. and I put a small piece of velcro on the back of the seat so you can velcro it down and then it looks flush against the back of the seat and doesn't bother your cargo area or look ugly when you open the tailgate. Now, next, I want to move. As for some of the interesting features of the infotainment system, this car has three screens.

I already showed you some of the interesting display settings in the gauge cluster. There is also a screen on top of the dash in the middle, interestingly that screen can show your vehicle's steering angle and overall lean angle are things that off-roaders need, but climb owners will never use something that owners of promotions they will use. However, it is the birthday function. I showed you this in the sti type ra video. You can program a birthday on your little top. screen and then when you start the vehicle that day, it will wish you a happy birthday with the name you gave it.

I think it's a little ridiculous and stupid, but I must admit I like it too and if I had one of these. I would put my birthday on the center infotainment screen, there are a couple of unusual features, one is the rear camera timeout function, basically you put the car in reverse, the rear camera turns on, you put it back on running, the camera turns off. but it is not necessary that if you activate the rear camera timeout function, it will stay on for a number of seconds that you can choose if, for example, you want the rear camera to stay on for four or five seconds after reversing.

When driving, you can do that and set precisely how many seconds you want. It seems like an unusually configurable item, but another interesting configurable item on the infotainment screen is the automatic headlight sensor. It's not just a matter of whether you want to turn the automatic headlights on or off. Choose from four different settings (min, low, medium and maximum) to know how aggressive you want to be when it starts to get dark outside - that's not incredibly unusual, but what's more interesting is that there's also a little option below where you can click a button that says wiper link.

In other words, if you live in a place where by law, if you have the wipers on, the lights must come on, you can turn it on in your infotainment system and then you don't have to worry about it, your lights will turn on automatically when you turn the wipers on. windshield wipers, that's a very good idea. Next, we go outside. In terms of exterior styling, I think this car is quite nice. There's nothing to complain about, frankly I think it looks too much like the Honda Pilot, but other than that I think it's a pretty reasonable conservative design and I couldn't really find any unusual or strange quirks on the exterior of this car except the fog light housing.

Take a look at the fog light housing. You have this. giant sea that surrounds everything, then you have this chrome strip right in the middle, then you have these other three pieces on top and three other pieces on the bottom and finally, in the corner, hidden, you have the fog light. I don't know why you need all this just for the fog light to be in this little spot, but that's what they chose to do and that's a tour of the rise of the Subaru, now it's time to take it out on the road and see how it performs.

It drives well driving the Shiron, no just kidding, the first thing you notice when driving is that it drives like a mid size SUV, as you would imagine, the steering is reasonably agile. I never want to call a car that. It's sporty because it's not and some car magazines say that well, so-and-so midsize SUV is super sporty and so-and-so isn't and it's like, well, no, they're all more or less the same, but the steering feels a bit different. a little less lazy and boring than I would have expected flat is fine uh acceleration is good and surprisingly good considering it's a four cylinder um obviously it's a turbocharged four cylinder 260 horsepower is nothing to sneeze at, that's what people used to get v6s, but it's a pretty heavy vehicle with standard all wheel drive.

It has some weight and size, but it was actually pretty good acceleration. I'm surprised that the driving position is good, you get a good commanding view, visibility is good. The mirrors are big, there are no weird kinks in the back that could ruin the blind spot or anything, it feels very easy to drive, which is good, you know, I think one of the big benefits that the interior has had over its competitors for a long time. Even compared to many mid-size SUVs, the Outback was always easier to drive than an SUV, it felt more like a car and I'm surprised how car-like it feels, it doesn't feel like you're driving around. a big suv, the interior materials are okay, there's a lot of plastic, but everything is very durable, i mean it's subaru style, like everything is simple, easy to design, logical, but nothing seems incredibly high end and i think that, although the people who buy these cars, I understand that, generally speaking, I found that for people who buy mid-size SUVs, the driving experience doesn't really matter much unless there is something negative that says they shouldn't buy them, for example if it's too loud, if the visibility is terrible, if it's too tight inside and there's no negative to this card.

In terms of positive aspects of the driving experience, I've already covered them, but you know, it's not like a crazy sports car, it doesn't surprise you in any way. behind the wheel but it's good, it's really good, it's hard to really have any complaints about this if you're looking at a three row midsize SUV and you're not looking at this, I think you're making a mistake etc. that's the

2019

subaru

ascent

. I don't normally review family crossovers but I'm trying to make a good variation of cars and this is one of the most popular cars on sale today and for good reason it's practical, roomy, nice, it's Loaded with convenience features and 19 cup holders mean you can carry around four gallons of liquid with you every time you go anywhere and that's exactly what today's families need anyway, now is the time to give it a try. an excavated score, starting with the weekend categories and designing the climb. good, but a little average and gets a 5 out of 10.

Acceleration is 0-60 in 7.3 seconds, giving it a 1 out of 10. Handling is acceptable, safe enough but with vague and light steering and gets a three out of ten. The fun factor is obviously low. This is a mid-size family SUV and gets one out of ten. The same goes for the cool factor. You don't buy them to be cool and again it gets one out of ten for an overall weekend score of 11 out of 50 among the worst, on the other hand it's not a weekend car but it is a daily car and the Everyday categories will start with features where it scores a respectable 6 out of 10.

Comfort is fine and scores a 7 out of 10. Quality is good, the rise will certainly be reliable and everything feels good to the touch, but nothing is particularly of high quality or exclusive and gets a 7 out of 10. Practicality is excellent, with standard three-row all-wheel drive and plenty of cargo space available, it gets a 10 out of 10. Finally, there is value, the upgrade is a lot of car for money and definitely gives it a 7 out of 10 for a total daily score of 37 out of 50 among the best added and Doug's score is 48. out of 100 and since I don't normally review midsize SUVs, I don't have much to compare it to, but here he is against his two closest competitors.

I have reviewed the toyota 4runner trd pro and the honda odyssey elite. It does well. but most of all I'm happy that the promotion doesn't look like the tribal b9 that you