Yeah I caught the bug a few years ago when we bought an Outback. A few months later a surprise ice storm happened during the day when I was at work. People were crashing everywhere. It was like black ice all over. I got my grandpa on speakerphone because they're long-time Subaru owners and he walked me through how to best operate it, such as what modes to activate and how to use the paddle shifters which I hadn't messed with. We have an in-home daycare and we had parents who had to stay at our house because they crashed their cars, including a Jeep, just trying to get to our house. Most slid past our house and down the street. The Outback turned into our driveway like a champ. It was definitely slipping but manageable. That really sold me on their system. I gave it another test a while later. We have this back road in town that is so steep that they put up road closed signs when it snows because it's that crazy. I decided to drive around the signs and power up it in the Outback. It didn't even flinch. Now, it is a pretty dangerous road, so I wouldn't dare go down it coming back because I could just crash into big trees at the bottom if it's not able to slow down. But going up was a piece of cake.Subaru for life is what I thought when I saw this, too! I have the 2014 Impreza and it's crazy how slick these newer ones look.
My wife and I really want to get an Ascent to haul our family around in. We only have two kids but my wife likes being able to drive around our relatives, some of them older, as well as friends and do things with them and we can't fit many people in our Outback. I don't see why we can't drive separate, but also like the idea of having something a little bigger. I like to do road trips and now that my kids are getting a little bigger I think we'll be able to do more without so many problems. The problem now is that I don't like to get car loans and there aren't any used ones out there yet. I always buy used with cash, usually five years old, which I've found to be the sweet spot for reliability and price if you do enough looking around and find a car in good condition. Someday I'd also like to get a WRX that's just my car, although that may end up being a Tesla instead depending how things shake out. Also I was kinda frustrated with some of the options on the Ascent, like cooled seats only being available on the top of the line Touring model. We have a Limited which I think is fancy enough, and I might even go down to the Premium. I just wish I could pay extra for the cooled seats only since I live in the Midwest where the temperature swings from -20F to 110F. But like I said, I ultimately decided not to get a car loan or new car for the first time in my life.