Subaru's Tribeca, is a petrol-only SUV and, says Paddy Comyn, that's only the start of the problems
SUBARU'S PETROL-only SUV, the Tribeca, really doesn't look like it will succeed in Ireland's changing market. If we are to believe the forecasts, then with the economy on the decline, a symptom of this is that the car industry starts to suffer. Sales are down this year, in part because of this economic uncertainty, and also because of the confusion over the changes in the VRT and road tax laws.
Another symptom of this will be a shift in the type of cars that are bought. There will be a move away from petrol models, and there will also be a move away from rather unnecessary cars. In a time of prosperity you might not care about your car's fuel consumption, or whether it really is going to lose a lot of money in depreciation. But now people will start to think differently, and this isn't good news for the Subaru Tribeca.
Named after a trendy New York district, the Tribeca is Subaru's offering in the growing crossover segment. You could call it an SUV, but it's not really intended to go off-road. The Tribeca has been on sale in the US for a while and has been reasonably well received there, but as we know well, that is not always an indicator of success on this side of the pond.
Subaru is a brand that, whether it likes it or not, we associate with its rally cars and performance cars primarily, and the Impreza was the car that led the charge. The Legacy is a brilliant car, massively underrated but probably a little too expensive for most; so will this SUV add more sales to the brand, which has consistently underperformed in this country?
Well, the short answer is no. Firstly, the Tribeca is not a bad-looking SUV. In fact it looks very upmarket. The first version was a particularly odd-looking thing, but its looks have been toned-down since then, and in black, as our test car was finished, it looked rather elegant.
Climb aboard, and there is way too much of that silvery plastic which carmakers, for some reason, believe is "classy" - it is anything but. However, the leather upholstery feels good, all the requisite luxuries are there, such as climate control, six-disc CD autochanger and an i-Pod port.
Turn the key, and the 3.6-litre flat-six boxer engine sparks into life. This petrol offering has 256bhp under the bonnet and torque figures of 350Nm, so you would be forgiven for thinking that this is going to be something of a thrill-laden ride. However, from the second I left Subaru's offices, I got the distinct feeling that someone had played a trick on me. Surely someone had taken the engine from my Tribeca and replaced it with the 1.5-litre petrol engine from the Impreza?
The Tribeca's engine, mated as it is to a dim-witted, lazy five-speed automatic, just fails to spark into life until you are high into the rev range. On paper, it accelerates as well as most of its rivals and, let's face it, it is fast enough for an SUV, but it really is an underwhelming experience.
Then there is driving it in traffic. It took me a full day to get used to the brakes, which when you come to a halt, snatch at the car, jumping you forward in your seat.
The Tribeca is a decent cruiser, comfortable and well planted on the road. There is a low centre of gravity provided by the design of the boxer engine and with all-wheel-drive as standard, there is plenty of grip. A vehicle stability programme monitors the side-to-side G-forces, steering inputs and yaw rates to keep things in check, and while you know that the Tribeca will remain stable through bends, you are left with no great desire to fling the Tribeca about. The body roll is evident and it changes direction without very much finesse.
Despite being a full-size SUV, with three rows of seats, there isn't that much room in the second row for your passenger's legs, and while this row of seats can slide to create more room, there could still be a need for more room, especially if you have tall occupants up front.
The 3.6-litre engine also has something of a raging thirst. The official figures of 11.6 l/100km are seldom reached, and the fact that you spend much of the time standing on the accelerator pedal to get the gearbox to wake up doesn't help the fuel bills either. This car will rise in price from July 1st as its CO2 emissions put it in Band G, meaning it will also cost €2,000 a year to tax too.
And that does lead us neatly on to the price. At €69,250, the Tribeca is priced as a premium SUV and the overall feel is that it justifies that tag. However, the lack of a diesel engine virtually cripples it from the start. Rivals such as the Nissan Murano have struggled in Ireland without a diesel option, and the Tribeca will be no different. Even as a petrol offering, the Mazda CX-7, which costs €49,995, is significantly better to drive.
Comparing itself to the likes of the Range Rover Sport and BMW X5, as Subaru did on a spec sheet I received with the car, is just plain silly. Both of these rivals are more refined, more agile and blessed with better gearboxes. And they are also vastly more expensive. Pitching the Tribeca as a cut-price alternative to either of these really isn't a convincing argument.
Irish buyers at the premium end of the segment love their SUVs because they are a status symbol, yet even among the most affluent you will seldom see a petrol SUV and much of the success of the likes of the Range Rover Sport and BMW X5 is down to the fact that they are powered by clever diesel engines. They might still be pretty high CO2 producers, but there will always be a second-hand market for diesel X5s and Range Rovers.
The same can't be said for virtually any petrol SUV in Ireland. The likes of the Nissan Murano, and to a lesser extent the Lexus RX300, have not commanded the residuals that they should and this is highly likely with the Tribeca too. For the same price, you could have a Volkswagen Touareg diesel, a Jeep Grand Cherokee diesel, Land Rover Discovery, Mitsubishi Pajero, Toyota Land Cruiser or Volvo XC90 which are simply better buys than the Tribeca.
Even within the Subaru range, the simply brilliant Outback is almost €24,255 less expensive and apart from not having seven seats, does everything the Tribeca does and, arguably, does it that bit better.
On the plus side, safety is taken care of by dual-stage front passenger and driver airbags, as well as curtain airbags for the first and second row of seats. A rollover sensor will automatically deploy the curtain airbags if it detects an imminent flip. Both front seats have pre-tensioning and load-limiting seatbelts. There are no NCAP figures for the Tribeca but it scored highly in the US equivalent of the safety tests.
Overall, the Tribeca is really just a vehicle that doesn't work in Ireland. On the plus side, it looks upmarket. It is certainly comfortable, well-equipped, blessed with good grip even if it doesn't have particularly dynamic handling. But the decent engine is let down by the lazy automatic gearbox. Sure, you can shift gears yourself using the manual mode, but even this can be a little slow to respond.
The Tribeca is a let down, and this is a shame from a company that can produce some really good cars when they put their minds to it.
Factfile Subaru Tribeca
Engine:3,630cc Flat-Six petrol engine putting out
256bhp @ 6,000rpm and 350Nm of torque @ 4,000. Five-speed automatic
transmission.
Specification:Standard features include 18" alloy
wheels, electric windows front and rear, electric door mirrors,
heated door mirrors, remote central locking, dual-zone automatic
air conditioning, electric seat adjustment, memory seat position
function, six disc autochanger, port for iPod, multi info display,
leather steering wheel, cruise control, leather upholstery with
additional leather, ABS brakes, six airbags, parking distance
sensors rear and camera, electronic traction control, stability
control
L/100km (mpg):urban: 17.1 (16.5); extra-urban: 9
(31.3); combined: 11.6 (24.3)
CO2 emissions:275g/km
Tax bands from July 1st:VRT 36 per cent; annual
road tax €2,000
Price:€69,250