Driving adventure 07vs06 and Stability control

OK, as some of you know, I have had an 06 Tribeca 7 pass nav for a couple of months. My father was so impressed with it that they wanted one as well. We live in PEI Canada and bought our Tribeca at a considerable savings from a dealer in Maine. My father decided to go to the same dealer and My wife and I went to get it the same way we had gotten ours....take a long one way bus trip and drive the Tribeca home the next day.

Weather has been extremely and unusually warm for November and the prospect of testing out an 07 Tribeca was appealing. Besides, I wanted to pick up a few options for our Tribeca....puddle light kit, winter matts, rear cargo tray and bumper cover. Also, I had Michelin Latitude X-ice winter tires on alloy wheels sent to the dealer from Tirerack...again at a great savings from having them shipped to me at home.

So Saturday morning the dealer picked us up at the hotel (we are old friends by now after buying our own tribeca there). We arrived at the dealer to find everything loaded into my parents new 07 Limited newport blue 5 pass Tribeca (11 miles on the odo). Shortly after poking around a Legacy Spec B (nice) and an Impreza WRX (the one without the huge rear wing) we were on our way. We stopped in Bangor on the way to shop...the dealer had given us a $50 gift certificate to LLbeans and we put it to use.

I was eager to see if I could detect the differences in the suspension on the 07's. Can't really say, it handled very well, maybe took the large bumps better than an 06 but felt the small bumps more?!?! Imagination???....can't really say for sure. I think it's a fairly subtle difference. The memory seats were a little disappointing as they don't seem to go back to a memory setting while you are driving. I thought I would be able to set it....mess around with the seat position while driving and hit the button to go back to the memory setting....nope...only while the vehicle is still it seems but I didn't test this theory fully.

I really missed the Nav....more than I thought I would....got turned around getting out of Auburn/lewiston, missed knowing the distance and time to a given turn off/exit. The Back up camera would have been nice too but my parents don't travel anymore and so the extra $$$ would have been a waste. May look at a wireless one with the screen in the top armrest location.

Ironically my father will never use the Ipod hookup or the sat radio option....Maybe an el-switcharoo?? Naa...better not.

Theirs has the same grey interior as ours and it was just like driving ours...except the nav. It was nice to see the outside temp without having to hit info. Seems strange that with all that space, the radio doesn't display more info like radio station names rather than just numbers etc.

So given the short days and the shopping time it was starting to get dark as we followed the I95 north of Bangor, heading toward the Canadian border....That's when we tested the stability control....

It had just gotten dark. I had the lights on and my wife Shelley was sleeping in the passenger seat. I was going about 70MPH in the right hand lane of this divided highway with no cars to be seen. I was alert at that point...not messing with the radio...no cruise control on....both hands on the wheel (sometimes I'm guilty of not being fully alert in that situation). Suddenly I saw a large deer running toward me from the left hand lane. I swerved sharply to the right....onto the shoulder of the road and even then I expected to hear the deer contact the rear of the Tribeca because he was coming so fast (those antlers looked huge!). I pulled back onto the road somehow having avoided the deer. The Tribeca handled extremely well during this maneuver and I expect the stability control kicked in to keep me from losing control. As I said, I was extremely grateful for the handling of the tribeca and I was glad we managed to not damage it (only 200 miles on it at that point). I'm not sure what noise I made or what words came out of my mouth when I spotted the deer but Shelley woke up in time to catch a glimpse of it as I swerved away. It all happened very fast but in hindsight I think I was lucky I didn't slam on the brakes as that would have slowed me down enough so that the deer would have definitely hit me.

Being from PEI where we don't have any deer I was extremely vigilant for the rest of the trip. Sure enough, a couple of hours later, I spotted another of the little buggers poised on the right hand side of the road, coming out of the ditch. This time it was standing there waiting to cross and I gave it a wide birth.

So we were happy to arrive home and my parents were happy to have their new Tribeca....damage free.

I think Subaru deserves more attention for the safety of all their vehicles. They should promote it more. I see the VW commercials touting their safety all the time and yet they only get a silver crash test rating...same with Audi. I expect that Subaru is the only company to have all their vehicles claim a gold crast test rating.

Anyway, the Tribeca is a great handling and safe vehicle and I'm glad my family now has 2. Now I'm busy installing those extra's I got. Thanks to Peaty for scoobymods.com for the detailed instructions. About to tackle the puddle lights!

I may post this story on some of the other forums so don't be surprised to read it elsewhere.