[MUSIC PLAYING]
MARK TAKAHASHI: If you have a growing family,
there's a really good chance you're looking
at mid-sized three row SUVs.
Subaru got back into the segment with this, the Ascent.
It's a strong choice in a very competitive class.
But it's not our top pick.
The Ascent maintains Subaru's tradition
of letting outward bound families
get off the beaten path.
We're here to show you where it shines,
as well as where it could use a little improvement
against our favorite, the Kia Telluride.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ELANA SCHERR: Oh, man, I thought I was your favorite.
MARK TAKAHASHI: On paper, both SUVs are very similar.
Both start right at $33,000 and remain comparably priced
up to these top trims, that cost about $45 grand before options.
The Telluride Grand is estimated at 21 miles per gallon,
barely edged out by the Ascent's 22 miles per gallon.
Both have a long list of advanced safety features
and get similarly high safety scores from NHTSA and IIHS too.
ELANA SCHERR: The Telluride has a horsepower advantage,
but the Ascent has more torque.
So we'll call that basically even.
That's confirmed by our test results,
where the Ascent was a tenth quicker to 60 miles per hour,
but the Telluride crossed the quarter mile 3/10 ahead.
If you're concerned about towing,
well, that is dead even between them, at 5,000 pounds,
when properly equipped.
MARK TAKAHASHI: Here at Edmunds, we
test over 300 vehicles a year at our private test track,
as well as real world evaluations on public roads.
As close as these vehicle specs are to each other,
you'd expect them to be tied for first place in our rankings.
Instead, the Ascent trails in a number
of areas, which are best demonstrated
with more than graphics.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Elana, we spent a lot of time with both vehicles.
What do you think of the Ascent?
ELANA SCHERR: Well, I am a Subaru fan.
I just, I've always liked the brand.
I think it has a good vibe, and I can picture the engineers
really wanting people to go out in their cars and have fun.
The Ascent is a turbo four instead of the more classic
six.
But it is not slow or underpowered.
I would say maybe that it's a little, is unrefined fair?
MARK TAKAHASHI: That's a fair statement.
ELANA SCHERR: Yeah.
In fairness, it's only compared to the Telluride,
which is smooth.
MARK TAKAHASHI: Agreed, totally.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ELANA SCHERR: I kind of liked the Subaru's rugged ride
quality, but I know that you, fancy Mark, had some quibbles.
MARK TAKAHASHI: I wish there was a little more extension
from that steering column, because as it is,
I have to slide my seat just a little
further forward than I prefer.
Then there are the seats themselves.
They're oddly cushioned.
A little too squishy on top.
And oddly, too firm below that.
The biggest difference between the two though is noise.
You hear a lot more road and engine noise in the Subaru
than you do with the Kia.
[ENGINE RACING]
ELANA SCHERR: That's what the radio's
for, you just turn it up.
MARK TAKAHASHI: Fair enough.
ELANA SCHERR: I mean, speaking of infotainment.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I really liked the dual screen setup in the Ascent.
I mean, I like the way that it looked.
Usability, on the other hand, it's not great.
Controls are all over the place.
I mean, there's like controls on the ceiling,
and it is not intuitive at all.
MARK TAKAHASHI: The Telluride's infotainment
gets high marks for its inclusion of Apple CarPlay
and Android Auto.
We also like that it has plenty of USB ports
that are well-placed.
The screen resolution is very sharp,
and its responses are very quick.
Furthermore, the menus are logically
laid out and easy to use without ever
having to consult a manual.
ELANA SCHERR: A bigger complaint might
be that compared to the Telluride,
the Ascent is a big three-row SUV,
but it doesn't have that much space.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Like the backseat, the third row,
you cannot put adults back there.
And really, it's not that comfortable for kids either.
It's also a little bit difficult to get those seats up and down.
It's like a multi-step process.
So again, little stuff that just makes it slightly less useful.
MARK TAKAHASHI: The good thing, though,
is that the Ascent has 19 cup holders, which
Subaru was so proud to tout when they introduced it.
Now that seems a little excessive
for a vehicle that can only seat eight passengers,
but those cup holders are grouped together
so you can put much larger objects in them.
ELANA SCHERR: Yeah, I did actually
think that the Subaru had better small item
storage than the Telluride.
MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah, marginally.
Now none of these drawbacks for the Subaru
are so critical that we consider them deal breakers.
Collectively though, they subtract just enough points
to drop it down to seventh place in our rankings.
ELANA SCHERR: It's kind of a death by 1,000 cuts thing.
MARK TAKAHASHI: Yeah, totally agree.
ELANA SCHERR: Especially when the Telluride just
keeps pulling ahead in rankings, no matter what we
compare it to.
I mean, some of that is that it has like a longer
warranty and more cargo space.
Compared to the Ascent, the Telluride
has 3.4 cubic feet more cargo room,
which is about the size of a medium suitcase
or like a Cocker Spaniel, depending on how
it is that you measure size.
You know which one I would pick.
MARK TAKAHASHI: Yes, I do, The suitcase.
ELANA SCHERR: And this is subjective, but style-wise,
inside and out, the Telluride looks great.
The materials look really expensive.
And outside, it's just the perfect mix
of kind of like elegance and truckiness, so it looks tough,
but it also looks fancy.
I just took it on a road trip and never in all my years
of driving have I ever got a thumbs up from someone
on the highway while driving an SUV.
It happened twice in the Telluride.
At one point, I pulled into a racetrack
and the security guard was like, what is it.
And he wanted to look at it, and I had to open the windows
and let him look inside.
And to quote him after he had checked it out,
Kia is stepping it up.
MARK TAKAHASHI: Well, it makes perfect sense
that the Telluride had a waiting list for shoppers
for its first year of production.
As close as the performance specs
are between the Subaru and the Kia,
the Telluride simply is a better SUV to drive.
It gathers speed more smoothly.
That standard V6 sounds great doing it too.
ELANA SCHERR: Yeah, it is little things,
but they all add up to make the Kia feel really special.
And you add that to the fact that it will also
do all the day-to-day business things that you need it to do,
and you have just a really great vehicle.
MARK TAKAHASHI: Agreed.
It's abundantly clear that the Kia Telluride deserves
its top spot among SUVs.
For the same price as rivals, it exceeds expectations.
The Ascent, on the other hand, meets expectations,
but it is a big step in the right direction.
Even if the Telluride didn't exist,
it would still have to contend with the likes of the Honda
Pilot, the Hyundai Palisade, the Volkswagen Atlas and the Mazda
CX9, all of which got higher Edmunds rankings.
ELANA SCHERR: Yeah, this is a busy segment,
which makes it that much more impressive
that the Telluride came in and went straight to the top.
MARK TAKAHASHI: Indeed.
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
For more information on the Ascent or the Telluride,
head on over to edmunds.com.
That's edmunds.
ELANA SCHERR: Dot com.