Can you believe it’s been nine years since we first saw the Subaru Ascent? That’s a long time for one generation of something as important as a three-row crossover, so it’s about time Subaru introduced a new one. Here it is, it’s called the Getaway, and it looks deeply familiar for a reason.
It’s no secret that Subaru and Toyota have been in a tryst of sorts. From the wonderful, affordable sports car that is the BRZ and GR86 to an electric wagon, the line between “Symmetrical All-Wheel-Drive” and “Oh, What A Feeling” has grown thinner and hazier over the past decade or so. A few months ago, Toyota revealed the new Highlander, which is electric. This is Subaru’s version of that.
The big aesthetic difference is, of course, the nose. Subaru’s gone with a bluff front end instead of Toyota’s sharky face. The centerpiece is, unfortunately, an illuminated Subaru emblem standard on all models. How gauche. Look past Rudolph’s nose, however, and you’ll find quite a lot of interchange with the Toyota Highlander, including the greenhouse, the quarter panels, the doors, and even the same recessed door handles with mechanical emergency releases. This should make backyard body repairs cheaper in 15 years’ time when your youngest child ends up scraping a door on the frame of your garage door, but the result in the meantime might be too much similarity. Still, there is one big way in which the Getaway is different from the Highlander.
While the Highlander features a maximum output of 338 horsepower, the Getaway initially comes standard with a whole lot more. I’m talking 420 horsepower from dual electric motors, which Subaru claims is good enough to fling this three-row crossover from zero-to-60 mph in fewer than five seconds. Just make sure the family dog isn’t loose in the cargo hold when you bury the skinny pedal. Range doesn’t seem to take a big hit either, with Subaru still touting more than 300 miles from a charge from a 95.8 kWh battery pack. You know, the same size of battery pack as the one in top-spec Highlanders. Of course, a smaller 77 kWh battery pack is expected to come online in 2027 as a base offering, matching the base pack in the Highlander.
Inside the Getaway, it looks pretty much identical to the cabin of the new Highlander. We’re talking the same shifter, air vents, dashboard, 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster screen, and 14-inch infotainment touchscreen. It’s a bit sparse on physical buttons, but it looks to have plenty of interior storage and some nice amenities. Top-spec Getaways get a heated third row, ventilated second-row seats, a huge slab of glass for a moonroof, and the same sort of seat-mounted USB-C charging ports seen in various Kias. It’s a great idea, why not use it?
Regardless, I can’t help but wonder what the future will actually be like for Subaru. With the debut of the Getaway, approximately 45.45 percent of Subaru’s American lineup will have direct Toyota-badged equivalents. The BRZ’s twinned with the GR86, the Uncharted’s twinned with the C-HR, the Solterra’s twinned with the bZ, the Trailseeker’s twinned with the bZ Woodland, and the Getaway’s twinned with the Highlander. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it allows development costs to be shared, but how much identity do some of these models, especially the electric ones, have beyond the badges on the front?
Maybe horsepower is the move. After all, if the Getaway ends up priced close to the Highlander, why buy the Toyota? They both charge at 150 kW, they both offer roughly the same sort of range, and they feature near-identical ergonomics. However, the Subaru’s a lot quicker, and horsepower gets the people going. I guess we’ll just have to wait for pricing to drop closer to the Getaway’s on-sale date late this year.
Top graphic image: Matt Hardigree
Oh look – another generic sight-blocking family hauler with no bumpers whatsoever.
*Yawn*
I’m so tired of mega center console screens. They’re lazy, an eyesore, and I have no need or desire for one.
You know, I kinda love the name. As I approach a Subaru salesman thinking that maybe I should buy one, but I don’t recall the name I ask him to tell me about the car. He replies “Getaway.” I leave and never make the mistake of buying it.
“One more step and we’re walkin!”
-George Costanza
Also: “TWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIX!”
Who actually likes those giant center consoles? Not just in this car, but they seem to have no functional purpose other than to make the front seats feel more crowded.
This has so little resemblance to current and upcoming Subaru models. As a certified hater of current Outback, Crosstrek, and Forrester exterior designs, I think that’s great. If you love Subaru’s though, I would be disappointed. Then again, as an overall hater of Subaru, I’d say you should probably expect disappointment, it’s the biggest hallmark of their powertrains.
Is… Is it time to put subaru out to pasture? I know their designs have been a desperate scream for help of late, adding further self-damnation to their reliance on CVTs. They don’t do anytjing particularly nor uniquely well, many shops don’t want to touch their boxer engines, and their quality continues to suffer with each generation.
Maybe put them down to videos of their WRC championships, and allow them to drift off permanently to that great rally stage in the sky. I’m reasonably certain Fuji Heavy Industries can make better use of their manufacturing capability and capacity.
FHI was put out to pasture in 2017, wasn’t it?
Subaru and Mazda are both too small the last a decade with the current rapid change in the auto market. The Japanese auto sector is well past the point where it should be consolidating around a few strong brands.
We have already seen that the Japanese government won’t allow them to be purchased by an outside company so internal consolidation is the only option.
“BRO, that front logo is LIT!”
Toyota, it’s what makes a Subaru a Subaru.
Fuji Heavy Industry made mechanically reasonable / excellent vehicles. They built the SVX for heaven’s sake! Rally Impresas. All honour to them. Unfortunately the world market for what is a mid market brand with essentially no USP at the moment means they have to cuddle up to the safest uncle on the block. The box on wheels at the top is foul and both Subaru and Toyota should be ashamed by the medicority of it.
USP?
It increasingly feels like all the Toyota/Subaru EVs are are primarily “for” Subaru and Toyota sells them too to offset development costs/improve the economies of scale.
The Subaru names though, idk. Getaway is the name of Hyundai’s regular sales event. The 2 closest Subaru dealers to me are also Hyundai dealers, so seems like it might lead to some confusion in the internet departments…
“I’m looking for a Getaway.”
“Ah great timing, it’s the Getaway Sales Event.”
“Oh so it’s on sale?”
“They all are.”
“Ok well…I’m looking for a white one.”
“Which one in white?”
“The Getaway!”
“Getaway” is also what I tell most car salespeople when they approach me unsolicited
Mazda does he same with the RAV4/CX50. Hybrid and Gas models
No, just the CX-50 uses the RAV4 Hybrid’s powertrain. The regular CX-50 is on the same base Mazda platform as the CX-30, but is longer.
jinx
I don’t think the CX-50 and RAV4 are built on the same platform. Mazda is definitely using a Toyota hybrid system, though I think a generation older than what is in the RAV4.
They do share at least one paint color though
They are independent platforms, Mazda retrofitted the outgoing gen Rav4 hybrid powertrain to work in the CX-50, but the cars are completely independent designs and platforms. Also Mazda got Toyotas metallic green while Toyota got soul red crystal, but I don’t think the Rav4 got SRC, only the Corolla Cross which is built in the same facility (I think)
The CX-50 borrows the Toyota hybrid powertrain but the two are unrelated models, the Toyota Corolla Cross built in the same plant is wholly unrelated. The Toyota and Subaru EVs are rebadges, but it feels like Subaru is more committed to them, offering more build varieties (ex. Uncharted offers a FWD model that the CHR doesn’t, the Getaway offering the higher hp option that the Highlander does not).
We named a car the “Ass-scent” and we got away with it. Let’s call the next one the “Getaway”.
VW kinda did too with the AtlASS but id(ont) see too much buzz.
Wow, what a terrible name on that rebadged Toyota. Wait, does this mean there will be deals on Subarus during Toyotathon?
Giving the consumer the perception of choice while actually taking it away.
The future that automakers truly desire is to sell everyone the same fucking thing at the highest possible price. The “rationalization” of platforms, powertrains and brands isn’t complete until we are all in the same grey transport pods with 86 months loans.
Goddamn is this going to be a very, very terrible flop for Subaru.
First, there’s basically nothing about this vehicle that is tied to anything that resembles a Subaru. It’s genuinely a badge job. If there’s anything that Subaru buyers need, is for their car to assertively scream “I am Subaru, hear me roar”.
Second, the Ascent hasn’t been particularly successful for the brand, because it really doesn’t align with any of the brand’s core values. The segment is 3-row crossover, the most normcore of American vehicles, and regardless if Subaru buyers are actually interesting (*Ron Howard narration voice* “They weren’t”) this tends to be a demographic that’s drawn to practical vehicles that don’t copy-paste from the Toyota playbook which… is exactly what they did here. Toyota would be wise to continue to let Subaru print money and provide Subaru better powertrains, instead of going all GM on their ass and force them into badge jobs.
I guess it doesn’t matter because it’s electric and probably wasn’t going to sell well anyway. But I’d caution Subaru to not allow Toyota to dilute the last shreds of quirkiness left within the brand.
They have that lighted Subaru badge, just like Muffy has the lighted star on her Mercedes 2-box blob. Isn’t that enough today?
But when it comes to Subaru in general, my field of fucks is barren, and thus I have none to give. Pretty much how I feel about Toyota too with rare exceptions, so the combination? Meh, whatever.
I have a lot of fond memories of the brand and our local dealer is the only “non-rapist” new car dealer we have around here. So I tend to root for Subaru despite my overall frustration with them lately.
Feedback from said dealer seems to indicate that they can’t give the new Outback away, which is freaking them out greatly (in a place where the Outback has often been the official car of basically everyone). They really don’t need any more salesproof products there.
My very first car was an ’82 Subaru. It was very meh but mostly survived 16yo me, so that is a bit of an accomplishment. Once they went all in on AWD, I very much lost interest, as that is something I have no use for in an on-pavement vehicle. Plus sticking with horrible boxer motors for all these years. They never seemed to get the memo that boxers are supposed to be *smoother* than inline motors, because theirs sure aren’t.
I really dislike advertising on my car, so lighted advertising is pretty abhorrent to me. I might consider a car with a lighted badge if the manufacturer will pay me a SUBSCRIPTION FEE.
I too have doubts on the success of this, but the Ascent has been a pretty steady seller averaging around 60k/year, not really seeing a big drop until last year, its 7th model year on the market basically unchanged. I wouldn’t be surprised if the drop was more from production constraints as they’ve added the Crosstrek (set a new sales record each of the last 3 years) and Forester, and added hybrid production more recently.
While I do think buyers look to Subaru for something a little different than the usual Honda/Toyota, more of that is the brand than the product; the dealers generally seem better to work with for one. The main thing the products have had to do are maintain strong Consumer Reports and IIHS ratings. I see a ton of older folks in Foresters and Outbacks where those ratings probably carried more weight than anything having to do with image.
Subaru had to saved from its self as of late. They couldn’t figure out a hybrid let alone a bev. It’s sad to see a badge engineered vehicle where there used to be a separate product line. But I can’t see Subaru selling enough of a bev to develop one their selves. Even if it was somehow good and that seems a tough ask right now. You can get a Subaru badge for cheaper then the Toyota that seems like a win for everyone. Subaru is sort of like the new Scion just less fun with the same cars. It would be a lot more interesting if they picked some overseas jv cars to brand as Subaru. GAC Toyota has some interesting things. Given how terrible Toyota dealers have become it’s possible Subaru dealers sre better and might be more likely admit fault with the vehicles because they are used to it.
Oof. They’ve gone full Mercedez Benz! Never go full MB!
It will never be mistaken for a MB – Not enough stars embedded in every vertical surface.
I just can’t get excited about “hopped up” EV variants. The base models are already so blindingly fast compared to ICE vehicles, that killing range to extract a bit more acceleration seems pointless.
Unless you’re gonna go straight bananas with a car in the 4 digit horsepower club, I fail to see the appeal.
Subaru is becoming literally just a badge. All of the new EVs are like late Plymouth/Dodge levels of differences, or even less
Yep. At least the old DSM cars had unique personalities despite being basically the same cars mechanically.