What to say.....
I ordered a 2020 Ascent for the fiancee. It has arrived, and we signed paperwork almost 2 weeks ago. I have yet to even touch the new car. It's been at the dealership undergoing warranty work already. This does not instill a heck of alot of confidence in my new car, to say the VERY least. They originally thought it was a key fob issue (push button start). Talked to the service guy today and it has misfires the Subaru techs at the dealer have been unable to resolve. We're waiting on a Subaru inspector to look at it now. Not to rip on Subaru, I love my wrx but this does not give me watch and fuzzy feelings.

Tell them you want a different one. Or your money back.

I love my 2019 it will be worth the wait.

We have a 2019 Ascent with 6k miles on it and all the annoying stuff is starting to rear its ugly head that none of the reviews seem to ever talk about. The CVT is a pile of garbage that vibrates, screeches, slips, and malfunctions so badly that the vehicle has to be pulled over, parked, and turned off to reset. Since there are no codes thrown there is nothing wrong according to SOA. The steering is vague and twitchy all at the same time and body roll is an issue going the speed limit around corners. I have started looking for stiffer suspension and have no idea how this vehicle would ever tow 5000 lbs. Eyesight.... I don't even know where to begin with this abomination, it beeps continually and there is no way to turn the beeping completely off, Eyesight freaks out on banked corners, I would trust a blind man driving over anything Eyesight related. The instrument cluster is too busy and difficult to find stuff quickly and with Eyesight beeping every 5 seconds I am constantly scanning looking to see if something is wrong. The cruise control, whoever thought it was a good idea to have the cruise control button short click to increase or decrease speed by 5 mph was an idiot. You have to hold the increase/decrease button down continuously to decrease 1 mph while taking your eyes off the road to determine your speed. All I can say is WTF. The speakers and entertainment system are garbage, my 2004 WRX had better stock speakers than the Ascent. Subaru's climate control has always be sub-par, the Ascent is no different - either the air is freezing cold or scorching hot with very little in-between. The center console leaves a lot to be desired and was 19 cup holders really necessary?

I will say this, the breaks work amazingly well. For freeway and highway driving the Ascent has enough power, not sure about towing yet. The three rows keep the kids from fighting as much as they did in the Outback. The seats are nether good nor bad, they just are. I do not think it is any better or worse than other vehicles in this class, just with different issues.

This car feels like it was rushed out the door half finished with SOA saying good enough. Our not so local dealership has been sympathetic to the issues as "we have seen this a lot out of the Ascents" but stops short being able to do anything until a code shows up.

I too would demand a new car, you are going to have enough issues with a Ascent, don't need to add mystery misfires to the list. My 2004 WRX left the lot with a mystery misfire, ~20k miles later I was having a short block replacement. Good luck!

There is a software recall on the transmission now. Mine just went in for it.

they also just got recalled for an oil leak that can interupt a sensor and cause the engine to stop.

I’m taking mine in tomorrow for the transmission software recall. I’ll ask about the oil leak issue while I’m there. They will also be checking my front brakes for a vibration while braking at highway speed. Seems like a warped rotor to me but the car only has 3K miles on it.

My mother has a 19 Subaru ascent. I changed the oil on it 2000 miles ago for her, 4.8qt on the dot 0w20 full synthetic. So she called me yesterday and told me the car stopped running and wouldn't turn on. No codes or anything on the dash, just wouldn't turn over, she said she was going about 30 mph and lost all acceleration and it just shut off. So the dealer got the car today and looked it over. The Mechanic at Subaru is saying that there is to much oil in the car. And he thinks the motor is seized up because of my oil change. I asked him if the oil is frothy or white he said it looks normal. So he is telling me that I put to much oil in (manual says 4.8qts) and that it's possibly seized. They wanna start with plug removal. But they wanna charge her $430 for that, just to see if the motor will turn. This is a lease vehicle 11k miles on it. Never had a issue, and nothing is covered under warranty because I've changed the oil. Twice already on it. What are your thoughts. Please let me know. Oil changed at 5k miles and 10k miles.

Call soa. You are allowed to change your own oil and not have it void warranty. Provide proof of purchase of the oil. Tell the dealership not to touch the car until you have opened a formal complaint with SOA.

Wow! These stories are terrible. OP: as said before, refuse that car, ask for another one or your money back. IDK what is going on with Subaru but the quality is really beginning to go downhill.

Zavi: Carlos is right, you can do your own oil changes. If the dealership is saying you voided your warranty because of 2 oil changes never go back there. Call SOA and explain it to them.

**** am I glad we went with a Santa Fe XL over the Ascent back in July.

So update on my mother's ascent, soa is charging us $2000 out of pocket because the oil was overfilled at 5.3 quarts. I did the oil change and put 4.8 in the car. Somehow it had more oil and now we owe them to fix it. I'm really over Subaru. I have 6 of them in my driveway and I will slowly be selling them all.

We had the recalls on our 2019 Ascent completed around the first of the year (transmission firmware and sensor, ECU firmware). The car went from annoying to drive to undrivable in certain situations. It now loses power slowing down by ~5 mph (especially going uphill), then surges 10 mph (nice and dangerous in the snow here), the cruise control struggles to maintain speed on flat roads (prior to "fix" this was not a issue), the transmission seems to slip into neutral at times (revs stay the same or increase but car slows 5 mph) then surges. Of course the faux shift shudder & shake has returned, it did go away for a bit after the recall. The only thing the recall seemed to improve was the sporadic squealing from the CVT. Prior to recall we had no issue with surging, only loss of power and inconsistent violent shaking during the faux shift.

I would be curious what other 2019 Ascent owners are experiencing post recall.

I've never had any issues with the cruise control I use it all the time. I love the adaptive cruise it works flawlessly here in Denver traffic, slow and go on the I25. I used to hate the transmission in the car, but realized I was driving it like a little to stabby on the throttle and once I started making slower movements on the pedals the CVT wasn't to bad at all. debating on if I should get the reflash.

The Subaru Ascent - the Boeing 737 Max of the auto world.

Sounds like an electrical issue with the ECU, starter or battery terminals.

Also (unless Subaru has changed their warranty policy), owners can change their own oil as long as it is recorded and done on or before schedule, and the receipts are kept showing the oil and filter used meet specifications.

Over filling by 1/2 quart is not going to seize the engine, unless the bottom end of the FA is such a terrible design that there is so much crank windage that it turns the oil to foam. Hopefully this engine never makes it into the STI if that's the case.

There is something the dealer isnt telling you. Its basically impossible that an extra half quart would seize the engine especially just normal driving around doing errands.

They wanted to call it the Columbia. A seven passenger disaster if ever there were.

Wow! all these experiences scare me. 25k on my 2019 Ascent and the only issue I've had is the transmission stumble, which wasn't too bad. Took it in for their software update and I've had no further issues. I guess it is truly hit or miss.
Feel bad for everyone having these issues.

I'd definitely run from one that had issues right at delivery. Every car with gremlins like that right from the start never gets fixed and is a nightmare for however long before it's traded in.

I purchased a 2020 last October, and was mostly satisfied with it. Put 9k miles on it before trading it last weekend for a used Nissan Frontier. I wanted back into a truck. I am not a wine mom from the suburbs, lol.

The issues I had were the high-RPM on start thing that they did a software update on that seemed to make it go away. The brakes squealed, and the dealer said they all do that shortly after you drive em off the lot (real cool). Sometimes it'd misfire for a little bit when you first started it cold. Didn't happen enough to make anyone fix it.

Overall satisfied, but mine worked. Had it not worked like some in this thread, I'd be obviously pissed. I am glad to get away from a vehicle with so much complexity, though. Definitely over that. Previous vehicle was a Ford Explorer Sport. twin turbo V6 with 400hp (chipped) is cool, but I don't wanna pay 400hp fancy SUV repair bills.

Do you mean Challenger? Which did explode shortly after launch.

7 passenger re entry...

I'm sorry to hear about all the problems with the Ascent you're having. For being such a large SUV it really needed a flat 6 instead of the turbo 4. I'm sure that's been said more than once though.

For what it's worth, no real complaints on our 2020. Nothing but an oil change so far (free by dealer). It's good to hear the horror stories, but the disgruntled folks are more likely to take to the forums than happy customers, especially on a boring appliance car like the Ascent.

I'm frankly a little puzzled by some of the complaints. Body roll? It's no different from any other SUV I've driven. It will take corners at 20 over posted speed no problem. I mean, it's not my STI, but it's fine for what it is. Stereo is pretty good, though perhaps that's because we have a touring?

I agree that eye-sight is a bit annoying at times, but it's doing what it designed to do. You can turn of the lane departure stuff if it bothers you. Performance-wise, it seems pretty good. Only real issues I've experienced is that it sometimes things things like bush branches are solid objects triggering the automatic stop. I also had some weird phantom collision warnings when on a rocky jeep trail in X-mode.

Oil overfill story is somewhat troubling, but you do need to be very careful about overfilling modern cars. Oil changes don't void warranty, but improperly done oil changes do. I'd be surprised to hear an extra half quart caused issues, but it's at least possible. That's one reason I just have the dealer do oil changes for in-warranty cars even though I've done full engine rebuilds myself- it's just better for the dealer to have a record that it was done already in the system. No chance for them to blame you.

I have plans to tow my track car on a road trip next year. I will try and report back how it does. Should be around 3500# total with trailer.

I'm curious because I'm looking at Ascent issues, did you have to pay the $2K? If so, did you know there is an ongoing problem with gas getting into the oil causing high oil levels? From what I see it's mostly new low mileage Ascents that have the issue. It is still a problem even in MY2021.
Gas dilution at high % can easily cause enough damage for an engine to seize.

Hell, .5 quart was a minimum overfill for the dealer when the early FB's had consumption issues. I know this is a different engine, I'm just saying these H4's can handle an extra half quart without frothing up and kicking it.

So my girlfriend wrecked her E350 convertible after hydroplaning in a puddle in a Florida downpour. I've been trying to get her into a Subaru for some time now, and thought this was my chance. We test drove a used Ascent because we need the 3rd row and she is scared to drive a small car now. The Ascent way outperformed the we Highlander we tried, which was also way more expensive. Not that I'm looking for performance, but why not? Anyway, I was disappointed to see some of these reports. I've driven Subarus for 25 years now, and I've noticed a downturn in customer service. Still I'm happy with my STi. No major issues at all.

Are these just isolated incidents? Not too many folks chiming in that they love their car.