by David Finlay (19 Oct 07)

This may be the last time we have occasion to publish a road test on the B9 Tribeca. The existing model is about to be replaced, and the IM Group which imports Subarus (and Daihatsus and Isuzus) into the UK has not, at the time of writing, decided whether or not to include the new model in its line-up.

The reason for this is that sales in this country have been rather disappointing. As I've said before, I don't think the name helps; although Subaru is a Japanese company, it doesn't sell this car in its home market. It's built in the US, primarily for American customers who will immediately realise that Tribeca is an upmarket region of New York. That piece of information is much less widely known over here, so the name doesn't have anything like the same associations.

More importantly, though, there is no diesel, which immediately handicaps the Tribeca in the UK market. The new version won't have one either, even though Subaru will at last have its own diesel engine in production some time in 2008. It's technically possible that this unit could be fitted to the new Tribeca, but the chances of Subaru's American division going to the trouble of doing this are about the same as those of the US Treasury handing over its affairs to the Bank of England.

To come back to the current situation, the Tribeca as it now stands comes in three forms, each of them fitted with Subaru's three-litre flat-six petrol engine. It produces 242bhp, so the straightline performance is pretty good, though you do have to rev it quite hard to reach anything like the full potential.

Even if you don't do this, there is a big issue with fuel economy. The combined figure for the Tribeca is 23.0mpg, or a lot less than you might expect from a similar diesel-fuelled vehicle. Having driven the test car for over 2000 miles in little over a week, I found this a bit of chore, since the tank needed refilling every 300 miles or so. (On each occasion the trip computer happily informed me that I could now go 400 miles without stopping, but this was a cruel joke.)

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