[chepp]

Hi! I'm in the market for a new vehicle and am considering an Ascent. Here is what I've owned:
1972 Opel 1900 coupe (new)
1969 Ford Econoline van (used, in 1976), self-customized
1987 Chevrolet Astro (new), customized by a specialist shop to my design
2002 Toyota Sienna (new)


Here are my two must-have features:
1. Narrow enough to fit in half of a 2-car garage (built in 1957 with a 15' wide door)
2. Big enough for two to sleep in for car camping. FYI, I'm 6'4"


I'm in southern California with several Subaru dealers within a 20 mile radius.

 

[Kevin Williams]

1. The Ascent is wide, but should be narrow enough to fit in your garage. You can get the specs from Subaru's site for exact dimensions.
2. As long as you get the 8 passenger version, then you can fold down both sets of seats and it should be well long enough for you to sleep and wide enough to have 2 side by side. You may want sleeper pads or similar to cover up the gaps between the rows of seats before trying to sleep!

 

[Cannibal869]

agree with the above suggestion for the 8-passenger configuration if you're planning on sleeping back there.

The gaps in the 7 passenger captain's chair configuration (not to mention the slight difference in collapsed seat height) probably would make it difficult to sleep comfortably in that model.

So far I'm at about 4.5 months and 5000 miles, loving every minute!

 

[Subiesailor]

Go look at them! The new tall wagons with fold down into floor seating do not have tall floor to roof space. I have a Subaru Outback now and the head room persay in the Ascent is very close to the same with seats folded flat. Yes the Ascent us wider than the OB regarding floor space but floor to roof height is very close to the same due to raised floor for fold down stowed seats.

My old Sequoia the seats flip out of the way for actual floor to roof height these new wagons all of them raised the floor and place you or gear ontop of the folded seats which is nice for quick use but really cuts down usable space compared to the older style suv seats you can remove and or flip out of the way.

The Outback can also sleep 2 and you might find that its more like the 4runner than the Ascent in that aspect.

 

[chepp]

Thanks for the comments. My wife and I were at the L.A. Auto Show this week. I had thought that the OB dimensions might be OK but upon seeing several Ascent SUVs there they looked like their width might fit in the garage, too. My measurements showed that the width (with and without mirrors) was an inch less than our current 2002 Sienna. Perfect! The Honda Pilot and Ford Explorer have similar load dimensions as the Ascent but are too wide for our garage. We don't expect to do much car camping but it would be good to have a vehicle that would be suitable. It would also be back-up lodging in case of emergencies like an earthquake or wild fire for a few days. We haven't ruled out the OB. In either case, we realize we would have to have some kind of flat platform to minimize the uneven floor with the seats folded down.



We agree that the second row bench would be the best. And, like others, we can't figure out why Subaru doesn't allow a bench on the Limited version. The third row seating in the Ascent is almost worthless but we don't care. If it could be deleted and replaced with a storage device that would be better but it's not important.

 

[mr.paul]

Just as an added data point. My Ascent is almost the same size as my previous vehicle, a 2006 Sedona minivan. Parked side by side in my driveway, they seemed the same. However, internally the van had much more open space. For outright utility for cargo, the minivan beats the Ascent by a wide margin. For driving experience, I gotta give it to the Ascent. Loved my minivan. Really lovin’ my Ascent.

 

[laufu]

Hi Chepp

You may find this useful. The dealer provides images that provides a nice size comparison between the Outback and the Ascent. The Ascent is almost 4 inches wider than the Outback and significantly taller.

https://www.natewade.com/research/subaru-ascent-model-comparison-information-salt-lake-city-ut.htm

 

[Sparkland]

The Pilot is 2.5" wider than the Ascent. The real question is: which car will the Ascent being sharing the garage with? If it is a small car like a Civic or Impreza, it will be fine. However, if it is a larger car like an Outback, then you will probably have to back the Ascent in, so you have both cars against the outer walls of the garage and the largest space will be between the vehicles. That makes it much easier to open the driver door on each vehicle, but you will have to pull out of the garage for passengers to get in.

 

[Janner]

I have the 7 passenger touring. I bought it with plans to sleep in it at times. Typically alone but my husband and I tried it once night this summer. I'm 5'10" and hubs is 6'4". It was better than I expected. I just use a small sheet of 1/4 plywood to bridge the gap on the captain's chairs and craft foam in the gap between rows. The 8 passenger lies a little flatter but the small rise of the 7 passenger doesn't bother me at all. It felt both wider and longer than I anticipated. No issues for me at all (main reason why I traded in my Outback for the Ascent) and while not perfect, it was pretty good for my husband. This isn't a van and I'm not sure i'd want to spend all my time sleeping in it but for a couple of camping trips I went on, it was quite comfortable. My only real issue was the battery going dead from leaving the hatch open. I have a tent attachment that lets you leave the hatch open and increases foot room. My 5 day trip, the car was totally dead. Overnight with hatch closed was fine. It did turn out my battery was faulty. If you plan to have the hatch open a lot, I'd take battery drainage into consideration and have a backup plan.

 

[Kevin Williams]

We agree that the second row bench would be the best. And, like others, we can't figure out why Subaru doesn't allow a bench on the Limited version. The third row seating in the Ascent is almost worthless but we don't care. If it could be deleted and replaced with a storage device that would be better but it's not important.

You mean a bench in the Touring version?


The 3rd row seating is actually quite good. My AVP was in the 3rd row coming back from the Christmas party and had plenty of room. Just remember to adjust the 2nd row seats to match the height of the people in them and you'll be surprised how much room is in the back.

 

[chepp]

You mean a bench in the Touring version? You're right -- I meant Touring.


The third row seating in the Ascent is almost worthless but we don't care. I should have worded my comment better. I intended it to mean that whether the vehicle was a 2-row or a 3-row it didn't matter because the third row would probably never be sat in.


Thanks, Janner, for your car camping experience. The battery running down because the hatch was open is unfortunate. My 2002 Sienna automatically turns off the interior lights after half an hour when one or more doors is open -- I would have thought that every van/SUV/CUV would have that feature now.


My Sienna replacement would share the garage with a 2006 Camry -- but that will replaced soon with a similar sized vehicle, possibly a smaller Subaru. A relatively narrow width with a suitable cargo length pretty much limits my choices to the Ascent, the OB or the Buick Regal TourX (not much height in the cargo area but the length is just barely OK).

 

[Janner]

Thanks, Janner, for your car camping experience. The battery running down because the hatch was open is unfortunate. My 2002 Sienna automatically turns off the interior lights after half an hour when one or more doors is open -- I would have thought that every van/SUV/CUV would have that feature now.

All my lights were off. I never have the interior light switch on and all lights do shut off after a period of time. However, something will still drain the battery. My faulty battery just exacerbated the problem but I'm not the only one who has had issues leaving the hatch open and having battery issues. My new battery is better and a lithium jump start battery is now in my cargo area just in case.

 

[chepp]

I've decided to buy an Outback Premium (on factory order to be delivered in late February or early March) instead of an Ascent. It was a tough choice to choose between them but in the end these things stood out:
1. Outback was the last year before the all-new 2020 would be introduced, whereas the 2019 Ascent is the first year of its design. I'd rather "play it safe" instead of being a beta tester. I'll keep the vehicle so long that depreciation won't be a consideration.
2. Originally I was wanting to tow an Approx. 2,000+ lb. trailer but now that is not a factor.
3. While the extra few inches of cargo space in the Ascent would occasionally be welcome, it wouldn't be used often enough to offset the additional higher purchase price and lower mpg.
4. Both vehicles have some "little" annoyances that defy logic but they were about evenly assorted so they weren't much of a factor. Here are a couple:
A. Ascent head unit failures have complaints on par with the 2018 OB but it seems that the problems were solved/reduced on the 2019 OB (but who knows for sure?).
B. Side mirror turn signals cannot be had on the Ascent Premium while they are included in an option package on the OB.
C. Brain-dead spare tire well design on the OB doesn't allow a full-size flat tire to be stored there while the Ascent does.
5. Buying a load carrying vehicle with a 4 cylinder engine and a CVT is a stretch for me -- I didn't want to add to the risk of problems by getting a turbo (Ascent), too.
So with this I'm dropping my registration with this forum and will be moving over to the OB forum. Thanks for all your comments.