In-car Electronics
CD or DVD players, radio, speakers, GPS, communication system (e.g., OnStar), display screen freezes or goes blank, phone pairing (e.g. Bluetooth), voice control commands, steering wheel controls, portable music device interface (e.g., iPod/MP3 player), backup or other camera/sensors.
What Owners Say
"I keep having to buy new power cords in order for my phone to sync with the car. Annoying. I've told the dealer however they didn't see the problem. So I just keep buying new power cords"
Anonymous, (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"The camera is lighted. The light doesn't come on until about 30 seconds after putting car in reverse. This only happens from a cold start."
Anonymous, TX (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Started from purchase. Occasionally the screen goes dark when backing up."
Anonymous, CA (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"My self copied CD got stuck in CD player. Dealer said warranty only covered prerecorded CDs. They said car might be non functioning if repaired because radio would need to be removed and shipped somewhere. Recommended I go to car radio place in town. Either way warranty apparently has small print about using CD that is not prerecorded. It also does not cover “courses in tape” CD."
Dana W., IA (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"No sound on radio or microphone. You can see radio stations and move about the display. There is a X through the speaker icon. It resets itself after being turned off for at least 15 minutes. A quick turn off and turn on does not reset the display."
Anonymous, MI (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Turning off the car and then restarting resolved it"
Anonymous, IL (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"The sound system display would occasionally reset causing me to reenter certain settings. It seems to be working now."
Anonymous, (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"It was a problem that could not be fixed. Subaru replaced the entire component for free"
Anonymous, (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"After clicking on CarPlay, (with the phone plugged into the phone, often times I will be listening to a recorded book on my phone, and the CarPlay media switches over to Pandora. if I close the Pandora app and open my book app, repeatedly CarPlay switches me back to Pandora. Very frustrating. Technician said they didn't notice this was a problem with my Accent."
Anonymous, OR (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Blue Tooth will act crazy and disconnect my iPhone Spotify until a hard reset done by restarting car"
Anonymous, FL (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"The car will often connect to my phone and start playing random items when I have not opted to play from the device. On the flip side, when I do try to connect and play something specific it either won't or disconnect. I often cannot get the phone to connect to answer an incoming call."
Anonymous, (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Main radio unit has failed twice. Original problem started eight months ago. Vehicle went in several times and they finally replaced unit. Rinse, lather, repeat."
Anonymous, OH (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"I was unable to connect my phone and had issues getting android auto to work. The head unit was replaced and it resolved the problem"
Anonymous, IL (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"If I manually input a destination address in the Chicago & suburbs area it recognizes the address, but cannot calculate a route to that address. If I give it a verbal command to go to the same address it is able to recognize the address and complete the route calculation."
Gerald S., WI (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Inaccurate navigational information. No timely, accurate map updates."
Anonymous, OH (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Not abel to locate addresses in a specific area when manually typed into the system, but can locate them when using voice command."
Anonymous, WI (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Stopped working, replaced by Subaru"
Anonymous, IL (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Pairing doesn't last - works for a while then I have to re-pair."
Anonymous, AZ (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Lost pairing a few times. Once had to totally reset the pairing. At other times, it came back eventually on its' own."
Anonymous, NY (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Unable to download phone contacts"
Anonymous, (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"only partially paired with the phone. Dropped contacts and recent calls."
Anonymous, VA (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"I tried once to pair the phone when we first had the car and couldn't Bluetooth to do it, so when we want to use the phone we have to use a USB cable."
Anonymous, MA (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"When the car was new we could not pair our older flip phone with the vehicle. We finally replaced the flip phone with a newer I-phone."
Anonymous, CA (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Twice now it has just stopped working, no radio. The only thing you can get to play is the XM radio on the advertisement channel. We are not subscribers to XM. Tried stopping and restarting the car with no luck. The next day it started to work again both times."
John K., MN (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Actually minor; the pre-sets disappear. Subaru states they are aware and are working the issue. And the radio sounds like it is a 1960's vintage radio."
Ralph H., (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"The starlink Head unit quit playing all sound. Radio, phone, cd, navigation, hands free voice commands, whatever. Dealership updated the software, but that didn’t fix it. Now they want me to come back so they can install a new head unit and amplifier (this comes with the. Harmon Kardan system). I don’t think this will fix the problem, as a quick internet search shows this. To be a very widespread problem.with Subaru vehicles. Anyway, I read on one forum that pulling the radio fuse would clear the issue, so I tried it and it worked. This is not an acceptable long term fix, but at least I have radio until my next service appointment. Also, the dealership uses a third party answering service for their service department so you don’t ever actually speak with an employee in the service department when you call them. Problem is, after you leave your name and number, no one ever calls you back to make an appointment."
Matthew E., GA (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"It doesn't remember the preset stations."
Anonymous, NJ (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Radio would delete my phone contacts, it did it several times. The head unit was replaced and it had the same problem although it didn't do it as often."
Anonymous, (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"The problem with the radio began on Nov. 15, 2019. I tried to correct the problem and finally called the dealership on Nov. 18, received an appointment for Nov. 22nd. I told the technician the radio acts like it is starting but just shows initialization, does that over and over with no sound and the buttons do not work. The dealership had to replace the audio unit and the radio assembly according to the paperwork they handed me when they returned the vehicle."
Anonymous, IL (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Radio just stopped working. No sound. Then it would work fine. Then stopped again. No rhyme or reason."
Anonymous, TX (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"radio quit several times while driving. i returned after the car was turned off and started up again. this was corrected by the dealer with a programming up date. the biggest problem was that the car was delivered with a bad battery and it quit five times over an eight month period, each requiring emergency attention to get started again. i told the dealer service what was wrong after the first event but the aggravation continued for many more months and they finally agreed to replace the battery."
Anonymous, WA (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"It was very difficult to preform a routine software update the first time. We talked to the dealership and they gave us some additional information to help with future upgrades."
Anonymous, CA (2019 Subaru Ascent Touring 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"The rear hatch had to be reset because it quit working"
Anonymous, TN (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"SIRIUS Radio kept dropping out stations after being set to hod them"
Randall L., OR (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"The power steering electronics malfunctionrd so that power steering. They had to replace "I think they called it the rack. Car was operating fine when I parked the car. When I came back warning lights came on and the power steering was not functioning. Had to call a tow."
Anonymous, IA (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)"Voice command controls seem never to work. When using navigation while driving, it defaults to voice command. It never works, freezes up, and in one instance rendered the radio and navigation inoperable on a long distance trip. Eventually, after shutting off the car, it reset itself, but voice command seems never to work."
Anonymous, NY (2019 Subaru Ascent Premium 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)
"The navigation system refused to pair with Android Auto and Waze at all until the service manager changed a setting. But in general there is just about no guidance about how to use Android Auto or any app with the in-car system leaving us lost when something doesn't work and unable to take advantage of having the system."
Anonymous, MA (2019 Subaru Ascent Limited 2.4-L 4 Cyl turbo)