My husband and I have test-drive the new Subaru Ascent. We were looking so forward to ordering a new one to replace our Subaru Outback . We really like Subaru, we also owned a Subaru Forester.
I would like to point at a safety design issue that it is a deal breaker for us and it will probably cause a serious accident sooner than later.
All other cars with a 2nd row seat tilt we have seen , has the tilt leaver in the top or top side of the seat. Subaru has one of those, but somehow another leaver was added to the bottom side of the seat, where the back positioning leaver usually is. That bottom leaver can be released with one finger and it will tilt the back of the seat to the front forcefully and release the back-front sliding lock.
Any child in a child safety seat or booster seat can unlock the bottom leaver, however their legs not touching the ground would prevent them to lock it back in place, as any adult would do if pressing the leaver by mistake (my husband and I tried to pull the bottom leaver while seating in the 2nd row captain chairs and that's what we did but we weight more than 100lbs). It would make them fold to the front even with a child car seat attached . If a parent panics and breaks, as the car seat is unlock it will slide to the front and slam the child against the front passenger or driver seats, crushing the child further, and then slide them to the back locking the seat again.
This is a serious safety issue which has several very easy solutions (change bottom leaver position, eliminate bottom leaver or create a lock mechanism for that leaver while in motion). I have to add that the top leaver released in the second row is not accessible for a child, it is difficult even for an adult to reach while seating in the captain chair so I have no complains about that one. I will post this review to several websites to highlight the issue to other parents considering buying the Ascent, as I am sure one child will try to pull up the bottom leaver at one point.
I would like to point at a safety design issue that it is a deal breaker for us and it will probably cause a serious accident sooner than later.
All other cars with a 2nd row seat tilt we have seen , has the tilt leaver in the top or top side of the seat. Subaru has one of those, but somehow another leaver was added to the bottom side of the seat, where the back positioning leaver usually is. That bottom leaver can be released with one finger and it will tilt the back of the seat to the front forcefully and release the back-front sliding lock.
Any child in a child safety seat or booster seat can unlock the bottom leaver, however their legs not touching the ground would prevent them to lock it back in place, as any adult would do if pressing the leaver by mistake (my husband and I tried to pull the bottom leaver while seating in the 2nd row captain chairs and that's what we did but we weight more than 100lbs). It would make them fold to the front even with a child car seat attached . If a parent panics and breaks, as the car seat is unlock it will slide to the front and slam the child against the front passenger or driver seats, crushing the child further, and then slide them to the back locking the seat again.
This is a serious safety issue which has several very easy solutions (change bottom leaver position, eliminate bottom leaver or create a lock mechanism for that leaver while in motion). I have to add that the top leaver released in the second row is not accessible for a child, it is difficult even for an adult to reach while seating in the captain chair so I have no complains about that one. I will post this review to several websites to highlight the issue to other parents considering buying the Ascent, as I am sure one child will try to pull up the bottom leaver at one point.