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2026 Subaru Ascent

Gas

Standard Sport Utility Vehicle 4WD
2 EPA-rated configurations
Data refreshed 2026-10-26

Safety Signal

97 / 100 from the NHTSA recall record

RecallsNHTSA campaigns 1

Complaintsnone reporting a crash, fire or injury 3

Crash ratingNHTSA overall 5★

Fuel economybest combined, EPA 22 mpg

Starting MSRP7 trims · manufacturer $40,795

2027 2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019

The 2026 Subaru Ascent is sold in the U.S. as a gas large SUV with 2 EPA-rated configurations. The most efficient version, the Ascent, is EPA-rated at 22 mpg combined. NHTSA lists 1 recall campaign for this model year, which gives it a Safety Signal grade of A. Owners have filed 3 complaints, most often about the service brakes. NHTSA crash-tested it at 5 stars overall. Manufacturer pricing runs from $40,795 to $51,995 across 7 trims.

Subaru Ascent — photograph via Wikimedia Commons — Subaru Ascent · Photo: Ethan Llamas · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Trims & pricing

Source: manufacturer press kitWhich trim should I buy? → Compare a trim →

Trim	Powertrain	Drive	MSRP	HP	Torque	Seats	Cargo (2nd row)	Wheels
Premium 8-passenger	Gas	AWD	$40,795	260 hp	277 lb-ft	8	43.5 cu-ft	18 in
Premium 7-passenger	Gas	AWD	$40,795	260 hp	277 lb-ft	7	43.5 cu-ft	18 in
Limited 8-passenger	Gas	AWD	$47,885	260 hp	277 lb-ft	8	43.5 cu-ft	20 in
Limited 7-passenger	Gas	AWD	$47,885	260 hp	277 lb-ft	7	43.5 cu-ft	20 in
Limited Bronze Edition 7-passenger	Gas	AWD	$48,995	260 hp	277 lb-ft	7	43.5 cu-ft	20 in
Touring 7-passenger	Gas	AWD	$51,165	260 hp	277 lb-ft	7	43.5 cu-ft	20 in
Onyx Edition Touring 7-passenger	Gas	AWD	$51,995	260 hp	277 lb-ft	7	43.5 cu-ft	20 in

MSRP excludes destination. Open a trim for the complete spec sheet and standard/optional equipment. Have the car in front of you? Decode its VIN to see which of these trims it is and what it was priced at.

Specs & fuel economy

Source: EPA fueleconomy.gov

Configuration	Powertrain	Drive	Engine / motor	City	Hwy	Comb	Annual fuel*
Ascent	Gas	AWD	2.4L 4-cyl turbo	19	26	22	$3,050
Ascent Limited/Touring/Onyx AWD	Gas	AWD	2.4L 4-cyl turbo	19	25	21	$3,200

*EPA estimate at 15,000 miles/year at EPA reference fuel and electricity prices. fueleconomy.gov record ids: 50021, 50022.

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Recalls (1)

Source: NHTSA recall database

○minor

Equipment

WRH-26

541,237 vehicles

Problem Subaru of America, Inc. (Subaru) is recalling certain 2026 Crosstrek Hybrid, 2025-2026 Forester Hybrid, Forester, and 2019-2026 Ascent vehicles. These vehicles were manufactured with an incorrect Gross Axle Weight Rating (GAWR) on the certification label. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 110, "Tire selection and rims." Risk An incorrect GAWR label may lead to an overloaded vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash. Fix Subaru will mail a new certification label to owners, free of charge. Owners may also choose to have a dealer install the new label, free of charge. Letters informing owners of the safety risk were mailed August 27, 2026. Additional letters will be mailed once the remedy is available. Owners may contact Subaru customer service at 1-844-373-6614. Subaru's number for this recall is WRH-26.

Filed with NHTSADefect report PDF Interim owner letter PDF Remedy instructions PDF Dealer notice PDF

NHTSA campaign 26V436000 reported Jul 7, 2026 Subaru of America, Inc. the full filing, and every vehicle covered →

These are vehicle campaigns — the ones the automaker filed against this model. NHTSA also records equipment recalls, filed by a parts maker against a component (a tyre, a child seat, an aftermarket part), and those are not listed here or counted above. nhtsa.gov/recalls shows both for a VIN.

Whether any of this applies to one specific Ascent

A campaign covers a build range, not a model year, so two identical-looking cars from 2026 can differ. Both of these check a VIN against the manufacturer’s own list, free, in about ten seconds. Subaru publishes its own lookup because federal rule 49 CFR 573.15 requires it to, and to keep it current to within seven days.

NHTSA VIN check →Subaru’s own VIN lookup →

Hear about a recall before the letter does

The manufacturer’s letter is the last step of a recall: it has up to 60 days after filing to mail owners, at the address on the registration. We email you the day NHTSA posts a recall on the 2026 Subaru Ascent, with what to do next. Nothing else, ever — no newsletter, no marketing, one-click unsubscribe in every message.

Owner complaints

Source: NHTSA complaint database

3complaints filed

0 involved a crash · 0 a fire · 0 injuries · 0 deaths reported

1.3 per 10,000 built · Subaru reported 23,202 Ascent built (its Early Warning production report to NHTSA)

Filed per year: 2026: 3

Most-cited components

Service Brakes 1

Vehicle Speed Control 1

Forward Collision Avoidance 1

Unspecified 1

In owners' own words

Filed with NHTSA by the people who own these cars, one per problem area. Quoted as written, with anything identifying removed.

The contact owns a 2026 Subaru Ascent. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving at highway speeds, the vehicle experienced phantom braking and independently came to an abrupt stop. The vehicle was taken to a dealer to be diagnosed; however, the failure was not duplicated. The manufacturer was notified of the failure.

Forward Collision Avoidance at 2,000 miles Sep 25, 2026 NHTSA owner report · ODI 11766986

The contact owns a 2026 Subaru Accent. The contact stated that there was a failure related to the brake pedal design. The contact stated that there was an approximate one-inch difference in spacing between the brake pedal and the accelerator pedal in previous model vehicles.

Service Brakes at 1,040 miles Mar 20, 2026 NHTSA owner report · ODI 11725906

Complaint counts are raw owner reports to NHTSA, not verified defects, and scale with how many were sold. Use them to spot patterns, not to rank.

Crash ratings

Source: NHTSA NCAP

Configuration	Overall	Frontal	Side	Rollover	Rollover risk
SUV AWD	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★☆	17%

NHTSA New Car Assessment Program. Standard driver-assist: forward collision warning, lane departure warning, automatic emergency braking.

Service bulletins & campaigns

Source: NHTSA manufacturer communications

Communicationsfiled with NHTSA 53

Most recentmanufacturer date 2026-10-05

Kindsas classified by NHTSA 34 service bulletins, 19 others

Most often about: Electrical System, Unknown Or Other, Engine, Power Train, Steering.

11037943 Other
2026-10-05 · Electrical System
This announcement provides information on a new software update for the Midtronics Dss and DCA machines.
09-141-26 Service bulletin
2026-09-29 · Electrical System
This Bulletin provides a diagnostic procedure for customer concerns about hesitation, reduced acceleration, or lack of power when driving uphill or under heavy engine load.
11037942 Other
2026-09-28 · Power Train
This announcement provides information on an enhancement of the TechShare CVT diagnostic assitance application.
13-109-26 Service bulletin
2026-09-18 · Unknown Or Other
This bulletin provides paint code information for 2027 model year vehicles.
11037930 Other
2026-09-15 · Unknown Or Other
This announcement provides an update to all 2027 model year Subaru warranty coverages for wear items and adjustments.
15-333-25R Service bulletin
2026-09-14 · Electrical System
This bulletin contains illustrations of exchange components and their manufacturer as well as a description of the proper exchange procedure. This is an revised version of the original bulletin.
15-304-22R Service bulletin
2026-09-14 · Electrical System
This bulletin has been developed to outline the steps for gathering basic but essential information during diagnosis of Infotainment concerns. This is an revised version of the original bulletin.
12-258-25R Service bulletin
2026-09-04 · Unknown Or Other
This bulletin provides additional examples, diagnostics tips and installation tips as helpful aids to be used when working with sunroof seals and sunroof frame assemblies on Ascent models. This is an revised version of the original bulletin.

A service bulletin is the manufacturer telling its dealers how to diagnose or repair a known condition. It is not a recall, not a finding that the vehicle is defective, and the work is not automatically free — though a bulletin is often what a dealer works from when you describe a symptom, so quoting the document number can save a diagnosis. The count is every communication filed; the list shows the most recent, one entry per campaign, because a single campaign is usually filed as several documents on the same day. The summaries are NHTSA's; the full documents come from the manufacturer.

Diagnostic trouble codes on file

Source: NHTSA manufacturer communications and complaints

Codes documented against this model year in the federal record. A code appearing here does not mean this vehicle will set it — it means the code is part of this nameplate-year's documented history.

Code	What it means	Most often filed under	Where it appears
B2A20	Manufacturer-defined — the meaning is set by the automaker, not the standard.	Electrical System · Battery →	2 bulletins

Generic codes (the second character is 0 or 2) mean the same thing on every vehicle sold in the United States. Manufacturer-specific codes (1 or 3) mean whatever the automaker assigned, and no honest source can define them for you — which is why the ones here carry the evidence instead of a definition. A code is a link when enough separate federal documents name it across the catalogue to be worth a page of its own; the rest are listed here, where the vehicle is the context that makes them mean something.

Ascent by model year

all years, side by side →

Year Safety Recalls Complaints

2027 A^* 0 0 22 mpg 2026 this page A 1 3 22 mpg 2025 A 1 15 22 mpg 2024 A 1 51 22 mpg 2023 C 4 45 22 mpg 2022 B 2 56 Park outside 2021 B 2 103 Park outside 2020 D 5 324 Park outside 2019 F 9 443 Park outside

Common questions about the 2026 Ascent

Source: EPA, NHTSA and manufacturer press kits

How much does the 2026 Subaru Ascent cost?

Manufacturer pricing runs from $40,795 for the Premium 8-passenger AWD to $51,995 for the Onyx Edition Touring 7-passenger AWD, across 7 trims. Those are MSRPs from the manufacturer's own press material; they exclude destination, options, taxes and whatever the dealer adds. Every trim and price is listed above.

Does the 2026 Subaru Ascent have any recalls?

NHTSA has posted 1 recall campaign for the 2026 Subaru Ascent. The most serious on file is 26V436000, covering Equipment. 1 of them was filed with no repair available at the time — NHTSA's file records what the manufacturer had in hand on the filing date, not what exists today. Check your own VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls; a recall applies to specific build ranges, not every car.

How safe is the 2026 Subaru Ascent?

NHTSA gave the 2026 Subaru Ascent 5 stars overall in its New Car Assessment Program tests — 5-star frontal crash, 5-star side crash, 4-star rollover. WhichTrim also grades it A (97/100) on its recall record, which is a different question from crash protection.

What is the fuel economy of the 2026 Subaru Ascent?

Across the 2 EPA-rated configurations of the 2026 Subaru Ascent, the best EPA combined figure is 22 mpg. Figures are the EPA's own, per configuration, and every one is listed above.

What do owners complain about on the 2026 Subaru Ascent?

Owners have filed 3 complaints with NHTSA about the 2026 Subaru Ascent, most often about service brakes, vehicle speed control, forward collision avoidance. Complaints are unverified owner reports, so treat the pattern as a signal and the individual report as an anecdote.

Are there service bulletins for the 2026 Subaru Ascent?

The manufacturer has filed 53 service bulletins and related communications with NHTSA for the 2026 Subaru Ascent, most often covering electrical system, unknown or other, engine. The most recent is dated 2026-10-05. A bulletin is not a recall: it is the repair procedure a manufacturer sends its dealers for a condition it knows about, and the work is not automatically paid for. It is still worth knowing — if the symptom matches, quoting the bulletin number at the service desk can save a diagnosis. The document numbers and summaries are listed above.

Which 2026 Subaru Ascent trim is the best value?

$11,200 separates the cheapest of the 7 trims from the most expensive, so the answer depends on which of the differences you would actually use. Every trim has its own page here with the manufacturer's full specification and equipment list, plus a short summary of exactly what it adds over the base trim — worth reading before a dealer frames the walk-up for you. The trim-by-trim ladder shows what every step up costs and what it makes standard.

What we hold, and what an empty row means

Paid vehicle-history reports will not tell you the difference between “nothing happened to this car” and “we never received that record” — both of the big two say as much in their own help pages. Most of what is on this page comes from complete federal registers, so we can tell you which is which, row by row.

Data	Held	Source	What it covers — or what empty means
Fuel economy & configurations	2 configurations	EPA certification records	Every configuration the EPA certified for sale, with its own test figures.
Emission certificates	none	EPA emission certificates	The EPA published no certificate we could match to a configuration on this page.
Recalls	1	NHTSA recall campaigns	A complete federal register: every campaign covering this model year, with severity and advisory flags.
Owner complaints	3	NHTSA complaint database	Also complete, but unverified: these are reports owners filed, not findings. Counts scale with how many were sold.
Crash ratings	1 tested	NHTSA NCAP	Only the configurations NHTSA chose to crash-test, which is never all of them.
Service bulletins	53	NHTSA manufacturer communications	Everything the manufacturer told its dealers about a defect or malfunction, short of a recall.
Investigations	none	NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation	No defect investigation has been opened.
Driver-assist crash reports	none	NHTSA Standing General Order 2021-01	No report has been filed. Only entities named in the order report, and only crashes they hear of — so this is also what an unequipped car, or a manufacturer without telematics, looks like.
Specifications filed with NHTSA	none	NHTSA vPIC, decoded from VIN patterns	We had no VIN pattern to decode for this model year, or the manufacturer filed nothing usable.
Trims, pricing & equipment	7 trims	Manufacturer press kit	Transcribed from the manufacturer's own press material, every value carrying the document it came from.

Rebuilt nightly; this page was generated 2026-10-26. Every figure above is traceable to the source named beside it, and the JSON for this page carries the same values with their identifiers.

Sources & method

Safety Signal starts every model-year at 100 and subtracts points per open NHTSA recall campaign by severity: critical 15 (fire risk, park-outside or do-not-drive advisories), high 8 (brakes, steering, airbags, loss of drive power, structure, battery), moderate 6, minor 3 (software, labels, lighting fixed by an update). The most serious recall counts in full and each further one counts 85% of the one before, because a vehicle sold in millions is recalled more often than a rare one without being more dangerous — and because a flat subtraction bottomed the scale out, scoring a vehicle with 22 recalls within a point of one with six. A ≥ 90, B ≥ 80, C ≥ 70, D ≥ 60, otherwise F. Read it as what it counts: recall campaigns on the federal record, weighted by severity. The damping reduces the sales bias by roughly 40% but does not remove it: like our complaint counts, this is not normalized by how many were sold, so a best-seller still scores somewhat worse than an obscure model with the same real risk. NHTSA crash ratings, do-not-drive and park-outside advisories, and the crash, fire, injury and death counts in owner complaints are reported separately on every page and never blended into the letter — a vehicle can hold five stars and a poor letter at once, and where that happens we say so rather than leave you to notice. Because the scale subtracts from a clean sheet, a model year too new to have been recalled, complained about or bulletined scores full marks on an empty record; we label those grades provisional rather than present them as earned.

EPA figures come from fueleconomy.gov vehicle records. Recalls, complaints, investigations and crash ratings come from NHTSA's public flat files, refreshed nightly. Trim-level specifications and pricing are transcribed from the manufacturer's official press kit; every value carries its source in the data file.

JSON for this page · API