Hi,
I've never owned a new car but after our Honda Odyssey gave up the ghost with 260k miles we splurged on an 2021 Ascent with 1200 miles. It was crazy expensive but everything is these days. Anyhow, I have also been Toyota guy but elected to not get a Sequoia because of the fuel economy and AWD Siennas are not easy to find. Instead we compromised on size for something more efficient (or so we thought).
We have only used the Ascent for running around our small town and the speed limit is 60mph on the hwy. It has was typically getting about 16mpg for our combined town and highway driving. I was pretty disappointed but thought we do so many short trips it wasn't probably too unreasonable.
We took our first road trip over Christmas break from Idaho to southern Utah. We have 4 kids so I had the roof top carrier on. I calculated the mileage for the whole trip and got as bad as 9mpg on a tank and as high as 14mpg. Overall, we averaged about 12mpg. I am extremely disappointed! I called two Subaru dealers to ask them if they had seen this before and they both said that they had not nor did they every hear of a service bulletin for the issue.
Its a nice car to drive around town in but man, what a gutless pig on the open road. After about 2 hours on the interstate I almost considered turning around and loading up in the F250 diesel work truck as it gets about 18 mpg on the open highway at 80mph. I felt like the Ascent just couldn't hold speed very well and was straining all the time if there was any grade. I ended up setting the cruise at 70 even though the speed limit was 80.
My thoughts are Subaru undersized the engine for the application? It's actually not up to the task of hauling 6 passengers and luggage on a road trip. Keep in mind we are a family with little kids so it wasn't terribly heavy. I tried everything from manually shifting for a few tanks to reducing speed and drafting a semi. Overall I'd say besides my old 1993 land cruiser, it was the worst vehicle I have ever driven on the interstate for performance and fuel economy. Oh how I missed the ratty old Honda mini van. It would do 90mph if you weren't careful and pull 20mpg.
I'm either super unlucky or somebody else has to be experiencing this too. I think I'm going to trade it off even though I will be taking a big hit.
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Nope, sorry, but that isn't accurate. Each series of Subaru Ascents runs the same tune, and they're all the right one.
Nope, sorry, that's not correct. There's never been any such recall for the Ascent. The ECU recall had nothing to do with that. I went into detail about it here:
2019-11-22: Service Campaign WUU06 for ECU Reprogramming
On November 22, 2019, Subaru initiated a Customer Satisfaction Service Campaign. Type: Customer Satisfaction Service Campaign: WUU06 NHTSA Campaign: N/A Date: November 22, 2019 Action: ECU Reprogramming C1424 Check Your Ascent Here: https://subaru.com/vehicle-recalls.html/ Description In some...
www.ascentforums.com
That's indicative of poor throttle management on your part. It's a touchy throttle, for sure. The tune smooths the throttle response making it easier to use for those who haven't learned it. On the 87 Eco tune, you should be able to hit 30 mpg at below 65 or 70 mph highway.
You may find this helpful:
HOW TO: How to best use the Ascent's top hinged gas...
Sometimes, a car defines how you need to use it. In the case of our Subaru Ascents, our gas pedal decides where and what proper foot placement is. Each car brand and many models are different. Bottom hinged, vs top hinged (ours) vs mid connect to floor, etc. If you are having poor throttle...
www.ascentforums.com
Nope, sorry, but that isn't accurate. Each series of Subaru Ascents runs the same tune, and they're all the right one.
Nope, sorry, that's not correct. There's never been any such recall for the Ascent. The ECU recall had nothing to do with that. I went into detail about it here:
2019-11-22: Service Campaign WUU06 for ECU Reprogramming
On November 22, 2019, Subaru initiated a Customer Satisfaction Service Campaign. Type: Customer Satisfaction Service Campaign: WUU06 NHTSA Campaign: N/A Date: November 22, 2019 Action: ECU Reprogramming C1424 Check Your Ascent Here: https://subaru.com/vehicle-recalls.html/ Description In some...
That's indicative of poor throttle management on your part. It's a touchy throttle, for sure. The tune smooths the throttle response making it easier to use for those who haven't learned it. On the 87 Eco tune, you should be able to hit 30 mpg at below 65 or 70 mph highway.
You may find this helpful:
HOW TO: How to best use the Ascent's top hinged gas...
Sometimes, a car defines how you need to use it. In the case of our Subaru Ascents, our gas pedal decides where and what proper foot placement is. Each car brand and many models are different. Bottom hinged, vs top hinged (ours) vs mid connect to floor, etc. If you are having poor throttle...
Oh ok thanks for the info. As far as the info about the recall, that is what was told to me.. But more that one person said they took the car to the dealer reflashed the ECU and that helped with the MPG....If i can get 30 with the ECO that would be great but ill settle with the stage 1 if i keep getting above 24.
Detailed Test Information
EPA tests vehicles by running them through a series of driving routines, or schedules, that specify vehicle speed for each point in time during the laboratory tests.
www.fueleconomy.gov
EPA "city" has zero to do with what big-city people would call city driving. It's more in line with the suburbs of a big city. People who live in NYC Metro, LA, San Fran, Dallas, etc, will virtually never see that gas mileage. Hitting those speed peaks in NYC is illegal everywhere except the highways (the two high peaks are illegal even there).
Heck, what most people don't know is that there's a specific NYC schedule, because of that. It's quite different.
There's tons of other schedules as well, but, generally, the published tests are "city" (which is more like suburbs) and "highway" (which is 60 mph or below).
Here's the "high speed" tests which aren't published, but far more accurate to how people drive - VERY different than the test used by the EPA for the ratings, sadly.
Dynamometer Drive Schedules | US EPA
This page provides the chassis dynamometer driving schedules and shift schedules used by EPA for vehicle emissions and fuel economy testing.
www.epa.gov
Regardless, on our turbopowered Ascents, stop and go with a heavy foot obliterates gas mileage because of making the turbo spool up repeatedly.
Many ppl don't realize that EPA tests are basically done "in a test tube".... indoors on a dyno in climate controlled conditions at the same relative elevation. That's the only fair way to compare one car to another, using the exact same test under the exact same conditions, eliminating variables like wind, hills, temps, elevation, traffic conditions, etc.Detailed Test Information
EPA tests vehicles by running them through a series of driving routines, or schedules, that specify vehicle speed for each point in time during the laboratory tests.
EPA "city" has zero to do with what big-city people would call city driving. It's more in line with the suburbs of a big city. People who live in NYC Metro, LA, San Fran, Dallas, etc, will virtually never see that gas mileage. Hitting those speed peaks in NYC is illegal everywhere except the highways (the two high peaks are illegal even there).
View attachment 20352
Heck, what most people don't know is that there's a specific NYC schedule, because of that. It's quite different.
View attachment 20349
There's tons of other schedules as well, but, generally, the published tests are "city" (which is more like suburbs) and "highway" (which is 60 mph or below).
View attachment 20351
Here's the "high speed" tests which aren't published, but far more accurate to how people drive - VERY different than the test used by the EPA for the ratings, sadly.
View attachment 20350
Dynamometer Drive Schedules | US EPA
This page provides the chassis dynamometer driving schedules and shift schedules used by EPA for vehicle emissions and fuel economy testing.
Regardless, on our turbopowered Ascents, stop and go with a heavy foot obliterates gas mileage because of making the turbo spool up repeatedly.
I forgot to add "Driving style", probably the greatest variable. I occasionally can't resist stepping on the go pedal, but when I do the MPG bar buries itself in the red!
81 - 100 of 140 Posts
