2021 Subaru Ascent — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 144 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Driver-assistance systems25 (17.4%)
• Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)19 (13.2%)Official recall records for this system: 9, covering model years 2019–2023.
• Electrical system18 (12.5%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 2019–2022.
• Visibility (glass, wipers, mirrors)17 (11.8%)
• Engine12 (8.3%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 2019.
• Brakes9 (6.3%)

Other / uncategorized: 16 classifications (11.1%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (2,048 records, model years 2019–2026) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, visibility (glass, wipers, mirrors) and powertrain (transmission & drivetrain).
• Manufacturer communications (3,142 records, model years 2019–2026) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, equipment & accessories and engine.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 21reports included a mileage
• 13,119average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 2019 1,071 records for 2019 1,071
2. 2020 837 records for 2020 837
3. 2021 468 records for 2021 468
4. 2022 356 records for 2022 356
5. 2023 321 records for 2023 321
6. 2024 259 records for 2024 259
7. 2025 115 records for 2025 115
8. 2026 38 records for 2026 38

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 3mention a crash
• 1mention a fire
• 3mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 2
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 361
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 3
• Owner complaints NHTSA 102

Explore the underlying evidence records

Diagnostic codes found in evidence for this vehicle

These codes appear by explicit identifier in official records matched to this exact model and year.

• P0420 in 2 records
• P2096 in 2 records
• P0711 in 1 record
• P0890 in 1 record
• P2404 in 1 record

A code appearing in a record means the code was named in that document. It is not a diagnosis of this vehicle, not a fault this vehicle has, and not an indication of urgency. Diagnosis requires reading live data from the vehicle.