2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca

An old dog learns the seven-seat crossover trick.
BY RON KIINO
March 2005

Subaru owners are like malamutes. We don’t mean to imply that they have fluffy, long hair or that they thrive in frigid weather or that they bounce when they walk—okay, maybe we are implying that—but rather that they are loyal. Plain and simple: They love their cars so much they lapse into baby talk and call them Subies. According to J.D. Power and Associates, 48 percent of Subaru owners buy another Subie. That might not suggest remarkable dedication, but among Japanese brands, only Toyota, Lexus, and Honda have a higher retention rate. Moreover, brands such as Acura, Audi, Infiniti, Nissan, and Porsche all trail Subaru in brand loyalty.

But unless you can keep 100 percent of your customers, there’s always room for improvement. For Subaru, it’s evident that more than half of its owners subsequently move on to different brands. The impetus? Well, the most obvious is that Subaru does not offer a vehicle that seats more than five. Subaru owners may be diehards, but they have their limits (or is it minimums?). So, with both the Outback wagon and Forester SUV capable of holding just five Phish fans, the only solution was to build a new tour bus.

That vehicle is the B9 Tribeca, the seven-passenger SUV you see here (a five-passenger Tribeca will also be available). The name is derived from Robert De Niro’s cool neighborhood in New York City, which is an area called the “TRIangle BElow CAnal Street.” Subaru just liked the name—there are no hidden meanings. As for Tribeca’s leading partner, B9, it was lifted from the brand’s recent concept cars—in particular the B9 Scrambler shown at the 2003 Tokyo motor show—and is a reminder of Subaru’s new aeronautical face, whose air intakes are supposed to suggest a fuselage and wings. (Subaru’s parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, manufactured aircraft in the past.)

The Tribeca is based on an Outback platform with the wheelbase extended 3.1 inches to make room for a third row of seating. The front struts are adopted from the Outback, too, but the rear control-arm setup is unique to the B9. Subaru passed on the Outback’s rear multilink arrangement because the control arms offered better stability and comfort in a vehicle of the B9’s mass (4300 pounds), according to Subaru, and allowed for integration of a flat floor.

At 189.8 inches, the B9 is just over an inch longer than the Outback but is more than four inches wider (73.9) and almost five inches taller (66.4). The B9 is similarly sized to the first-generation Toyota Sienna minivan and falls neatly between the Nissan Murano and Toyota Highlander in every exterior dimension except length, in which it surpasses them by 2.2 and 5.2 inches, respectively.

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Motivated by the Outback’s 3.0-liter flat-six—good for 250 horsepower and 219 pound-feet of torque—and five-speed automatic transmission, the Tribeca wasn’t designed for speed but to haul more passengers and cargo. The 3.0 is a rev-happy engine that displays a smooth, refined character, but it lacks the low-end grunt to feel quick off the line, even with Subaru’s so-called symmetrical all-wheel-drive system delivering power to the 255/55R-18 Goodyear Eagle LS2s. The flat-six does shine at speed, however—say, when making a pass on the highway—and possesses enough power to justify the “sport” in SUV. With communicative steering, four-wheel disc brakes with ABS, and big footprints, the B9 is impressively flat through turns and treats passengers to a compliant ride that still offers enough firmness to encourage you to take the back roads to Woodstock.

Subaru remains mum on pricing but admits the B9 Tribeca, which will be built in Lafayette, Indiana, will retail for more than an Outback 3.0 L.L. Bean wagon, which starts at $32,870, so expect stickers to reside in the mid-30s when the vehicle goes on sale in early summer. With competitive pricing and room for seven, the B9 Tribeca demonstrates to current Subaru owners what they’ve been showing the brand for years—loyalty.

2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca
Vehicle type: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 5–7-passenger, 5-door wagon
Estimated base price: $34,000
Engine type: DOHC 24-valve flat-6, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 183 cu in, 3000cc
Power (SAE net): 250 bhp @ 6600 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 219 lb-ft @ 4200 rpm

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Transmission: 5-speed automatic with manumatic shifting
Wheelbase: 108.2 in
Length/width/height: 189.8/73.9/66.4 in
Curb weight: 4300 lb
Performance ratings (C/D est):
Zero to 60 mph: 8.0 sec
Standing 1/4-mile: 16.5 sec
Projected fuel economy (C/D est):
EPA city driving: 18 mpg
EPA highway driving: 24 mpg

Excerpt from CarAndDriver.com

Is it a SUV of minivan...i can't tell lol. I really think it's ugly as hell. The front looks like a dustbuster, the way the fron grill comes in. I mean yeah you have the 4 wheel drive and good gas mileage, but personally i just don't like the damn thing.

Thanks for making my day brent. I never would have thought of a dustbuster.

I am going to say it looks like a shop vac... Not a big fan of it either.

Jeremy

yeah it deff looks like a dustbuster