Subaru Tribeca

B9 Tribeca

The Subaru Tribeca, named after an outlying borough of New York City, is the new offering from Subaru that is certain to turn heads. Designed in conjunction with Saab, the Subaru Tribeca is thought to be the replacement for the Subaru Legacy Outback.

Design of the new Subaru Tribeca fell in part to Andreas Zapatinas, ex-Alfa Romeo designer.

The Subaru Tribeca is what is commonly referred to as a Sports Utility Vehicle, or SUV. It has the new Subaru corporate nose, which mimics the fuslage and wings of a plane (a reference to Subaru's parent company FHI, which started out producing aeroplanes).

The Subaru Tribeca is to be powered by a normally aspirated three litre flat six engine. Although realtively modest in power, the Subaru Tribeca is heavy, and the performance is not in line with current sporting Subaru Impreza WRX and Subaru Impreza WRX STi's.

I can only assume that the Subaru Tribeca will be endowed with a more powerful turbo charged engine at some point in the future, providing an increase in torque and power required to move such a heavy weight vehicle around with ease.

The Subaru Tribeca has switchable stability control, which according to the motoring press, makes the Subaru Tribeca handle a lot better when turned off. Not necassarily quicker, but it certainly handles with more feel than with it switched on.

The gearbox also has a sport mode, which makes the shift pattern on the auto box more aggressive, holding on to revs for longer and shifting through the gears more quickly.