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192 Posts
Over the weekend, we got a chance to let the Ascent stretch it's legs in the mountains and desert of southern CO.
I have about 4,500 miles on, but this was the first trip through the mountains and on any kind of terrain that I could use as an excuse to use X-Mode
With 3 kids, 2 adults, 1 dog and a bunch of stuff; handling and passing power in the mountains was excellent. Executed a few 2 lane passes at 7,000 - 9,000 ft and there was plenty there to make me feel safe and in control. As others have mentioned, ACC on the descents was the perfect way to smoothly maintain speed (even with no cars to follow), with the CVT doing much of the work and the auto low/high + steering responsive headlights are very functional on mountain hairpins. But (also as someone else has noted) be ready for your ACC to lose lock in the tight turns, thereby accelerating into said turn. Sounds scary, but the acceleration was never abrupt enough to cause panic - just something to be ready for.
I didn't really need X-Mode on any of the primitive roads I traveled, but of course I wanted to play with it and did find it very helpful when the downhills were steep-ish and rough. I definitely appreciated not having to worry about descent speed and traction in those situations.
Really happy with the load-carrying ability. Had a full car, cargo box, mountain bike (hard to put up/take down...) and hitch rack and didn't notice any weight. Average fuel economy was approx. 22 mpg over the approx. 400 miles.
For those of you still waiting...hang in there! It really is everything you're hoping it will be.
I have about 4,500 miles on, but this was the first trip through the mountains and on any kind of terrain that I could use as an excuse to use X-Mode
With 3 kids, 2 adults, 1 dog and a bunch of stuff; handling and passing power in the mountains was excellent. Executed a few 2 lane passes at 7,000 - 9,000 ft and there was plenty there to make me feel safe and in control. As others have mentioned, ACC on the descents was the perfect way to smoothly maintain speed (even with no cars to follow), with the CVT doing much of the work and the auto low/high + steering responsive headlights are very functional on mountain hairpins. But (also as someone else has noted) be ready for your ACC to lose lock in the tight turns, thereby accelerating into said turn. Sounds scary, but the acceleration was never abrupt enough to cause panic - just something to be ready for. I didn't really need X-Mode on any of the primitive roads I traveled, but of course I wanted to play with it and did find it very helpful when the downhills were steep-ish and rough. I definitely appreciated not having to worry about descent speed and traction in those situations.
Really happy with the load-carrying ability. Had a full car, cargo box, mountain bike (hard to put up/take down...) and hitch rack and didn't notice any weight. Average fuel economy was approx. 22 mpg over the approx. 400 miles.
For those of you still waiting...hang in there! It really is everything you're hoping it will be.
