Unfortunately, this has not been my experience. I have a 2020 Ascent Touring, the first 2020 model to arrive off the truck at my local Subaru dealership and I purchased it on July 31, 2019. It is currently at the dealership where I purchased it and had it serviced with only 55,760 miles on the odometer. waiting for a new/non-stock CVT. This is also my first Subaru, but I have been a Japanese brand enthusiast and car owner since I bought my first Honda at 18 years old. I am very early time/preventive maintenance oriented. I’m a busy realtor these days, but back in the 1990s I was a busy manufacturer’s representative selling automotive service equipment, which included starting sales of one of the trans-cooler line automatic transmission fluid exchangers . So I know the value of regular ATF fluid replacement to extend the life of transmissions. It was a game changer for extending automatic transmission life, so much so that manufacturers began removing transmission fluid dipsticks from new vehicles and installing fluid temperature control valves in the transmission coolant line flow ports to t ‘made time-consuming, difficult procedural ATF fluid changes. and eventually eliminating the usefulness of an ATF exchanger in most automotive service centers. Suddenly manufacturers were putting “stuffed for life” transmissions in their new vehicles. Planned obsolescence reigns in… vehicles are built to last 120,000 miles before an expensive, major component failure (such as a transmission) prompts people to buy a new car rather than spend thousands on it fix their current vehicle. Automakers need/want people to buy new cars more often, parts wear out, transmissions are a “part” and by the way parts departments at all dealerships sell new/remanufactured transmissions and service departments of vendors install them. ..for high prices. I followed the heavy duty schedule for the CVT transmission, doing a CVT fluid drain and refill at 25,000 miles and again at 50,000 miles. (I’m told that very, very few customers do this with these CVTs. It’s a $400 service, parts and labor, but how many times can you spend $400 before the cost of maintenance approaches the cost of a CVT replacement of $10,000, right?) Aside from the fact that I live in Northeast Florida in a hotter climate part of the year, my Ascendant has not lived a “heavy duty” life. I have towed a utility trailer with it all 3 times, probably less than 80 total miles combined those 3 times, and I drive “normally”. At about 28,000 miles when the original equipment Falken tires were well worn, with some light but normal tread on the outside, I began to experience a vibration/vibration sensation on sharp turns at low speeds (leaning in or pulled forward on the road/off road with perpendicular steering) that would go away as soon as the steering wheel was partially steered. At 32,000 miles I replaced the well worn Falken tires with much better tires for this vehicle, Hankook Ventus 1 Noble 2’s that are installed as original equipment on the Kia Telluride/Hyundai Palisade. Those vibration/choking sensations went away immediately with the new tires. Strange as it may sound from a self-professed car guy, I let myself assume that somehow the combination of full-time all-wheel drive (which I’ve never had before) with two differentials and worn/worn tires created that feeling. I didn’t feel it coming back until I had about 23,000 miles on the Hankook replacement tires…and then it was a daily occurrence. I took it in for routine maintenance at 54,000 miles. The technician noticed the vibration/choking feeling by taking it in and out of the service bay, notified my service advisor that it was a problem with the clutch from the CVT, and the service advisor called me to let me know when a loaner vehicle was available at about 5 business days, that I would bring my Ascent in for a replacement transmission. In the last two days of that 5-day stretch for my scheduled service delivery appointment, with medium to hard acceleration, I suddenly had a high anxiety coming from the CVT that I had never experienced before, and a loud noise and crashing sensation 2 or 3 times. That’s when I searched, found and joined this wonderful forum. Apparently I had my head in the sand, as I didn’t know about the 2019 Ascents recall for the CVT issue until I read about it on this forum. Supposedly I do not have a VIN associated with that recall/TSB. I asked my service advisor if he had brought in any other 2020 Ascendants (besides mine) for service that needed a new CVT. He told me he hadn’t, but reminded me that I had the first delivered, highest mileage 2020 Ascent that he knew of sold and serviced by this particular dealership. He told me that their shop manager/tech called other known techs that he knows of at other dealerships as well as Subaru of America, and all parties he contacted confirmed that this vibration/vibration/spray is more hard, 90 degrees, low. -The gearshifts are really a failure of the clutch within the CVT and that the failures in the returned units that only involved replacing the clutch and subsequent testing were not a long term fix…the CVT as a whole needs to be replaced. I buy brand new vehicles and keep/drive my vehicles somewhere between 250,000 – 300,000 miles. I have never replaced a transmission in any vehicle I have ever owned with less than 160,000 miles on the odometer. I asked the service advisor what it would cost me out of pocket, total parts and labor, if I were to pay for this CVT replacement. He said “almost $10,000”. CVTs have fewer components/parts than a conventional automatic transmission and cost LESS to manufacture. Honestly, I find that to be a crazy amount of money for a non-luxury brand vehicle. I’ve called/emailed/written Subaru of America to see what, if anything, they will do/will do to extend the engine warranty beyond the conventional parts department warranty, frankly, as far as I drive , that would only give me about a year of warranty coverage on the new CVT. If my thinking is flawed, please help me understand, but also an extension of the powertrain warranty to 100,000 miles, which I doubt they might agree to do eventually if they did it for the 2019 Ascensions that were part of the attraction, it is essentially an admission. that the “stronger” CVT transmission installed in the Ascent is a product that has a “life” of 50,000 – 60,000 miles. Then I have to decide how soon I’m going to sell my Ascent and buy something else more reliable in the transmission department because I’m not going to spend $10,000 on a replacement CVT every 50,000 miles or so and drive it 250,000 miles as I am used to. doing. I paid $43,500 plus tax, tag fee and DOC to buy it. Somehow it doesn’t make sense to me to pay $40,000 for replacement transmissions over what I assumed was the reasonable expected service life of this vehicle, given Subaru’s reputation for longevity and durability. Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed. I am not an early adopter of new technology. I let other early adopters work out a product’s bugs before I buy it. 12 years of CVT on other Subaru models is enough. I’ve seen Nissan solve its early CVT problems with refinements and improvements, and they seem to have things optimized and reliable. We also own a 2020 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring, equipped with a CVT. Again, it seems that the number of years of using CVTs at Honda has produced a reliable and time-tested transmission. Interestingly, however, in their larger/heavier vehicles, Honda still equips them with a conventional automatic transmission. A 2020 Honda Pilot Touring Elite was a close contender for us to buy instead of the Subaru Ascent. I made the final decision to choose our first Subaru. I hope I won’t regret the purchase decision. A 100,000 mile extension of my powertrain warranty (to 150,000 miles from 60,000 miles) would make me feel confident that Subaru believes in the future of this CVT in this vehicle platform. A 50,000 mile extension to my powertrain warranty (to 100,000 miles from 60,000 miles) I anticipate will do little to encourage me to keep this vehicle. That’s too bad really, because apart from the CVT, it has met and/or exceeded my expectations and I really feel like it’s the best vehicle in its segment at this price point, as well as more high on luxury brands. It’s a great value for under $50,000.
