As to the genuineness of the leather in the Ascent, I couldn’t be sure. I presume it is at least in part a natural product, but it doesn’t much matter to me whether it’s genuine cow hide or 100% vinyl. It feels pretty good to us and it meets our needs of: easy to clean, easy to maintain, and doesn’t stick to clothing (cloth generally fails all of the above…at least traditional cloth fabrics do).
Fuel economy you get with the Ascent will, generally, be highly dependent on where and how you drive. If you live in “the city” with a lot of stop and go, then you’ll probably not achieve the 20 mpg EPA estimate. If you live in a more suburban or rural area where average speeds are higher and you’re not always encountering stop signs, then you’ll probably achieve better than the 20 mpg EPA estimate. We get 21-22 mpg “in town” with ours, but we’re in a semi-rural setting. If we sat at stoplights all day, then our mileage would be much worse.
I think Subaru’s AWD is the best you’ll find out there.
I consider this mostly unbiased, as this is the first Subaru we’ve owned. I’ve had two Toyotas before and I generally like their engineering and product design. The Highlander didn’t work for us due to interior room and layout and styling. The price of entry is also quite high. We got a ton of vehicle for the money in the Ascent, and we’ve been very satisfied so far.
