Saw the new B9 Tribeca in person today

[Secret Chimp]

One of my cousins was hosting a birthday party for my aunt and uncle (60th, hooah). Her husband is the sales manager for a local Subaru dealer, and brought home a dealer-plated new Tribeca for the heck of it (there was also a 1993-ish red BMW M3 under their carport that I hadn't seen before, I don't know where that came from). When the party had dispersed a little, he came out and started it up for a few people to survey.
Impressions: once you see this thing in person, you can get over the nose. The front end itself looks better in real life; there's some details to the lights and grille that you can't pick up in photos, but granted it does still look kind of weird.
This model had some neat lighting features; there are little white LED arrays below each door on the sill that light up the ground below, sort of a better implementation of the Navigator's running board lights. There are also soft orange lights that light up underneath the rear seats, illuminating the area where keys or crayons or whatever tend to get lost in the dark. Plus, it looked nice without being so garish as to become ricey-looking.
The white-illuminated digital-readout rings for the temperature controls also looked great, as did the dash and interior in general. In the rear seats, shoulder room is substantial compared to an Outback, but seat height and legroom is about the same, which isn't a complaint, as they're just right in the Outback. A combination of the standard tinted windows, close C-pillars, and less of a stadium-stagger between the front and rear rows creates more of an enclosed feeling in the rear than I'm used to. It'd be the perfect place to fall asleep on a long road trip, as up front, the center stack quickly sweeps away from you to create an open greenhouse that invites you to look around rather than doze off or stare at a DVD. It does have some SUV cozy-cues like a roof with a more forward overhang than in a car, but I could easily see the general dash and seating layout being modified for use in any sort of a future Subaru sedan meant to further upscale the L.L. Bean-level Outbacks. While I'm not wild for the new front end style trend, I really hope the rest of Subaru's lineup gets some B9 interior design philosophy rubbed off on it.
Price has been an oft-discussed point for this car, but inside, this looked and felt like a $40,000 car. The bottom end of $33,000 with no leather or anything could be argued as steep, but I never thought "what? hell no" in this one. It's a pricey bit, but at the equipment level of the dealer car, it definitely feels the part.
Quibbles: a combination of the window tint and the black leather almost made it hard to see in the rear, the remote for the rear DVD screen was hard to figure out (or it just doesn't respond if controls are being entered up front as some kind of a parental harness to prevent skip-battles or whatever) and the nav system could stand to be a bit snazzier, unless it changes from a simple roadmap-plus-arrow overhead display to a birds-eye kind of deal after you get rolling.
No, there was no test drive, nobody was going to be buying the thing. Odd note: the sales manager couldn't get the engine right. He said it was a 2.5, 227 horsepower. Maybe he approves mostly Legacy and WRX sales and got them mixed around, but plz.

[BMWDave]

Nice writeup B)  I also saw the B9 on Friday again, and it looked not bad in Black.

[ifcar]

Chimp, I hope you corrected him in front of everyone.

[MaxPower]

i'm starting to get over its looks too, seeing them on the street helps a lot.  I really like the interior, I think that all of Subaru's interiors are very nice looking and HQ.  They're starting to be the premium car company they want to be.

[giant_mtb]

Yeah, I visited the nearby Subaru dealer not too long ago and saw the B9.  It looks very nice in person, and yes, the nose is easy to get over.  The interior is very interesting, but it is nothing short of luxurious, IMO. (the leather interior, at least)

[Raza]

I saw it first about a month ago.  The thing that stikes you most is the nice interior.

[giant_mtb]

I saw it first about a month ago.  The thing that stikes you most is the nice interior.

Deffinitely.