My wife and I bought our new Touring about 2 months ago. Our second. She commented on the high seat as well, but said she adjusted quickly. Lots of things in Subaru's sit up a bit higher than the average bear. btw - we love the Ascent. The learning curve takes a while, but once I learned the in's and out's of the bells and whistles and features of it, it's been smooth sailing. We have the towing package too. We took our 15 ft camper out with it (2500 lbs empty) soon after we got it and had no problems.