Upgraded our Ford Fiesta to a Subaru Ascent

written by Kara Humphrey

Where do you envision yourself, and your family during the life of your financing terms? I purchased the Fiesta after college before staring my first adult job… because it was affordable. But once it was paid off after 72 months, we were a family of three and hoping for more.

I know what you’re thinking, those aren’t even comparisons worth making. But there’s a lesson to be learned and shared here that I didn’t even consider prior to finding Kelly’s page. Where do you envision yourself, and your family during the life of your financing terms? I purchased the Fiesta after college before staring my first adult job… because it was affordable. But once it was paid off after 72 months, we were a family of three and hoping for more. It was not going to work for us much longer and we were not going to be enjoying that car-payment-free life for long. Enter our *2021 Subaru Ascent Limit*.

This wasn’t our first Subaru. We were also on our second Subaru Outback lease and loved the brand for their reliability, safety features, and standard AWD. Living in the PNW where we have inclement weather during winter, these are all top priorities for us in a car. We were trying to locate a Kia Carnival, but only the base model was available on the west coast and I was not going to be paying over MSRP and to not have a power tailgate.

Here are some more things we absolutely love in our Ascent:

Panoramic sunroof. This requires no explanation. The glass and shade are all one-touch power and I adore hearing our 2 year old say, “Sky!”
Driver’s command center. To the left of the steering wheel are are cluster of buttons. My favorites being the power tailgate and one-touch lighting. I thought I would loose the ability to turn on the rear lights with the sunroof taking that space, but lo and behold there is a convenient button to turn all the cabin lights on and off. It’s useful during an evening drive when I can’t see our rear facing kiddo and I want to check on her.
Steering responsive headlights. These are such a cool feature where the lights will turn with you. It’s gives you a look at where you’re going a few more seconds before the car is there and are so fun to watch move.
Subaru STARLINK. The subscription to STARLINK gives me so much peace of mind. You can remotely start your car with climate settings to your liking, lock/unlock and locate where it’s parked, all in the app on your phone. Not only that, but there are emergency buttons in the car if you need assistance and will automatically get you help if your airbags deploy. On top of all that, I recently found out that if your car is stolen and parked somewhere, STARLINK gives Subaru the ability to completely disable the car until it’s been recovered by law enforcement, even if the theft has the key! This is only a few of the things it’s capable of that had me sold.

In terms of storage, the car has just what we need with room to grow.

Center console. It’s large enough for all the goods. And yes, Kelly, I separate my coins because #TypeAOrganized
Glove compartment. Standard sized. Easily fits my car vacuum and other necessities.
Cup holders. I’ll admit, there are 19 but several are good for nothing. However, some of the small ones fit car trash cans snugly that are perfect for collecting wrappers and trash from ending up on the floor.
Trunk. With the third row up it easily fits my single Thule Spring stroller OR two large folding crates for groceries. The under storage is where I keep the necessities: change of clothes, ice scraper, car manual, portable potty and more grocery bags. The cargo cover is only good for when the third row is down, but I love that it stores neatly in the trunk.

Lastly, in terms of car seats, our Diono Radian 3RXT with an angle adjuster fits behind me (5’8”) in the drivers seat with a couple inches to spare. Now, I don’t think these are a perfect car seat-car pair because it doesn’t give my husband (6’2”) a ton of space when it’s behind him. I believe that this is specific to this car seat as we have no issue with our Graco Extend2Fit rear facing behind him in our Subaru Outback.

Can you tell from my car storage I’ve been influenced by the car mom?