after receiving a top safety pick plus crashworthiness award from the insurance institute for highway safety in september, the 2019 subaru ascent three-row suv scored a second major accolade the very next month. the national highway traffic safety administration gave the all-new ascent five stars out of five in its crash-test program. this helped the ascent ascend not only to the safety-ratings summit, but also to no. 2 on our list of the five most popular news stories of the past week.
the ascent couldn't quite top interest in a massive safety recall by nhtsa of model-year 2012-18 ford focus cars — roughly 1.3 million of them, all equipped with either a 2.0-liter gdi or 2.0-liter gtdi used engine . a defect in the fuel system could result in stalling and the ability to restart the car.
further down the list were our first drive of the 2019 lexus ux 200 by reviewer brian wong, as well as the reveal of the editorial team's third annual halloween trunk-or-treat car-stume, this year dressed as frankenstein's monster in honor of the 200th anniversary of author mary shelley's classic novel.
here's the full top five:
1. 2012-2018 ford focus recall alert
2. twin peaks: 2019 subaru ascent scores second top crash rating
3. 2019 lexus ux 200 first drive: missing a solid user experience
4. our 2018 volkswagen atlas halloween car-stume is lit, frankly
5. 2019 hyundai tucson adds value, safety to bottom line
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