Cool Wall: 2006-2007 Subaru B9 Tribeca
- Thread starter Snikle
- 16 comments
- 2,235 views
- 1,096
- United States
I doubt it's an unpopular opinion to think most crossovers are uncool. Most of them don't look or drive all that interestingly. There's exceptions, of course, but even then that mostly just pushes them up to a meh. Maybe a few cools here or there.
Not this one though, this one is exceptionally ugly. They even managed to make the rear and interior ugly too. This car seems uglier than the Aztek, at least that one had straight lines instead of being all bulge-y. No wonder they put out an emergency facelift/rebrand after only 2 years. SU
Not this one though, this one is exceptionally ugly. They even managed to make the rear and interior ugly too. This car seems uglier than the Aztek, at least that one had straight lines instead of being all bulge-y. No wonder they put out an emergency facelift/rebrand after only 2 years. SU
- 26,736
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
When someone at Subaru thought it was cool to style Subarus with this aircraft-inspired design up front, it got me to realize that Subaru has its roots in aircraft design. I love the Impreza/WRX, but I think the ugliest ever Impreza/WRX is the "Hawkeye" models (good luck trying to change my mind). So I remember this B9 Tribeca from long ago. Since, it had a new front end design to depart from the aircraft-inspired front grill. You know how people like to say, "we don't talk about _____."? Well, we don't talk about the B9 Tribeca because it's trash. You can do much better than the B9 Tribeca even back in 2006-2007. Even some other Subaru models at its time are better than this. The B9 Tribeca just lives, but doesn't exist. For all intents and purposes, the B9 Tribeca is basically the Cadillac Catera of Subaru. Seriously Uncool.
- 2,892
- Columbus, Ohio
Unfortunate styling choices aside (like that Dali-eqsue melting center stack), I've heard these aren't even very pleasant to drive and feel cramped inside compared to other vehicles in its class. At least the Aztek that was mentioned earlier is usually described as being a decent ride which explains why they clung around for a while, but the Tribeca seemed to just disappear off the roads as quickly as it showed up, which says a lot about its overall quality as a vehicle to me.
Seriously Uncool, for mot even managing to be an interesting example of the class it belongs to. Ands given how dull the CUV class tends to be, that's not even a very high bar to aim for.
Seriously Uncool, for mot even managing to be an interesting example of the class it belongs to. Ands given how dull the CUV class tends to be, that's not even a very high bar to aim for.
ROAD_DOGG33J
Premium
- 14,195
- IL, USA
- holyc0w1
- holyc0w
Solid meh for me. I'm in the minority that doesn't mind the design. I may have seen one more recently, but other than that they have disappeared.
- 23,880
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
The general shape of it was pretty decent for an SUV of its size/segment, it was just let down by that grill. Given that appalling grills have largely become commonplace in recent years, it no longer looks quite so bad. It's an uncool segment though so meh/uncool it is.
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- 176
- Greece
The lovechild of a Boxster and a Forester..
..then stuffed into a mason jar for 5 years with a mixture of Vinegar, Salt, a little bit of water, Beet Juice, and some other components.
..then stuffed into a mason jar for 5 years with a mixture of Vinegar, Salt, a little bit of water, Beet Juice, and some other components.
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- 6,257
- Ottawa
- Pyano1132
I think the design has grown on me a little over the years of seeing them around, but they don't exactly look good. It's a Subaru, so it's a useable and inoffensive SUV at the end of the day.
it'll be a meh from me.
it'll be a meh from me.
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- 3,712
- Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA
Pre-facelift version looked, lets face it, fugly. Then Subaru course-corrected by making the Tribeca look ultra-boring with a very conservative front-end. Either way, it was well-behind it's rivals and was a very poor seller, though it's still cool too see them on the road every once in a while due to their rarity.
It only took Subaru nearly 15 years to learn how to do a mid-sized crossover right. The Ascent, despite ultimately being a generic CUV, is everything the Tribeca should have been.
Uncool.
It only took Subaru nearly 15 years to learn how to do a mid-sized crossover right. The Ascent, despite ultimately being a generic CUV, is everything the Tribeca should have been.
Uncool.
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- 40,723
It's funny because when they gave it its emergency redesign it didn't actually look any better. Even among the sea of mid-2000s SUV designs it stands out as being a particularly flabby mess of a design. To Subaru's credit that actually involved more substantial changes than, say, GM's increasingly tragic attempts to facelift the current Camaro; but yanking the front end off of contemporary Toyota doesn't do anything about stuff like the hard character line that comes off the taillights and just kinda disappears before it gets to the front door (the restyle actually made it worse, if anything), or the greenhouse that is styled to look like it follows the roofline from some angles but doesn't actually.
This was also one of the more notorious examples of the "drop the 3200lb midsized sedan drivetrain into the 4000lb crossover" trend at the time, when manufacturers felt they just had to quickly get in on this segment without having developed the engines suitable for it yet.
This was also one of the more notorious examples of the "drop the 3200lb midsized sedan drivetrain into the 4000lb crossover" trend at the time, when manufacturers felt they just had to quickly get in on this segment without having developed the engines suitable for it yet.
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- 1,928
- San Bernardino, California
- Gerarghini
- Gerarghini
Just saw that facelift, looks like a damn Chrysler product haha
