2025 Subaru Ascent consumer reviews

We bought this because of the great experience that we have had with a 2020 Forester Touring and expect this car to be solid reliable as well. BUT - I am on my second example of this vehicle, in Onyx Touring trim, because the first one delivered to me had a serious internal engine defect that was causing a plume of oil smoke occasionally at startup. Subaru finally decided after a month that they would replace the original vehicle. This defect is not typical, as far as I can tell. Aside from that, the acceleration is quite good, even though the throttle is very touchy at take off. By the way, you CAN get 20 mpg or so out of it if you are careful, but expect only about 18.5 miles to the gallon on average if you have a heavy foot, because spooling up the turbo makes it suck fuel like a dragster. The car has a quality feel to it and is comfortable and quiet. The digital rearview mirror is a plus if you carry a lot of cargo because it displays the rear camera image instead of a convention mirror. The front seats are very supportive and have a lumbar support with both vertical and depth adjustment. The rear captain seats are excellent. The Ascent couples the Driver Monitoring System with the Lane Centering System, which will cause disabling of lane centering if the Driver Monitor System fails to recognize a driver. This is the only real irritation that I have with the driver assist functions. To be frank, I have seen more features on other vehicles in this price class, like, specifically, power folding third row seats and power steering column adjustments, which aren't even available on an Ascent, but overlooked that in favor of the expected durability. Since we already own the 2020 Forester, we have become accustomed to the Subaru quirks, like a poor user interface for the infotainment system, which we bypass by using Apple Car Play, and the persistent seatbelt alarms that are somewhat akin to riding around with an overprotective mother, but there are ways around that. Be aware that the oil change interval for the 2.5 litre turbo engine is only 6000 miles and Subaru recommends synthetic motor oil as well, so maintenance costs will probably be higher than other vehicles.