[Kevin Williams]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/w7cotUDADSXw3bg77

First road trip to New Mexico in the Ascent. Before going I had some prep to do!

194 LED Light bulb, Yorkim 2017... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JRE38EA?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

Replaced the incandescent interior lights with these LED lights. Pop off the cover with a screwdriver and pull out the bulbs. Some were in quite tight so had to wiggle them a lot!

Then installed these lights in both low and high beams ( in the correct size of course). Only took 15 mins as the headlights are easy to get to.
H11 Led Headlight Bulbs 48W CSP... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077D6DDVK?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

Then set off around 2pm. Only 100 miles on the odometer at this point, so still easy on the throttle and no speeding to continue the break in. Drove from Phoenix to Globe to enjoy great Mexican food at the Burger House (who have both great burgers and great Mexican food).

Got gas. First tank averaged 26.9, not bad!

Decided to take the back way through the twisty mountains. It was dark by this time so was really glad I put in the LEDs. The Ascent was very surefooted and handled all the turns as well as my 2017 Outback did. Amazing, given the extra weight and height. Even the decreasing radius turns were no problem. Steering was nice and crisp. Eyesight couldn't keep track of the lanes with all the curves. Also the lane was narrow so when it did work, it was giving more warnings. Was not a problem though.

Was averaging 28 mph before I hit the twisty roads and it dropped to 26.1 after, even though I wasn't accelerating hard out of the corners. In fact never went over 2500 rom the whole trip. The last hour of straight roads the mpg climbed back up to 27.4 mpg.

One thing I noticed about the steering, it can feel weird when eyesight gives you a hand. I wonder if that is what caused reviewers to criticize the steering at high speed. It'll give you a subtle correction in direction even if the yellow warning doesn't go off. Feels odd the first few times, but later isn't a bother.

Once I got near the land on the dirt roads, I decided to take the rough shortcut. It is a gravelly driveway, but not maintained so years of rain runoff have rutted it. Put on X-mode and started up. It was rougher than I remember but the Ascent climbed it with ease. A couple times the red hud lights flashed... will have to look up what that means. Will try and take some daytime pics of the ruts to show what I went up!

Snuggled up in my cabin typing this on my phone. A great day with the Ascent! I really love it.

 

[Kevin Williams]

And back again!

Got out the drone and took a few aerial shots of the Ascent on the top of the mountain. Looks great there!

Also took a few pictures of the shortcut I took last night, but in the daytime this time. It was pretty rough, but the Ascent handled it very well.

The trip back the gas mileage was even better. I did have my telescope loaded in the back, so I didn't take the twisty mountain road this time. My 2nd tank (including half of the drive out and then back to Safford) I had 28.7mpg. Then the final leg back home was even better.... 32.6! Stayed pretty much right around 65mph with just a few stoplights in the towns.

Oh and also had the OBDLink LX hooked up and configured their app to show the Boost gauge, calculated hp and throttle position, so have a picture of that as well. I had a new mount for the phone sitting for me when I got home, so I can get it away from the vent. Might put it on the left side of the steering wheel where the little "tray" is so it's easy to see, but doesn't block any other gauges/switches/vents.

All the photos were added to the original link above.

Oh an one more thing I noticed last night... if the interior light dial (on the left of the steering wheel) is on full, then android auto maps never goes into dark mode. You need to at least take it off that "final" switch otherwise it will never switch into night mode. It was so bright I had to turn it off maps while I was doing the twisty roads so I could actually see the road. Once I figured out the dial and turned down the brightness it was nice and subtle.

 

[Kevin Williams]

I like the pictures! The drone shots are really cool! I would probably crash land one on top of my car, but I must say I do want one! Haha!

Ha! The drone is very stabilized so it takes some work to do something like that. I was being careful though!


I did want to do a "follow" video while I was driving, but the battery was acting up. Would have loved to get one of me going up the dirt roads to the top! Maybe next time I'm there in 3 weeks!


I need to take new interior shots after the interior LEDs are in. Maybe tonight I'll get out there and do that. Just realized the 1 shot I took was blurry!


The car made the drive so pleasant! Did 640 miles in 30 hours. I'm really loving the SiriusXM radio, especially when out in the middle of nowhere here in the Southwest. Much nicer than cruising my USB stick.

 

[Kevin Williams]

Update: Added more pics for the LED interior lights and removed the blurry one.


Also, those LED light bulbs have a lot of failures from the factory. 30-50% are bad. But I have used a set for a year when I found the good ones. So I'd buy extras up front, then get Amazon to handle the returns for a bad batch!


Have some spares now, so will do the puddle lights and the back cargo area light.