2021 Subaru Ascent Touring

Finally re-reviewing the Subaru Ascent! When I first started The Car Mom, the Subaru Ascent was one of my first tours ever! I was so excited to review the 2021 model and give my thoughts after having experienced so many more popular family cars.

Exterior

Not going to lie… the exterior isn’t as good looking or stylish as a lot of other midsize SUVs. Basically, I feel like it looks like every other Subaru. It’s bigger than a Forester, but that’s really the only difference. I’m not loving the chrome and grill on the front, but I do think it’s a bit better looking from the side. I like the matte silver mirror cap and the chrome around the windows. The roof rails also give it a rugged look. The back has nice wrap-around headlights, but not much else we need to talk about. Overall, it’s not the best looking from the outside in my opinion, but there are a lot of other reasons you might pick a car!

Interior

Front

The wood on the door panel looks amazing, and I love the contrast and black perforated leathers. The overall interior design is really pretty! But I have a bone to pick with Subaru. They claim this car has 19 cup holders—and, technically it does. But, like, 2 of them are big enough for my obnoxious cups. Sure, a Starbucks grande would fit in most of them, but c’mon Subaru. Anyway, there are 3 cup holders in the door and 2 in the center. 

Surprisingly, the dash isn’t digital… so there’s really not much to break down. You get some info on the dash, but other elements are on a screen above the main display in the center, which I don’t love. The steering wheel is heated and has all of the buttons you’d expect—bluetooth control, volume and tune, and talk and text. The buttons feel weirdly huge, but I guess I can get over that. 

The main screen (and really all of the buttons in the center) feels a little small compared to other cars in its class (like a Hyundai Palisade). It has a full-color screen and is user friendly, and even has a CD player! How darling is that? Climate control is pulled out, which is nice, and there are buttons for your heated and ventilated seats. There’s a little cubby space underneath with 2 USBs. One other little feature I actually love is the seat belt sensor, which tells you who isn’t buckled in all 3 rows. The center console is a decent size—not the biggest or smallest I’ve ever seen. 

Per usual, this Subaru has great safety features—blind spot warning, collision warning, rear brake assist, and lane keep assist. 

Bonus: It has one of my favorite, super simple features: what I call the “Are You Behaving?” mirror. It pops down as a part of the sunglasses holder and lets you see everything your kids are up to back there. 

Second and Third Rows

Sitting in the second row, I have good (not great) knee and head clearance. There are nice leather back pockets and built-in sunshades. It has climate control and heated seats, as well as 2 cup holders (that fold down) on the back of the front center console. There are also 2 USBs and an outlet (which I love for pumping mamas). A big win? Ceiling vents. I love to see those for our rear-facing babes.

In terms of space, it really felt like the space between the captain’s chairs should be a little bigger. Like, I know I’m 6 feet tall but I literally could fit between them to get back to the third row. 

Once I finally made it to the third row, I was pretty disappointed. The middle seat is super elevated, and my head was literally touching the ceiling. Not comfy at all (although the knee clearance is decent). The cup holders were small and there was only a USB on one side. This is definitely a smaller mid-sized vehicle, so I don’t want to knock it too much for the size issues we knew it would have but… it’s pretty cramped back there. 

Car Seat Setup 

There are 3 sets of lower anchors—one on each of the captain’s chairs and one in the middle of the third row bench. The weird thing about that last one is that they are over the seatbelt, which could make it a tough install for some car seats. Every seat in the second and third rows has tether anchors. 

I put my Graco Extend2Fit in the second row and it was a super easy install. That being said, there wasn’t a ton of clearance once it was all set up, so I’d keep that in mind. 

Trunk Space

If you want to spend 15 minutes playing tetris getting your stroller to fit… that’s on you, but it’s a no for me. I couldn’t even get my single Uppababy Vista in there. Now, with the third row down it’s a slightly different story—obviously at that point there’s a lot more room. There’s also a nice, lined underneath storage compartment. But all in all, if you’re planning to have the third row up most of the time, you’re not going to be left with great trunk space. 

Drive

I don’t always talk about the drive but I wanted to mention it on this one since Subarus are a bit different. The Ascent is a 4-cylinder CVT transmission. You don’t really need to know exactly what that means (and I couldn’t tell you perfectly anyway), but basically instead of the transmission shifting gears, it’s kind of like a rubber band that expands and contracts. Because of that, it drives a little differently and I’m not a huge fan. That being said, it is quiet and the 4-cylinder engine makes it pretty fuel-efficient.

Trim Level

There are 5 to choose from, so I was trying to find the balance of being cost-effective and getting all of the key convenience and safety features I wanted. To get everything I wanted (rear climate control, heated seats, auto braking, keyless entry, and a few other things), I ended up going with the Limited (I didn’t feel like going all the way up to the Touring was necessary). That brought my MSRP to $40,853.

My final thoughts on the 2021 Subaru Ascent Touring? I do like it and I think it would work well for smaller families, but if you consistently need the 3rd row up, I think there may be some better midsize SUVs out there for you.