2024 Subaru Ascent

All six 2024 trims — Base, Premium, Onyx Edition, Limited, Onyx Edition Limited and Touring — share the same direct-injection turbocharged 2.4L FA24F flat-four, so there is no output split across the range and the volume Premium makes the same power as the $48k Touring.

Peak torque arrives at 2,000 rpm and holds on a wide plateau, which is what lets a 2.4L four move a ~4,420-lb three-row without feeling strained in ordinary driving; the figure is identical on every 2024 trim.

No 2024-specific instrumented test has been published, but 2024 is a carry-over year for the FA24F/Lineartronic powertrain following the 2023 facelift, so tests of that configuration apply directly; the Ascent lands mid-pack for a mainstream three-row and ahead of the naturally aspirated V6s it was designed to replace.

The turbo flat-four is quiet at cruise and its 2,000-rpm torque plateau makes part-throttle response feel effortless, but reviewers consistently note a beat of turbo lag from a standstill and a coarse, thrashy note when the CVT holds high revs under full load.

The Lineartronic CVT with an 8-speed stepped manual mode is smooth and well matched to the engine's flat torque curve in normal driving, but it produces the familiar CVT drone under hard acceleration and its simulated ratios are a workaround for that rather than a fix.

5,000 lbs is the highest rating Subaru has ever given a vehicle and it applies across the whole 2024 trim range rather than being gated behind a tow package on upper trims; strong for a unibody three-row, well short of a body-on-frame SUV.

Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive is standard on every 2024 trim — there is no front-drive Ascent at any price — backed by X-MODE with Hill Descent Control and dual-function (SNOW/DIRT plus DEEP SNOW/MUD) X-MODE on select trims. It falls short of a perfect score only for the absence of a low range or locking differential.

8.7 inches of ground clearance beats most three-row crossovers and X-MODE with Hill Descent Control handles snow, gravel and mud competently, but there is no Wilderness-grade Ascent in 2024: no low range, no locker, no skid plates, and the Onyx Edition Limited's 20-inch wheels and street tires push the other way.

One engine, one transmission, one drivetrain across all six 2024 trims — the 2.4L turbo four with Lineartronic CVT and standard AWD. No hybrid, no plug-in, no alternative engine anywhere in the range, while most mid-size three-row rivals offered at least one electrified option in 2024.

The volume Premium sits in the EPA's 22-MPG group with the Base trim, while the heavier upper trims on larger wheels drop to 21. Every Ascent is all-wheel drive, so there is no front-drive figure to lift the average as there is for most rivals.

An ordinary city figure for a ~4,420-lb three-row with standard all-wheel drive and no electrified variant anywhere in the 2024 range to lift it.

Highway economy is the better side of the Ascent's ledger and is what underpins Subaru's 500-mile highway range claim, but it still trails three-row rivals that can be had in front-drive or hybrid form.

The 19.3-gallon tank — unchanged since the nameplate launched in 2019 — with the 22-MPG combined rating gives roughly 425 miles between fills, respectable rather than class-leading for a family three-row.

EPA's estimate at standard assumptions puts the Ascent toward the costlier end of the mid-size three-row field, a direct consequence of 22 MPG combined with no hybrid option to fall back on.

Despite being turbocharged and direct-injected, the FA24F runs on 87-octane regular unleaded with no premium recommendation, so the per-gallon penalty other turbocharged three-rows carry does not apply here.

The 2024 Ascent carries NHTSA's top overall result with five stars in both the frontal and side barrier tests; only the rollover measure comes back at four stars, which is the normal outcome for a tall three-row crossover and is not year-specific.

The 2024 Ascent is a full Top Safety Pick+ — the top award, and one of only four Subaru models to clear the tougher 2024 criteria — with Good in small overlap front on both driver and passenger sides, Good in the original moderate overlap test and Good in the updated side test. It sits at the bottom of the top band rather than higher because the updated moderate overlap test with the rear-seat dummy comes back only Acceptable; under the tightened 2025 criteria that same result dropped the car to plain TSP the following year.

EyeSight with the Wide-Angle Mono Camera is standard on every 2024 trim including the $34,195 Base — pre-collision braking, full-speed-range adaptive cruise with lane centering and lane departure warning/assist — as are Steering Responsive LED headlights with High Beam Assist. What keeps it out of the top band is that 2024 still fields that stripped Base trim: Blind-Spot Detection with Lane Change Assist, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, reverse automatic braking and Automatic Emergency Steering all begin at Premium, so the entry car is missing two of the five features the top band requires. The 360-degree Surround View Monitor is a Touring-only item this year, and DriverFocus starts at Limited.

IIHS rates pedestrian front crash prevention Good, and the underlying runs are decisive rather than borderline: the Ascent avoided the collision outright in both daytime crossing-child trials and in every nighttime crossing-adult trial on high and low beams. The one real gap is the nighttime parallel-adult scenario, where it avoided impact on high beams at 25 and 37 mph but failed to slow at all on low beams at both speeds, warning only 1.6 seconds before impact at 37 mph — enough to hold it below the top of the band.

Blind-Spot Detection with Lane Change Assist, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert and reverse automatic braking arrive together at the Premium trim and carry through the rest of the range, so the volume buyer is covered and gets genuine intervention when backing out rather than only a chime. It stays mid-band because the package is a trim upgrade rather than standard equipment on the 2024 Base, the blind-spot side is alert-only with no steering countermeasure, and there is no safe-exit alert for rear passengers.

Lane departure warning, lane keep assist and lane centering are standard on every trim, and the wide-angle EyeSight camera plus the electric brake booster adopted in this refresh widen the system's field of view. But Cars.com's judges found the lane keeping and driver attention monitoring outright intrusive, and switching lane keep assist off leaves an amber warning light illuminated that cannot itself be dismissed — functional assistance with rough edges rather than the quiet confidence the top band describes.

Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Centering is standard across the range and operates through the full speed range including stop-and-go, and testers describe it picking up traffic early and adjusting smoothly while holding the SUV centered. It is capable rather than refined: there is no branded highway-assist mode, 2024 predates the Emergency Stop Assist added for 2025, and the same over-eager collision warning reviewers complain about rides along with it.

Subaru offers no hands-free highway system on any 2024 Ascent trim. EyeSight is a hands-on lane-centering assist, and the DriverFocus camera on Limited and above exists to enforce attention rather than permit hands-off operation — nothing comparable to BlueCruise, Super Cruise or ProPILOT Assist 2.0 is available at any price.

IIHS rates the headlights Good across every 2024 trim, with no trim-dependent downgrade — the single most common way a three-row crossover loses its award. Steering Responsive LED projectors with High Beam Assist are standard from the Base up, so the curve-adaptive units are not something the volume buyer pays extra for; the only blemish in the IIHS notes is fair low-beam reach on the left side of the straightaway and some glare on sharp left curves.

Sightlines are a genuine strength — Cars.com calls visibility among the best in the class, the product of a low beltline, large glass area and a high seating position with quarter windows ahead of the doors. The score stops short of the top band on camera compensation: in 2024 the 360-degree Surround View Monitor is Touring-only, a narrower availability than the following year, so Base, Premium, Onyx and Limited buyers rely on the standard rear camera alone.

IIHS rates LATCH ease of use Good+ — three complete positions plus extra tether points — and Cars.com's car-seat check found the second-row lower anchors easy to reach behind Velcro flaps with reclining seats that improve access, in either the seven-seat captain's-chair or eight-seat bench layout. It is held out of the top of the band by the third row, where awkward anchor placement forced installers to bury the adjacent buckles under the seat and install the convertible on top of them, blocking the middle position.

The 2024 volume trim is the Premium, offered in both 8-passenger bench and 7-passenger captain's-chair configurations; eight is the maximum for the mainstream three-row class.

The volume Premium has no moonroof and gets the full 41.2 in, near the top of the mid-size SUV band — a direct payoff of the Ascent's tall, upright greenhouse.

42.2 in is mid-pack for a three-row — ahead of the Pilot (41.0) and Telluride (41.4), well behind the Palisade (44.1). Adequate rather than notable.

40.0 in of second-row headroom sits at the very top of the mid-size SUV normalization band; the flat roofline gives the moonroof-free Premium genuinely class-leading rear head space.

38.6 in trails the Palisade and Telluride (42.4 each) and the Highlander (41.0) because the Ascent positions row two forward to keep row three usable; the sliding bench lets owners rebalance the two rows.

A real kid-usable third row rather than a token one — 31.7 in of legroom beats the Highlander (28.0) and matches Telluride/Palisade (31.4) — but 36.2 in of headroom, a low cushion with little thigh support and a tight aperture keep adults to short hops. The volume Premium's bench tilts and slides for access; the walk-through belongs to the captain's-chair trims.

Subaru's own 2024 spec sheet publishes 43.5 cu ft with the third row folded — short of the Palisade (45.8), Highlander (48.4) and Atlas (55.5). The number that bites daily is the 17.8 cu ft behind row three, among the smallest in the class.

75.6 cu ft is modest for a 196.9-in three-row — the Palisade, Telluride and Pilot all clear 86 cu ft. A long flat load floor with everything folded partly offsets the volume deficit for bulky items.

Storage is a signature Ascent strength: up to 19 cupholders, a deep centre console with a sliding tray, oversized door bins sized for large bottles, seatback pockets in both rear rows, underfloor rear cargo storage and standard tie-down hooks. It stays under 80 because none of it is an innovation — no household outlet, no frunk, no fold-flat front passenger seat.

Front seats are consistently described as supportive over long stints, and the volume Premium gets an 8-way power driver's seat plus heated front cushions as standard; the reclining, sliding second row is comfortable for adults. Held out of the top band by a flat, low third-row cushion and no thigh-support extension anywhere in the range.

Soft spring tuning, a 113.8-in wheelbase and the stiff Subaru Global Platform shell give absorbent impact isolation that reviewers call a strength, and the volume Premium's 18-in wheels on 245/60 tires ride noticeably better than the 245/50R20 setup on Onyx, Limited and Touring.

Steady-state cruising refinement is acceptable, but road and wind noise are regularly flagged and the turbo-boxer plus Lineartronic CVT drones coarsely whenever the vehicle is asked to accelerate or climb — the Ascent's most consistently cited refinement flaw.

The volume Premium carries tri-zone automatic climate with independent second-row controls and vents plus the All-Weather Package (heated front seats, heated mirrors, wiper de-icer) as standard. It stays mid-band because the 2024 line still has a Base trim below it without second-row climate control, and heated steering wheel (Onyx and up), heated second-row seats (Limited and up) and ventilated fronts (Touring only) are all upper-trim items.

Every 2024 Ascent — including the entry Base trim — arrives with the 260-hp turbo BOXER, Symmetrical AWD, EyeSight and the 11.6-inch STARLINK screen, so the opening price buys a genuinely equipped three-row rather than a stripped loss-leader.

Premium is the Ascent's volume trim, and it is typically ordered with the Convenience Package (power rear gate, keyless access, auto-dimming mirror) that closes the biggest equipment gaps against rivals' mid trims.

Industry estimates disagree by more than 2x, so this is a mid-point of the three major published projections; the boxer engine's timing-chain design and Subaru's conventional service intervals keep scheduled work ordinary, but head-gasket and CVT anxiety in the brand's history keeps repair reserves above the class floor.

Roughly half of value gone at five years is average for a mainstream three-row and notably weaker than Subaru's own Outback/Crosstrek reputation — the Ascent's softening sales and single non-electrified powertrain limit used demand relative to a Telluride or Highlander.

The class-minimum term. Subaru matches Toyota, Honda and Ford here but is beaten outright by Hyundai and Kia's 5-year/60,000-mile basic coverage on directly competing three-rows.

Again the segment floor — half the term of the 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain coverage Hyundai and Kia put behind the Palisade and Telluride, which is a meaningful gap for a turbocharged CVT drivetrain buyers plan to keep a decade.

Subaru includes no complimentary scheduled maintenance in the US — every oil change is out of pocket from day one — so the Ascent lands exactly on the "basic roadside only" rung: 3 years/36,000 miles of 24-hour roadside assistance plus a 3-year STARLINK Safety Plus trial, against ToyotaCare's 2 years/25,000 miles of free service on a Highlander and Honda's included first maintenance visits.

$39,550 volume-trim price minus its estimated resale value after 5 years (50% retained, or about $19,775) leaves about $19,775 in depreciation. Add the projected $4,800 in 5-year maintenance and repairs, and owning this vehicle for 5 years costs about $24,575 in total.

The two authorities that matter genuinely disagree on this model year, which puts it squarely in the mixed-signals band. J.D. Power's predicted reliability for the 2024 Ascent is 82/100 — 'Great' on their scale — while Consumer Reports' owner survey states outright that the 2024 Ascent is less reliable than other cars of the same model year, flagging brakes (premature pad/rotor wear and warping, some inside 3,000 miles), in-car electronics (display freezes), electrical accessories (battery drain) and the climate system. That CR verdict is a step down from the 'about average' the 2025 car earns, so 2024 sits below both the mature 2025 model year and the class-leading Palisade/Telluride/Grand Highlander, but the strong J.D. Power figure and Subaru's overall standing keep it near the segment median rather than in the failing band.

Subaru is a genuine top-tier reliability brand, not a mid-pack one: it sits on the podium of Consumer Reports' latest brand reliability rankings alongside Toyota and Lexus, and topped CR's Auto Brand Report Card in consecutive years. J.D. Power's dependability data is the softer signal — the 2026 VDS, which surveys three-year-old 2023 model-year vehicles and is therefore the closest study to a 2024 Ascent's cohort, places Subaru sixth at 181 PP100, between Chevrolet (178) and Porsche (182). Held below the 85+ band because the two major studies disagree on how high the brand ranks.

The formal recall record for the 2024 model year is close to spotless: NHTSA returns exactly one campaign against it, 26V436000, an incorrect Gross Axle Weight Rating printed on the certification label — a sticker replacement with no mechanical defect, and one that sweeps in every 2019–2026 Ascent. That is a marked improvement on 2023, which took four campaigns including a front lower control arm ball-joint castle nut (23V392000) and driveshaft center support bolts (23V647000), and on the 2019–2020 launch years that carried the generation's real recall burden. Scored below the 85 the equally clean 2025 car earns because the unresolved driver-mirror defect (see 6.2.2) has produced no TSB and no remedy for 2024 owners — dealers confirm the fault and replace like with like, which is a service-bulletin gap rather than a clean record.

The weakest link in an otherwise strong reliability case, and unchanged for 2024 — the 2.4L FA24DIT turbo boxer and high-torque TR730 Lineartronic CVT carry over untouched from the 2023 refresh. The FA24DIT has settled into a decent record, with owners commonly reporting 200k-mile service on maintenance, but it carries a known oil-seepage pattern at the PCV hose joint and an early PCV recall on the 2019–2020 cars. The bigger question is the CVT, which handles substantially more torque than Subaru's other units in a ~4,700-lb three-row; owners report hesitation from a stop, harsh Park-to-Drive engagement, and a thin but real thread of complete failures under 60,000 miles — one 2024 owner reported a transmission failure on the twelfth day of ownership that ended in a lemon-law return. Neither component has the high-mileage résumé of a Honda J35 or Toyota 2GR V6.

Reviewers land consistently on 'agreeably average' — a durable, function-first cabin carrying the 2023 refresh's 11.6-inch portrait touchscreen, with some soft-touch surfaces and dash-covering pleather but visible hard plastics that cheapen the impression. It does not reach the perceived richness of the Palisade, Telluride, Grand Highlander or CX-90. Scored a point above the 2025 car only because 2024 still offers the $35,490 Base trim and a $38,090 volume Premium, so the same materials are asked to justify less money; the Onyx Edition's StarTex and the Limited/Touring leather sit above the trim being scored.

This is where the 2024 model year separates itself from the rest of the generation, and not favourably. The driver's-side exterior mirror vibrates badly enough at highway speed to blur the reflection, and it dominates the year's complaint record: 27 of the 48 NHTSA complaints filed against the 2024 Ascent describe it, a concentration no other Ascent model year shows. It is a design/materials defect rather than a build variance — attributed to the mirror housing structure — dealers confirm it and replace the assembly with an identical part that vibrates the same way, no TSB or remedy exists, and it drew a class-action suit covering the 2024 Crosstrek and Ascent that later expanded to the Outback and Solterra. Underlying assembly at Subaru of Indiana Automotive remains solid — panel gaps are tight, the launch-year body issues are long resolved, and the rest of the complaint file is diffuse — which is what keeps this out of the 40s, but a known unfixable visibility fault is a serious quality mark against this specific year.

A standout strength and the clearest reason to buy the car from Subaru rather than the badge. Subaru of America ranked highest among mass-market brands in the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Customer Service Index, topping every Voice of the Customer measure — service initiation, service advisor, service facility, vehicle pick-up and service quality — and repeated at the top of the mass-market SUV category in 2026 with 887 of 1,000. Held short of the 90s only because the roughly 640-retailer network is meaningfully thinner than Toyota's or Chevrolet's and skews toward the Northeast, Pacific Northwest and Colorado, leaving parts of the South and Southwest with longer drives.

Parts move readily through the 640-retailer network and Subaru enjoys unusually strong enthusiast aftermarket support as a brand, but Ascent-specific aftermarket is thin next to a Highlander or Pilot, and running costs sit above the industry norm. RepairPal puts Subaru at $617 average annual repair cost and 3.5/5 overall, 14th of 32 brands, with repair frequency low at 0.3 shop visits per year — the cost per visit, not the number of visits, is what pulls this down. Turbo and boxer-specific service items add labour cost relative to a transverse V6, and the 2024 car's 20-inch Falken ZIEX rubber on upper trims is a further replacement-cost item.

The 2023 refresh made the portrait 11.6-inch STARLINK Multimedia Plus display standard across the whole line, so the volume Premium gets the largest screen the Ascent offers; 11.6 in is respectable but no longer large by 2024 mid-size SUV standards.

The 11.6-in tablet keeps genuinely useful hardware — a volume knob and physical temperature buttons flanking the screen — but STARLINK absorbs climate, X-MODE and vehicle settings into menus and is regularly described as slower to respond than the best systems in the class.

Both wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto are standard on every 2024 trim, including the entry Base — squarely in the top band and the single strongest element of the Ascent's tech case.

Built-in navigation is not available on the volume Premium at all — STARLINK Multimedia Navigation starts at Limited — and STARLINK's command-based voice recognition handles basic audio, phone and climate requests without natural-language fluency, so most owners default to CarPlay or Android Auto for maps.

The volume Premium's standard six-speaker system is unremarkable, but a genuinely strong 14-speaker Harman Kardon QuantumLogic surround setup with a 792-watt-equivalent amplifier is available from Limited up — a competitive premium option for the class.

No 2024 Ascent trim offers a configurable full-digital gauge display — the binnacle is conventional analog dials with a small colour information screen, supplemented by the separate multi-function display atop the dash. This is the Ascent's clearest technology deficit against the Palisade, Telluride and Pilot, which all offer 12.3-in digital clusters.

The 11.6-in STARLINK head unit can pull firmware over the air rather than requiring a dealer visit, but the scope is multimedia/maps only, it requires an active STARLINK subscription, and nothing about the vehicle's driving or safety software is updated this way — well short of feature-adding whole-vehicle OTA.

MySubaru with STARLINK Safety and Security Plus covers the core set — remote engine start with climate, remote lock/unlock, vehicle locator, automatic collision notification and SOS — but every useful remote function sits behind a paid subscription once the trial lapses, and there is no phone-as-key or digital key sharing on any trim.

The volume Premium gets USB-A and USB-C in the front centre console and USB-A and USB-C in the rear centre console, but the third row has no ports at all — dual third-row USB-A starts at Limited. No 2024 trim offers factory wireless phone charging (it is a dealer-installed accessory) and there is no 120V household outlet anywhere in the range.

On the 8-passenger volume Premium, Keyless Access with Push-Button Start and the power rear gate are bundled into a $1,460 option package rather than being standard (they are standard on the 7-passenger Premium and from Onyx Edition up), and the Base trim gets neither. No hands-free kick-activated liftgate and no phone-as-key on any trim.

Rear vision camera with a rear-camera washer and EyeSight's wide-angle mono camera are standard, but the volume Premium parks a 196.9-in SUV on the rear camera alone — Reverse Automatic Braking is inside the $1,460 package on the 8-passenger car, and the Surround View Monitor and 180-degree front-view camera are reserved for the top Onyx Edition Limited and Touring trims.

No head-up display is offered on any 2024 Ascent trim, including the $48,495 Touring — a feature the Palisade, Telluride and Grand Highlander all make available.

Family logistics are the Ascent's core competence: wide, square door openings on a 71.6-in-tall body, a second row that slides and reclines to clear space for rear-facing seats, eight-passenger capacity on the volume Premium and 19 cupholders. The limit is the 17.8 cu ft behind row three, which a double stroller fills on its own.

Close to a best case for a family shopping the cheap trims: 2024 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ under the tougher 2024 criteria, five-star NHTSA overall, and EyeSight with adaptive cruise, lane centering and pre-collision braking standard from the $34,195 Base, with Blind-Spot Detection, Rear Cross-Traffic Alert and Auto Emergency Steering standard from the volume Premium. It stops short of the very top band because Reverse Automatic Braking still sits in a $1,460 package on the 8-passenger Premium and the Base lacks blind-spot monitoring entirely.

Tri-zone climate with independent second-row controls and vents is standard on the Premium, second-row space is generous and every row has a cupholder within reach. Held back because the third row has no USB ports at all on the volume trim (they start at Limited), rear-seat entertainment is not offered, and with all three rows occupied there is only 17.8 cu ft for luggage.

Light, quick steering, a tall upright seating position with excellent sightlines, a CVT that is genuinely smooth at low speed and standard EyeSight adaptive cruise with lane centering make stop-and-go duty low-effort. The daily irritants are climate and X-MODE functions living inside the touchscreen and the powertrain's coarseness when hurried.

22 MPG combined on regular fuel is unremarkable for a 2024 three-row and looks poor beside the hybrids families now cross-shop — a Highlander Hybrid or Grand Highlander Hybrid roughly halves the fuel bill, and no Ascent trim offers any electrification.

A 196.9-in body with a 38.0-ft turning circle is ordinary for the class, and while the tall glasshouse gives unusually good outward visibility for a big SUV, the volume Premium manages on a rear camera with no front or rear parking sensors and no surround view — those start at the top trims.

The 5,000-lb tow rating is genuinely strong for a unibody crossover with a 2.4-litre four and matches the Pilot and Telluride, but there is no bed, no payload headroom worth quoting and a CVT that reviewers do not associate with sustained heavy hauling — this is tow-a-boat-on-weekends capability, not a work tool.

The Subaru Global Platform shell and the 2.4T boxer have a solid consumer reliability record and the brand's service network is broad, but the Ascent has no commercial-fleet history and the Lineartronic CVT — the subject of the nameplate's most publicised early-life trouble — is the component a hard-use buyer would worry about.

Standard roof rails and cargo tie-down hooks plus Subaru's deep accessory catalogue cover light-duty needs, and the StarTex water-repellent upholstery on the Onyx trims is genuinely wipe-clean, but there is no onboard AC power on any trim, no bed and nothing resembling an upfit ecosystem.

A 19.3-gal tank at 26 MPG highway gives roughly 500 highway miles between stops, the front seats are praised over long stints, the long wheelbase soaks up interstate expansion joints, and EyeSight's adaptive cruise with lane centering is standard on the volume trim. Road and wind noise plus boxer/CVT drone on grades keep it out of the top band.

The Ascent's second natural mission: Symmetrical AWD with X-MODE and Hill Descent Control standard on every trim, dual-function X-MODE with Deep Snow/Mud on Onyx and above, 8.7 in of ground clearance, 5,000 lb of towing for a small trailer, and standard roof rails feeding the largest rack-accessory catalogue in the mainstream market. Short of the top band only because it is a road-biased crossover, not a body-on-frame off-roader.

Folding both rear rows opens a long flat load floor 45.9 in wide between the wheel housings at a low 32.0-in liftover, with underfloor storage plus standard roof rails and a factory hitch to take the overflow. What holds it mid-band is raw volume — 75.6 cu ft is ten-plus cubic feet behind the Palisade, Telluride and Pilot.

Secure, predictable handling for a three-row family SUV: the low-mounted boxer keeps the centre of gravity down, the Subaru Global Platform shell is stiff and Active Torque Vectoring trims understeer — but roughly 4,450 lb on soft springs means body roll and early push, and nothing about it is agile.

The electric rack is quick enough and easy to place, but it is light and largely mute — little on-centre definition and no effort build-up as cornering load rises. Typical numb family-SUV steering, and reviewers say so directly.

Instrumented stopping power is a quiet strength — Edmunds recorded 117 ft from 60 mph on this generation, among the shortest in the three-row class — on large ventilated discs at all four corners with Brake Assist and brake override. It stays out of the top band because the pedal is soft off the top and lacks the firm, linear response that earns 80-plus.

277 lb-ft available from 2,000 rpm suits a CVT well and part-throttle response is smooth and lag-free — roughly 7.0 sec to 60 mph in independent testing — but the Lineartronic still flares revs and holds them under real load, and its eight simulated ratios mask rather than eliminate the elastic feel.

Cruising refinement is fine and the engine mounts keep vibration out of the controls, but the turbo-boxer plus CVT drone at wide-open throttle is coarse and monotone, and it is the single most consistently cited flaw of this powertrain.

Subaru publishes 38.0 ft curb-to-curb for the 2024 Ascent — squarely mid-pack for a 196.9-in three-row mid-size SUV.

One of the Ascent's genuine strengths: a tall greenhouse with thin pillars and a big quarter window, an upright commanding seating position with 41.2 in of headroom, easy ingress at a 71.6-in body height, retained physical temperature and volume controls, and an 8-way power driver's seat standard on the volume Premium. The main demerit is climate and X-MODE functions living inside the touchscreen.

Competent and unobjectionable but entirely uninvolving — light numb steering, a droning CVT and a chassis tuned for isolation mean nobody takes the long way home in an Ascent. It is a well-executed appliance, which is exactly the brief.

The $35,490 Base is unusually complete for an entry three-row: Symmetrical AWD, the full EyeSight suite, the 11.6-inch STARLINK screen with wireless CarPlay/Android Auto, tri-zone automatic climate and steering-responsive LED headlights are all standard, and rivals typically charge $1,600–$2,000 just for all-wheel drive. It stops short of the top band because blind-spot detection, heated seats and a power tailgate all wait for Premium and its Convenience Package.

260 hp, 5,000 lb of towing and standard AWD on every trim at mainstream money is genuine content-per-dollar, and even the $49,790 Touring undercuts loaded Pilots and Grand Highlanders. Against that, the same money buys a roomier third row and a quieter, better-finished cabin in a Telluride or Palisade, and there is no hybrid at any price to offset the Ascent's mediocre fuel economy.

Six trims spread evenly across a $14,300 span, with both 8-passenger bench and 7-passenger captain's-chair layouts and two option packages, cover most family budgets. The breadth is only sideways, though — one engine, one transmission and one drivetrain, so there is no cheaper front-drive entry point and no upmarket or electrified powertrain step.

56,286 US sales in 2024 is real volume but a fourth consecutive annual decline from the 82,000 of its 2019 launch year, and it leaves the Ascent a distant also-ran behind Explorer, Highlander, Pilot, Telluride and Palisade in the segment it competes in. The trajectory got worse still afterward, which is what pulls this below the mid-pack band.

Subaru carries one of the strongest owner-loyalty and brand-affinity records in the mainstream US market, built on standard AWD, an outdoor-lifestyle identity and a long safety-award streak — all of which the Ascent inherits. The halo is thinner here than elsewhere in the lineup, though: the brand's pull is anchored to Outback, Forester and Crosstrek, and Ascent shoppers cross-shop on space and refinement where Subaru has no image advantage.

Softening demand turned the Ascent into a negotiable buy — subvented APR financing and advertised lease programs were routinely available and transaction prices sat at or below MSRP, a real advantage over Telluride shoppers facing dealer markups. It falls short of the top band because Subaru ran essentially no cash-back rebates on the 2024 Ascent, so the benefit came through financing and dealer discount rather than headline cash.

2024 is the sixth model year of the generation launched for 2019 and a straight carry-over after the 2023 facelift that brought the revised front fascia and the line-wide 11.6-inch screen. Mid-cycle rather than aging out — the underlying Subaru Global Platform, CVT and 2.4-litre turbo are all pre-2019 hardware, and a buyer in 2024 was two years from a replacement.

The safety hardware collects trophies — 2024 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ and a five-star NHTSA overall rating — and owner satisfaction is high, but professional reviewers place the Ascent in the lower half of a strong class and it has never won a mainstream three-row comparison test. The consistent criticism is a tight third row, road noise and a strained CVT rather than any single failing.