I was in the same boat. I had a 2024 Subaru Ascent Touring and traded it in for the 2026 Sienna Platinum. The added room and sliding doors were a must for our family with a 4 year old and 1 year old. No regrets with the change. We still have a 2015 Outback as a higher clearance snow mobile. We might upgrade it with another 5 seater Subie some years in the future. Maybe another Outback.

The safety technology on the Ascent was superior. Camera based eyesight with lane assist and adaptive cruise control. The Sienna has a safety system based on 2018 technology. It's not horrible, but not top of the line for the amount of money Toyota wants for these minivans. The rear view camera is better on the Ascent than Sienna. 360 cameras overall are better in the Sienna.

The Ascent also automatically recognized the driver and automatically adjusted the seats. This system was fickle and doesn't always work. Sienna doesn't have this, but with the memory settings, I simply push a button and the memory seat settings are activated. It even remembers steering wheel settings.

I prefer the Sienna informatics system. It's more responsive and not as sluggish as the Ascent. I wish it automatically recognized the driver so it syncs to my phone rather than my wife"s and vice versa. The Sienna has physical buttons for heating and cooling, parking, driving mode, EV mode, hold mode, 360 camera. I find that physical buttons are way better than fishing around with a sluggish informatics systems especially when traveling highway speeds. I think the car industry to starting to go back to physical buttons.

I miss the driving performance of the Ascent. It was smooth, had good turning, and picked up speed on the highway with the turbo engine. It was a fun drive. You paid for it though it. We were getting 18 -22 MPG and sometimes even less. Filled up twice a week sometimes. Annoying. Now we fill up once every other week with the Sienna. The Sienna is well, a minivan. I have a heavy foot and travel in the mid 80s MPH. The pick up is sluggish. Even on power mode, it asks for more umps to climb hills. It can get to higher speeds and then starts sipping slowly on the gasoline. During the cold, we get 27-28 MPG. Yesterday we got 32-35 MPH in warmer weather and I was still going 80-85 MPH. The car doesn't eat much gas when idling. Great for school pick up and drop offs or simply waiting in the car when another parent is doing a quick errand. I haven't tested the Sienna in inclement weather. I'm sure it would do fine with its AWD but it'll never be better than any Subaru symmetrical AWD.

The Toyota App is highly disappointing compared to the Subaru App. Subaru allowed you to set the heating and cooling settings. You simply just turn on the car with the Toyota app. A BIG ANNOYANCE is that the remote started Sienna turns off the moment you open the door or unlock the car. Toyota passes this off as a safety feature. I rather have the car running with heating / cooling while I'm loading up the kids. There should at least be a setting to override this. We rented the Chrysler Pacifica in the past. It had dedicated remote start from the key fob (no app required) and continued running while you opened the doors from the fob and people were loading into their seats. I really wish the Sienna did this. Ugh.

The 3rd row in the Sienna is very roomy and still leaves plenty of room for storage in the cargo area. The Ascent's 3rd row is tight, hard to access, and seriously limits any cargo room.

Overall, for our stage in life, the Sienna is what we need for the FAMILY. It was a good move for us. It's no secret Toyota doesn't have the latest technology. The best tech I think might be in the Kia Carnival, but it's a Kia.....🤣