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11 Posts
I'll start by saying I'm an engineer by trade and I over-analyze everything.
We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 kids 8, 5, 2.5) with occasional guest passengers.
Our daily driver is an Odyssey minivan but as the kids start to do more activities again, we have come to the realization that we need another car with additional capacity, as my sedan no longer fits everyone safely. I've read a ton of posts here before posting and while this post may be a tad redundant to some others, for my own sanity it's worth going through the motions.
I've been obsessing over the Ascent for a while as the most safe/reasonable/practical choice, vs mildly-similar 7-seaters like the Honda Pilot, Acura MDX, etc.
By the end of April I should be in a better position to go ahead and make the leap, but I'm trying to put to rest the little concerns that are holding us back.
On paper, the Ascent ticks all the boxes. But some of the posts here and some videos on youtube have me a bit concerned.
My wife and I finally got a moment without the kids to take a test drive tonight and got to the dealer an hour before closing.
The "sales expert" we got was literally exhausted. He said they had sold 18 cars just today and its not usually this busy.
Apparently people are starting to buy things again.
I let him know we already had done a ton of research, weren't ready to buy yet, and just wanted to test drive an Ascent to get a feel for it. He was fine with that and literally handed us the keys and even offered to let us go alone.
That's probably the first time I've ever gotten to do a test drive without a company chaperone, so that was interesting and in Subaru's favor.
But here's where it gets strange. We take the car in a loop around the area, and immediately noticed once we hit about 50, the car whistled very loudly. Like the howling of wind noise, and it was very off-putting. After reading posts here it could be one of about 10 different things, but I'm guessing it was the roof rack. I did let them know and he acknowledged that "yeah sometimes we have cars that whistle". Oof. Not a good thing to say.
3 Model years in, are they still ironing out the bugs with the 2021? Or is it really the best Subaru yet and because they're making so many, it's just random quality issues?
The other picky thing my wife noticed was that the steering wheel was "too small" and felt different.
From what I could find It is only half an inch smaller than the steering wheels she'd be used to, but she said it was awkward and would take getting used to. Then I told her we could get unlimited hotspot for $20 and then it balanced out.
All that said, basically we keep orbiting around the Ascent, but it each pro keeps getting negated by a con, or vice-versa.
What can you super happy owners tell us that would convince us we're making the right choice?
Thanks in advance!
We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 kids 8, 5, 2.5) with occasional guest passengers.
Our daily driver is an Odyssey minivan but as the kids start to do more activities again, we have come to the realization that we need another car with additional capacity, as my sedan no longer fits everyone safely. I've read a ton of posts here before posting and while this post may be a tad redundant to some others, for my own sanity it's worth going through the motions.
I've been obsessing over the Ascent for a while as the most safe/reasonable/practical choice, vs mildly-similar 7-seaters like the Honda Pilot, Acura MDX, etc.
By the end of April I should be in a better position to go ahead and make the leap, but I'm trying to put to rest the little concerns that are holding us back.
On paper, the Ascent ticks all the boxes. But some of the posts here and some videos on youtube have me a bit concerned.
My wife and I finally got a moment without the kids to take a test drive tonight and got to the dealer an hour before closing.
The "sales expert" we got was literally exhausted. He said they had sold 18 cars just today and its not usually this busy.
Apparently people are starting to buy things again.
I let him know we already had done a ton of research, weren't ready to buy yet, and just wanted to test drive an Ascent to get a feel for it. He was fine with that and literally handed us the keys and even offered to let us go alone.
That's probably the first time I've ever gotten to do a test drive without a company chaperone, so that was interesting and in Subaru's favor.
But here's where it gets strange. We take the car in a loop around the area, and immediately noticed once we hit about 50, the car whistled very loudly. Like the howling of wind noise, and it was very off-putting. After reading posts here it could be one of about 10 different things, but I'm guessing it was the roof rack. I did let them know and he acknowledged that "yeah sometimes we have cars that whistle". Oof. Not a good thing to say.
3 Model years in, are they still ironing out the bugs with the 2021? Or is it really the best Subaru yet and because they're making so many, it's just random quality issues?
The other picky thing my wife noticed was that the steering wheel was "too small" and felt different.
From what I could find It is only half an inch smaller than the steering wheels she'd be used to, but she said it was awkward and would take getting used to. Then I told her we could get unlimited hotspot for $20 and then it balanced out.
All that said, basically we keep orbiting around the Ascent, but it each pro keeps getting negated by a con, or vice-versa.
What can you super happy owners tell us that would convince us we're making the right choice?
Thanks in advance!