2025 Ford Explorer vs 2025 Subaru Ascent
Competition among SUVs is fierce, especially among three-row models that compete to outshine, outperform, and outvalue one another. Drivers reap the rewards, gaining more features, modern styling, and the best of everything. This competition is obvious when comparing the 2025 Ford Explorer vs 2025 Subaru Ascent. The SUVs are incredibly popular and renowned for their value-rich packaging, reliability, and performance, yet they’re also remarkably different.
While the 2025 Explorer and 2025 Ascent share the same classification, there’s one clear winner when you look at the details and discover the secret to the Blue Oval’s success. Since putting the world on wheels in the early 1900s with the Model T, Ford has dedicated itself to building cars, trucks, and SUVs that exceed expectations. Models like the 2025 Explorer continue that legacy, encouraging drivers to answer their basic needs for a three-row SUV without compromising or settling for less. Instead, Ford challenges drivers to ask for and expect more.
You’ll see this approach in every aspect of the 2025 Explorer, from its performance to its capacities, technologies, and value-packed trims. It isn’t that Subaru falters or lacks the same penchant for quality, but that Ford works harder and offers more. But what exactly gives the 2025 Explorer an obvious advantage over the 2025 Ascent? Why are we certain your search for a versatile three-row SUV will bring you into Ford’s remarkable legacy as an American automotive pioneer?
With so many valid questions, you deserve answers. As your automotive partner and Ford destination, we’re here to offer as much. Join us as we delve into the details that make the 2025 Explorer a more attractive option compared to rivals like the 2025 Subaru Ascent.
| 2025 Ford Explorer | VS | 2025 Subaru Ascent |
|---|---|---|
| $39,785 [a] | MSRP | $38,910 |
| 400 | Horsepower | 281 |
| 415 lb-ft | Torque | 277 lb-ft |
| 13.2 in | Screen Size | 11.6 in |
Price and Value
Shopping for a three-row SUV starts with exploring your options and narrowing your search based on your needs, wants, and pricing. What do you want in your next SUV? What can you afford? Yet, we encourage our customers to explore beyond the price tag and consider what they’re getting with their investment. For example, the 2025 Explorer starts at $39,785, giving the 2025 Ascent a slight advantage due to its lower starting price of $38,910.[a] Yet, is the advantage rightly earned?
Comparing Entry-Level Trims
Subaru expands the Ascent’s family tree with a new entry-level trim in 2025—the Premium. Available in two cabin configurations that offer seating for seven or eight, the 2025 Ascent Premium is marketed as a feature-rich entry-level trim. It’s designed to give drivers more value and compete with rivals like the 2025 Explorer Active. However, Subaru’s three-row SUV falls short despite its best efforts and the allure of a new trim. How so?
Subaru equips the Ascent Premium with its EyeSight Driver Assist Technology; Ford does the same by making the renowned Ford CoPilot 360 Assist+ suite standard on every trim. Subaru adds a leather-wrapped steering wheel and an All-weather Package that includes heated front seats and heated exterior mirrors for all-season comfort. As expected, Ford answers and equips the 2025 Explorer Active with heated front seats, a 10-way power driver’s seat for enhanced comfort, and a heated steering wheel. Of course, the perks don’t stop there.
Ford enhances the Explorer Active’s packaging by adding enhanced driver-assist tools, such as Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop-and-Go and Lane Centering. The Explorer’s entry-level trim also features a significantly larger digital landscape, courtesy of a 13.2-inch center touchscreen that outshines the Ascent’s standard 11.6-inch display. The 2025 Explorer’s lead over the 2025 Ascent widens as you explore the rest of the trim families relative to the Explorer Active’s high baseline.
Trim Lineups
Subaru errs on the side of excess, watering down the Ascent’s 2025 lineup with eight trims. Despite having more options, the Ascent’s trims aren’t strikingly different, yet Subaru requires drivers to pay significantly more without necessarily offering more in terms of styling or features. The 2025 Explorer tells a different story across its four-trim lineup, each distinctly styled to offer broad appeal and greater value. From the well-equipped Active and the opulent Platinum to the performance-tuned ST-Line and ST, the 2025 Explorer family offers undeniable appeal and far more for your hard-earned money.
Performance
Subaru and Ford are well-known for building capable, long-lasting vehicles. Subaru’s reputation is tied to its use of a BOXER engine and all-wheel drivetrain, and the 2025 Ascent continues that tradition. Yet, Subaru no longer corners the market in building versatile all-wheel drive SUVs, and Ford proves this by making the 2025 Explorer an all-wheel drive powerhouse. The real question is how Subaru’s Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive and BOXER engine compete with the American automaker that put the world on wheels? The competition is over when you climb in the driver’s seat and put your foot on the gas pedal. How so?
The Ascent’s Sole 2.4L Turbocharged BOXER Engine
Ford goes above and beyond to give drivers more for their money in the 2025 Explorer, from its diverse trim family and value-rich pricing to its heartbeat. This approach, and Ford’s proven history of performance, sets the 2025 Explorer up for widespread success against rivals like the Ascent. For starters, Subaru limits the Ascent’s powertrain lineup to one option—a 2.4L turbocharged BOXER engine that produces 260 hp and 277 lb-ft of torque.
Subaru pairs the Ascent’s 2.4L turbo with a continuously variable transmission that prioritizes efficiency. The 2025 Ascent boasts an EPA-estimated fuel economy of 20 MPG in the city, 26 MPG on the highway, and 22 MPG combined. However, continuously variable transmissions are notorious for being less reliable, more complex, and significantly more expensive to repair than traditional automatic transmissions. Ford knows as much, which is why you won’t find a CVT in the Explorer’s powertrain lineup.
The Explorer Offers More Engine Options and Better Performance
The 2025 Explorer showcases Ford’s efforts to give drivers more reliable performance and plenty of excitement behind the wheel despite the SUV’s expansive footprint. The Explorer’s standard powertrain is a 2.3L EcoBoost turbocharged inline-four and a smooth-shifting ten-speed automatic transmission. With all-wheel drive, the 2025 Explorer offers all-season and all-terrain confidence, with its base powerplant producing 300 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque. Most notably, the higher output doesn’t compromise the Explorer’s efficiency, with the SUV touting better EPA estimates at 27 MPG on the highway and 23 MPG combined.
The good news continues for those looking for more thrills in the driver’s seat. The turbocharged 3.0L EcoBoost V6 roars to life and leaves rivals like the Ascent in the dust. The engine produces 400 hp and 415 lb-ft of torque for exceptional responsiveness and handling. Again, with all-wheel drive, the 2025 Explorer outperforms the 2025 Ascent, from its output to its efficiency.
Technology
SUVs like the 2025 Explorer and 2025 Ascent rely on cutting-edge technologies to get you from point A to point B. These technologies are active and passive, working in front of you and behind the scenes. They stretch from the computer system that serves as the mastermind of your vehicle’s operating system to driver-assist technologies that enhance your situational awareness and digital displays that keep you connected, engaged, and entertained. So, how do technologies differ in the 2025 Explorer and 2025 Ascent?
The Explorer’s Superior Infotainment Experience
The most obvious difference is apparent when you climb into the driver’s seat and look at the digital displays. The 2025 Ascent features a standard 11.6-inch touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The display is intuitive and features Subaru’s standard Wide-Angle Mono Camera or, on top-tier terms, a Surround View Monitor. However, the Ascent’s connectivity features can’t compete with the 2025 Explorer’s 12.3-inch instrument panel cluster and 13.2-inch center touchscreen, which offer the all-new Ford Digital Experience.
Ford Digital Experience enhances your connectivity wherever life takes you. The technology equips the SUV with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but goes even further by adding a Google Assistant, Google Maps, Alexa built-in, and entertainment apps like Google Play, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, Prime Video, and more. The larger digital landscape complements many other standard and available features, stretching from the Explorer’s 5G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot to its premium Bang & Olufsen sound system, which delivers an immersive, concert-like experience across all three rows.
Safety and Driver Assistance Features
Beyond connectivity and entertainment, driver-assist technologies give the 2025 Explorer a significant lead. Subaru’s EyeSight Driver Assist Technology is standard across the Ascent’s 2025 lineup. It equips the three-row SUV with Advanced Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Centering, Pre-Collision Braking, Lane Departure and Sway Warning, Lane Keep Assist, and Automatic Emergency Steering. For 2025, Subaru also makes Blind-Spot Detection with Lane Change Assist and Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, Reverse Automatic Braking, and Emergency Stop Assist standard.
The 2025 Explorer offers significantly more driver-assist features, courtesy of the Ford Co-Pilot 360 Technology suite and many other advanced technologies. Ford’s standard driver-assist technologies include Evasive Steering Assist, Pre-Collision Assist with Automatic Emergency Braking, Hill Descent Control, a rear-view camera, a Lane Keeping System, and a Blind Spot Information System with Cross Traffic Alert. The 2025 Explorer also features automatic high-beam headlamps, a Blind Spot Information System with Trailer Coverage, and Adaptive Cruise Control. Yet, the adaptive cruise system is easily outshined by Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free cruising feature that transforms your time behind the wheel.
Shop the 2025 Explorer at DePaula Ford
Did you initially think your search for a three-row SUV would end with you behind the wheel of the 2025 Subaru Ascent? While Subaru has an outstanding lineup that exudes versatility and practicality, comparing the 2025 Ascent to the 2025 Explorer showcases how Ford goes above and beyond to give drivers more for their hard-earned money.
We are honored to carry the Ford marque and continue an incredible legacy that’s shaped the American landscape for over a century. DePaula Ford is your 2025 Explorer destination and automotive home away from home. More importantly, we’re your automotive partner and promise a world-class experience you won’t find anywhere else.
Like Ford, our goal is to exceed your expectations and provide you with an extraordinary dealership experience that celebrates your unique needs. We’re renowned for our integrity and transparency, values that cultivate our family-friendly environment and welcome you with open arms. It’s an experience you deserve, and one we are honored to deliver from our showroom floor to our service center and beyond.
