First

I guess this makes us a Subie family. Said adios to the town and country minivan, and hello to AWD comfort cruiser. The family is really loving the change.
Just want to toss some winter tires on there around November to make it a real machine in these MN winters.

https://i.imgur.com/paWLKmn.jpg

Does anyone know of any power upgrades coming to the ascent? In particular, a TBE, and who knows....an AP? I'm sure K&N will begin production on a CAI and what not soon as they already have one filter produced for them, but I'm talking productive power mods.

I was brainstorming on how to fit a Forester TBE exhaust and how I could fabricate the piping to work too... Thoughts or insights?

The exhaust has a interesting note , I'm sure it can be enhanced but still a CVT doesn't map with sporty exhaust from my perspective. I'd be more interested into a downpipe to hear the turbo more.

Planning on getting my wife one around the end of the year (2nd baby due in Feb). I plan on blacking it out, adding wheels, and Michelin tires. Something similar to this Forester I found online...

Not too eager to mess with it power-wise. Maybe if/when COBB offers something, I’d consider it. From reviews, it sounds like handling improvements would help but maybe the wheels/tires will make it feel a little more nimble...

Wow, you guys really got a subforum before the Crosstrek guys. Congrats!

Handling on a 3row CVT familiy car? It handles all right as it is. Let's stop pretenting the Ascent is sporty or has any potential to be.

It’s all relative. Im not going to try to make it handle like my STI but doesn’t mean it can’t be improved and we can make it look a little more stylish. The tires alone should be a noticeable change over OEM.

The ones on mine are Falken something and ok I guess.

Id really like a hood scoop tho :$ especially since the intercooler seems to be on top

so the CVT is definitively acts differently than the one on my Impreza.

Impreza : you press ~25% throttle and it stays there from 0-40miles, lets say.
Ascent : you press for ~25% throttle, it will reach the desired RPM to accelerate then fake a gear change to a lower ratio and the car won't have anymore power to accelerate, so yo u have to modulate the throttle and give it more. Annoying.

^ My WRX CVT does the same thing. Must be a HTCVT or turbo w/ CVT thing.

Meanwhile our 2018 Trek has much better linear acceleration like the Impreza.

I fix it with S# mode or manual shifting.

Try not blacking it out like every other person on the planet with a black car has already done.

so i had the chance to drive an ascent last night while my car was getting fixed (and broken at the same time)

Holy crap am I impressed. I was worried about the motor and driving a huge car. Coming from small cars (s2000/wrx) i was worried it would drive like a boat. Thing decently fast, turned well. I think this will be our family car in the up coming 6 months.

CVT programming is awful tho, and I get about 10.4L/100 on it after 5000 miles.

What kind of rubber does the ascent wear? Light Truck tires or passenger tires?

https://www.google.com/amp/www.tract...ru-ascent/amp/

I can confirm the 4 seasons that come with the Ascent are pretty good in snow. Nowhere near as good as a proper winter tyre but traction is there. Pleasantly surprised

Agree. I still think I'll want to get winter tires for it at some point though. Once you use winter tires on a vehicle and see the improvement, it makes you want them on every vehicle.

Got some Blizzak right now , can't agree more.

I like everything about it except the side mirrors it kinda looks odd to me.

the oddest thing about them is that they are not mapped to L1/L2 seats position, very annoying to manually re-adjust the mirrors all the time.

Another annoyance!

Rear ceiling vents stay cold, even after 20min at High Temp during winter. Useless to blow cold air on kids..