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Subaru Ascent?

Ben

Ben

Ranger
Donating Member
I thought I had narrowed down my search for a new tow vehicle to 2: Toyota 4Runner and Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. I like the comfort features of the Jeep - adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, apple carplay but not the reliability of the brand. The 4runner on the other hand seems quite off road capable but is like stepping into a time capsule and going back 20 years technologically. This feeling was echoed by a neighbor who I was chatting with last week. He has had his 4runner TRD pro for 1 year now (18K miles) and was really not happy with the driving experience stating lack of modern amenities but also that it actually drives poorly and has poor on road traction when not in 4 wheel drive - it tends to slip a lot on wet pavement. Add to this the very poor mileage and he was not happy. He mentioned wanting to switch to a subaru crossfit and low and behold the next day he did just that.

This got me thinking about Subarus again. We've been pretty happy with our 2012 Outback over all but I wanted something a bit beefier for towing and hauling gear. A chance email (AKA spam) from Subaru has me rethinking their brand. The Ascent is slated to arrive on the scene this summer and in some ways is like a super-size Outback but with a number of features that make it attractive at least to me - it is rated for 5000 lbs towing and has 260 hp with 277 pounds torque. Apparently there is good torque at low rpms according to their marketing info. It has a number of features that I've been wanting (and wouldn't get in the 4Runner) such as adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, apple carplay. It is supposed to get around 26-27 mpg highway. I don't really need seating for 8 however, I expect to keep the seats folded down most of the time but will love having a 7 foot long space to haul gear. The one feature it lacks that would be really nice is trailer back-up assist. This is now available on some of the high end pick ups and SUVs but basically is a knob on the dash that one would turn left or right to control the direction of the trailer while backing up.

At this point, the Subaru has risen to the top of the pack for me. Unfortunately it'll be a few months before it is on the market and thus no real world experience to lean on prior to purchasing. I'll be curious to hear what others think of this new vehicle. Here is a link to their marketing info: The all-new 3-row Subaru Ascent.

Ben H
 
We have the Outback with 3.6 and love it. Pulls the 560 great. We looked at the Ascent as we were I the market to replace a vehicle. Three things that change our mind were the price, it is a first generation model, and we currently own a vehicle capable of pulling our 560. Ended up with Honda CRV Touring Model. The Ascent will be in our future once the Outback wears out, If that's possible...good luck
 
greetings from Lodi CA. We pull our CI trailer (Tina the Tardis) with our VW Eurovan with V6. Decent pull even up grades. Added benefit is indoor table with lights. We bought a 2013 Subaru Forester intending to use it to pull Tina but we never did. Got so I didn't appreciate the CVT when climbing grades- too much back and forth in the transmission. Does new Subaru have same transmission? Too late for us since we bought the Honda pilot with V6 wirh 280hp and 262 lbs torque. Good luck shopping. Whatever you choose will work for you. Happy travels
 
julie said:
greetings from Lodi CA. We pull our CI trailer (Tina the Tardis) with our VW Eurovan with V6. Decent pull even up grades. Added benefit is indoor table with lights. We bought a 2013 Subaru Forester intending to use it to pull Tina but we never did. Got so I didn't appreciate the CVT when climbing grades- too much back and forth in the transmission. Does new Subaru have same transmission? Too late for us since we bought the Honda pilot with V6 wirh 280hp and 262 lbs torque. Good luck shopping. Whatever you choose will work for you. Happy travels
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I don't understand the back and forth in a CVT?
 
The CVT will shift down to a lower drive ratio much like an automatic transmission to a lower gear, and Subaru intentionally made it feel pretty much the same as a geared automatic tranny too, so that it didn't feel too strange.
Faced with steeper inclines, and the lower torque of the 4 cyl. eng, the transmission will shift down deeper into its ratios and also more often than with the torquier 6cyl eng. We noticed that quite a bit in our trek from Phoenix up to the Grand Canyon last month. So it's either listen to the engine wind up while maintaining your speed, or pull over into the right lane with the semi's struggling up the inclines, and go 30 mph....I'm not quite that patient.
 
I'm not a mechanic but the constant variable transmission is described (pro and con) on www.edmunds.com. You get a decent description and videos that explain the back and forth feeling when driving. It just wasn't for us and we never attempted to pull our teardrop with the Subaru. Not judging the product, just not what we expected.
Interesting side note from article: da Vinci sketched a drawing and described the technology. It's not a new idea in transmissions and improvements are constantly being made.
 
I haven't really noticed the "back and forth" with our 2012 Outback. Perhaps the reason is that we don't have the same grades here on the East coast as folks out West. The Ascent has the CVT coupled to a 2.4 L 4 cylinder turbo. This is a new engine for Subaru. They claim that it has high torque at low RPMs and was designed to be able to haul and tow a good bit (5,000 lbs tow capacity) so I suspect that the roughly 1,000 pound teardrop wouldn't tax the vehicle too much.

What makes it more attractive to me than other "Family SUVs" such as the Toyota Highlander or Honda Pilot is that it seems more off road capable. I don't plan to do any major bouldering or overlanding but would like to use it in Sand (Assateague), snow (Home) and moderate off road (ex. Green Ridge State Forest). The X-Mode and the higher ground clearance should make it more capable than these others. On the other hand, I think it will be a lot more highway and city capable than the 4Runner that I had been considering. To be realistic though, 99% of my miles will be the same pavement driving that the other 99% of the vehicles are out there driving around on.
 
I haven't noticed it either with my 2017 3.6R. But I drive like an old man and going over the passes I slow down with the trucks to keep my RPM's down.
 
I just traded my Nissan Frontier for a Honda Pilot. The Nissan Frontier drove like a truck, go figure. I bought the pilot just before I saw the announcement for the Ascent. I probably would have gone with the pilot since it is into the 3rd year of its design. I couldn't wait that long for the Ascent since I don't like buying cars when they first come out.
 
I would wait a year or so before buying a vehicle that they just come out, let the subaru work all the issues (if any) first, just my to cents
 
mariusz said:
I would wait a year or so before buying a vehicle that they just come out, let the subaru work all the issues (if any) first, just my to cents
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I wish I had the luxury of waiting a year or so but the timing doesn't work due to needing to give my current car to my daughter who'll be graduating college and needing to drive for work. Consequently, I will need to purchase a new car for my daily drive. I have a little flexibility in that my wife is a teacher and we can get by with just her car over the summer if we had to. It is wild that some dealerships are already running out of stock on their allotment of cars just with pre-orders. Makes me wonder whether to pull the trigger now. I had hoped to wait till its out.
 
The rumors of demand outstripping supply have proven true. I placed an order on June 3rd and it's just arrived today at the dealer. Will pick up tomorrow and hope to review its towing ability soon (planning to camp next weekend in Western Maryland).
 
It will be interesting to see how it does. I almost went Subaru but the used pricetag was not terribly different than for a used Acura MDX (about 5K) so I figured at that point, might was well go into a larger cabin space and greater towing capacity. I did not know about the Ascent. A CVT transmission though would have been a no go for me as I really wanted a step geared transmission. While I am very happy with our MDX, the Honda Pilot would have been another strong contender for me now as it is a very similar car to the MDX.
 
Jay & Valerie said:
It will be interesting to see how it does. I almost went Subaru but the used pricetag was not terribly different than for a used Acura MDX (about 5K) so I figured at that point, might was well go into a larger cabin space and greater towing capacity. I did not know about the Ascent. A CVT transmission though would have been a no go for me as I really wanted a step geared transmission. While I am very happy with our MDX, the Honda Pilot would have been another strong contender for me now as it is a very similar car to the MDX.
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Depending on when you needed your tow vehicle, the Ascent might not have been an option. It pretty much just is arriving on the market now. In fact, I have only seen one other Ascent on the road and that was in Michigan in August - none in my area (Baltimore region). Although it has a CVT transmission, it has paddles that allow one to mimic gears if desired. I use this to downshift while going down long grades while towing. Actually I'm speaking from my experience with our Outback which has the same paddles. What I'm excited to test is the torque - 277 lb feet which should tow the 550 with ease. It also has pretty decent off road capability between the 8.7 inch clearance and X-mode.

I had considered the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailblazer but was worried about reliability in the Jeep as well as Toyota 4Runner - which was like stepping into a time machine and going 20 years into the past technologically. I decided I wanted modern safety and technology: adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist and Apple Carplay are all attractive features for me. BTW, Googlemaps which is my preferred mapping program now works with Carplay.

I'm planning to take it for the first trip this afternoon about 75 mile trip out toward Western Maryland (going to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail tomorrow). Hopefully will be able to report back positively afterwards.
 
Yep. We almost bought the Jeep Cherokee Trail Hawk until I drove it and felt a lot of hesitation in the transmission when shifting and then went online to find that they are problematic. The irony for me was that the newer MDX's use that same ZF9 transmission which is also problematic. I really liked the V6 outback which had the stepped transmission. Good luck on the trip, should be fun this time of year.
 
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