I took some friends from Dallas to the Grand Canyon. Along the way, we went to Palo Duro Canyon, White Sands, The Petrified Forest, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. We ate steaks at the Big Texan steak house in Amarillo.
There were many stops and starts and the most annoying thing was the !*?ing radio. Everytime I adjusted the GPS volume, the radio blasted. Everytime I started the care, the radio blasted. This was so annoying, I was considering a Kenwood or Panasonic replacement. I finally tuned to a nonexistant FM station and that seemed to help, except for the annoying static if a signal was nearby.
Going down the road to the bottom of Palo Duro Canyon, I used the X-Mode. It was a dream. I didn't have to ride the brakes and I felt like I was more in control as I navigated the curvy roads.
The weather was a little warm, so I ran the AC most of the time. I drove 80+ mph and averaged close to 25 MPG.
Android Auto connected seamlessly about 75% of the time. The other 25%, I could not get it to connect at all - except for phone calls. Perhaps stopping the car, shutting it off and restarting would work, but that is not practical once you have pulled from a gas station and are burning up another Interstate highway.
Apple CarPlay had its own issues. When connected, it would not allow playing music from the USB port. It pretty well took over all functions on the headset and only allowed use of what was connected via the phone. But that pretty well sums up my experience with Apple products. You get what they give you, and nothing more.
If I hear one more ineffective "Ok Google" or "Hey Siri" again, I may go back to paper maps exclusively.
The Ascent was very comfortable for everyone. The ride was very quiet. One of my friends even went to sleep for their first time in a moving vehicle.
If Subaru comes out with lane centering and a radio that will stay quiet when told to do so, I might consider trading. In the meantime, it is a very pleasant car to drive.
