Subaru announced Thursday that it will debut the redesign of one of its existing nameplates at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month. Accompanying the announcement was the above teaser image of a front wheel. That’s not a ton to go on, but it’s something. What is Subaru bringing? Smart money is on either the Forester or Ascent. Come along as we explain our reasoning.
Apart from the teaser pic, the announcement included only time and place (12:40 p.m. ET on November 16 at the 2023 LAAS). That leaves us with just the image to parse. While limited in scope, it may tell us one useful thing: this is likely a crossover, which rules out the Legacy (and to an extent, the Outback) as a likely candidate for this redesign. How’d we get there? We’re looking at that blurry rocker panel in the background.
As you can see in the top two images above, that kink in the rocker cladding near the bottom of the door is an embellishment found on Subaru’s high-riding family cars (Forester on the left; Ascent on the right). The contrast helps accentuate the sense of height (read: ground clearance) under the middle of the car. If you look at the rocker panel of the newly redesigned Impreza (bottom image above), it’s not present. This is a crossover.
Adding fuel to that fire, the Forester and Ascent are popular, profitable models that are approaching old age by automotive standards. If we had to pick one, we’d go with the Ascent. Subaru’s three-row hasn’t been fully overhauled since its debut (also in Los Angeles) in November of 2017. In the meantime, Nissan has a new Pathfinder, Honda has a new Pilot and both the Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade have since entered the segment and been refreshed. The Ascent got a mild refresh for ’23, making a redesign for the ’25 model year a reasonable bet. On top of that, Ascent is a model built for America; where else would it be revealed?
Right or wrong, we only have a couple weeks before we’ll find out for certain. Stay tuned.
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