2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca First Impression

Credit Subaru for taking a chance on the 2006 B9 Tribeca’s styling, even if it doesn’t work terribly well. Meant to evoke the company’s aircraft manufacturing history, the B9 Tribeca’s grillework caused one Subaru loyalist on staff to quip that the SUV looked like an Edsel. Another wit walked up to the B9 Tribeca in the office parking lot and asked, “What’s that ugly thing?” Yet another onlooker asked, “What happened to the front end?”

From the front wheels back, the 2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca is a beautiful SUV. As long as you can’t see the front end, it’s voluptuous, sophisticated, and European in design. But that nose…ugh. And it’s not even the grille that’s the problem, because motoring down the highway, looking at the B9 Tribeca in your rearview mirror, that front end is distinctive and eye-catching. Rather, it’s the headlamp cluster that looks like it was cribbed from a Toyota Sienna and perched uncomfortably at the leading edges of the poorly resolved hood and fenders. Had Subaru found a way to integrate the front lights into the outer edges of the grille’s “wings,” the B9 Tribeca would be much better looking, and unique in a way that few other vehicles on the road are.

Everyone we talked with agreed that if anything outside of price kills the Tribeca’s appeal, it will be this schnoz.