2019 Subaru Ascent
Complaints about this year name battery far more often than the model's other years — 32% of them, about 36× the usual rate of 0.9%.
First year of a new generation. The Subaru Ascent was redesigned for 2019. A first year carries problems nobody has found yet, and they are found by the people who buy it — which is worth knowing before you become one of them.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 437 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 48 |
| Involving a crash | 10 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 9 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 22.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- battery — 32.5% of this year's complaints, against 7.3% across the model's other years (4.5×). Owners wrote it as: battery, battery died, battery dead, drain.
- died — 7.8% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the model's other years (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: died, die.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
Also unusual this year
- jump — 13% of complaints, 31× usual
- start — 18% of complaints, 10× usual
- windshield — 21% of complaints, 4× usual
What owners wrote
My vehicle won’t stay charged. We replaced the battery and still every single time I go out to start it it’s completely dead and I have to get it jumped.
AT 9119 MILES ON MY VEHICLE I HAD TO CONTINUALLY JUMP START THE VEHICLE IN ORDER TO START THE ENGINE. THE DEALERSHIP REPLACED THE BATTERY ONCE FOR THIS SAME ISSUE AT 680 MILES.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V855000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 21V955000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 21V587000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 20V218000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 19V856000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 19V519000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 18V508000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
- 22V907000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 9. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Subaru Ascent was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2019 Subaru Ascent? What happened to yours?
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