I took my vehicle in for regular maintenance (oil change, and tire rotation). I picked it up late but noticed it was driving funny. I called them the very next morning and was told to bring it in. The technician off the bat said the issue was the CVT. I left it overnight for a diagnostic service to be told the following day that it is the CVT and that the extension warranty no longer exists. My truck is one week shy of five years and now the CVT acts up. I was quoted a price of basically $13,000.00($9,973 for transmission,$999.00 for labor and another $2,000.00 for oil, etc. I was also told (off the record) that the engines and CVT's are too small for the Ascent and that they are for the smaller SUV's. The fact that they know the CVT has been an issue should make anyone that brings the vehicle in with that issue should be covered. Especially since they won't do a mass recall. I bought and fell in love with my truck, based on massive word of mouth stating Subaru's are great vehicles. This is so disheartening. I still have a year to pay it off on top of all of this.

CVT slips after a cold start for the first mile or 2 while warming up. It also slips consistently going up a medium or steeper hill grade. Engine revs up about 2,000 rpm higher than where it was. If you try to accelerate through it, the transmission stumbles before figuring out what gear it's supposed to be in. You can use the paddle shifters but that is not a fix for the problem.

I spoke with Subaru dealer service rep and they said it needed to be broken in (yeah right!) and see how it is doing at the 6K service. Well the 6K service is next week, and today I went out to run some errands and went to push the starter button and it would not start so now I've got another issue to log. It appears to be a dead battery (or a drain issue). Put it on the charger and will see if it charges back up. So I will wait and see how Subaru responds this time but its looking like this will be my first and last Subaru.

Another thing; when I went to make an appointment for the 6K service, they said it would take over 2 weeks for an appointment, and when I complained he said to just bring it in first thing and they could work it in. So sounds like Subarus are not so reliable after all. Every other new car I have owned in the recent past, I never had to wait more than a day or 2 at the most for a routine service appointment.