2020 Subaru Ascent

My Subaru 2020 with 16,000 miles stalled in the middle of driving down the road in Town, I was driving 35 mph when out of nowhere the car stalled. I was able to coast/turn on to a side street. I’m lucky the car had enough momentum to keep going or we would have been hit by traffic as the street we were on is a busy road. The car flashed all the lights when it stalled and refused to crank over, it was low on gas so I called AAA and they brought 5 gallons of gasoline and filled it. The technician then tried to get the vehicle to start but it wouldn’t. Luckily he offered to tow it to my house for free. I have tried multiple times to get the vehicle to start and it wont. It cranks but doesn’t actually move. I don’t know what’s wrong and now I have to have it towed to the the local dealership. This is the second major issue that has happened. The first one was that the transmission failed and with my car having a branded title for being stolen/recovery. Subaru would not replace the transmission at 7,600 miles and I had to find a used one to replace it with. I now just got the recall letter and have messaged Subaru about it.

During a camping trip the battery died when the tailgate was left open. Second battery incident: Went to go start my car after not driving for 6 days, battery was dead. No lights, doors, or hatch was on or open. After using a trickle charger I recharged the battery and was able to start the car after 4 hours of charging. After the car sat for one day the engine did turn over, but it sounded like it took a bit of extra effort for the starter to get the engine going. Third battery incident: I went to start my car again after it was parked for 5 days and the battery was dead again. I used the trickle charger again and was able to charge the battery to over 80%. The next day I took the car in for a service to investigate why the battery was draining to dead after not driving for days. The service department was unable to determine a cause of the issue. The battery was in good condition and was in the green on the grading scale.

Battery randomly failed on 1/5/22. Had it jumped, kept it on for an hour. When I went to start the car on 1/6/22 the battery is dead again. 7,000 miles on the car, no signs of any issue prior to the failure. My safety was at risk because it was freezing outside. I attempted to contact subaru's roadside assistance per their 3 year 36K mile warranty but when calling the automated message said there are significant delays in call times and to submit the issue online. I tried submitting online but the online submittal process was not working. I ended up having it jumped through my insurer, though now I have to figure out how to get a new battery. I saw where Subaru 2020 ascent OEM batteries are part of a class action, so probably going to avoid taking it to the dealer for a replacement.

When packing the car for a trip, if any of the doors are left open for a period of 15 minutes to 20 minutes the battery will drain. I am unable to start the car. This has happened three times. I have mentioned this to the dealer who remarked that I am not driving the car enough to keep the battery charged. On one occasion it happened after driving for over three hours (148) miles.

The rear liftgate on our 2020 Subaru Ascent opened on its own during the night of 12/18/21, resulting in a drained battery. The tech dispatched by Subaru roadside assistance stated that there is a software problem resulting in these doors falsly detecting an obstruction and opening the liftgate, which results in a drained battery. The Subaru dealer stated that they could not replicate the problem and did nothing about it. Several days later on 12/23/21, the battery failed again. The tech dispatched by Subaru jumpstarted the car, but noted that the battery was producing only 8 volts of power.

The care continues to drain power resulting in dead battery. We have had continuous issues since purchasing the vehicle. The Dealer even installed a higher quality battery and due to Subaru admitting tot the problem. However this has not resolved the issue. The vehicle has been inspected multiple times at a factory dealer. We can't be in and out of the care while parked for 45 minutes. Subaru markets the vehicles for camping and recreation vehicles, but the vehicle is useless in these scenarios. Furthermore, there is great potential now in the winter session that we could become stranded in the vehicle. Also note that with a dead battery the rear hatch is in operable. The manual release is not easy to get to.