[evlB9]

Actually not rants, just my take on the 'becca. We have had ours since March of '06 and have over 30,000mi on it. It is fantastic. We use it for all of our travel and trips. I actually got rid of my Ford Escape because of this thing. It has been to Florida x2, Colorado and many trips to South West NYS. We have a 5 passenger base 'becca. Tan cloth seats, I think the colour is WAY TO LIGHT, but it has held up fine. After reading thru the posts here are a few other thoughts.

1. Our milage is about 17 - 19mpg in city driving (Dayton, Oh)
25mpg consistant on the highway. I drive 72mph, found that works best
for avoiding the Police.
We use a Tule pod on top for ski season and big trips. It usually only drops
the milage to 23mpg or so. Although I have gotten 25 - 26mpg with the
pod. The wind at our back.............

2. We use the higher octane (91) fuel. When we tested with the lower
octane (89) we found that the 'becca would "hunt" for the proper gear
even on flat level ground. We have mixed 1/2 tank each, 91 and 89 and
gotten good results.

3. This thing is a BEAST in the snow!!!! I was pleasently suprised about the
tires and snow. I did not feel that the Goodyear's would do very well, but
they ate it up last year. I still am not impress over all with Goodyear. Tire
life, total miles, I have never been impressed with. I am already looking
for tires, problably next September or so. Should be around 45,000mi. I
need good tires for the snow that we travel to.

4. Windshield wipers.......... SUCK!!! Already replaced them, at 15,000mi, and
need to again, at 30,000mi. Not happy with "subaru specific" blades that
it requires. They are expensive and don't last long. Someone got them
replaced under warrenty..... Great dealer, mine won't. And I feel we have
a great dealer. I have, on order, a set of 2008 wiper arms. But, they are
still on back order. They look like a straight replacement and you can put
on any wiper bought in a store. 2007 owners, are your wiper arms like the
2006 or the 2008?? Just wondering.

5. We have the trailor hitch (factory) pulls just fine. Although we just have
a small utility trailor, have not pulled anything big.

6. Did'nt get the "nav" system, bought a Tom Tom. Move it to the LGT and
it works good enough for us.... My son love the big back windows, he
can see everything. My wife just loves how it drives, not intimidating
to her. Drives like a car and she loves it.

7. Only complaints.... Could have a bigger sun room, Forester size. The
interior is too light coloured, although I see you now can get the Blue
with the grey interior. That would have been much better. Engine and
tranny. I would like to drive the '08 and see how the little change in
HP and torque with the change in the tranny works out. Oh and the
89 octane fuel would be a little nicer.

But all in all we love this vehicle.......... I give it a 9 out of 10. And we would buy another. Mid size SUV that is just enough different from everyone else. And the AWD is flawless.........

My god this turned out long..... SORRY
But thanks for listening.

 

[Magic Marker]

4. Windshield wipers.......... SUCK!!! Already replaced them, at 15,000mi, and
need to again, at 30,000mi. Not happy with "subaru specific" blades that
it requires. They are expensive and don't last long. Someone got them
replaced under warrenty..... Great dealer, mine won't. And I feel we have
a great dealer. I have, on order, a set of 2008 wiper arms. But, they are
still on back order. They look like a straight replacement and you can put
on any wiper bought in a store. 2007 owners, are your wiper arms like the
2006 or the 2008?? Just wondering.

2008 wiper arms will fit our 2007? Yes to your question, 06-07 have the same fat Subaru wiper arms. We only have 11k on our 07 and had the dealer replace them under warrenty. No issues. He did it no problem. I love the way the 06-07 arms look, but I hate that you can only use specific Subaru refills.

I can't wait to take it out into the snow. It's gonna be fun. We have a Garmin and just use that for Navi.

 

[ralliartist]

great write up and I have to agree with everything.

only complaints are that the wipers suck. and I would also like to drive an '08 to see about the new hp and tq and tranny adjustments.

 

[crazycanuck]

We just bought a used 06' base beca. it had cloth seats and the PO was a smoker. For $1600 the dealer installed brand new leather... let me tell you, if you are in the market for a used beca with cloth seats, putting brand new leather is money well spent!!! Its like having a brand new car... interior at least, the smoky smell is 90% gone. Apparently there is a aftermarket kit that is made for the beca... of course, you will have to have a professional install it for you. We too use the Tom tom as our navi.

We just had winter tires and rims put on... next accessory, puddle lights, rear bumer guard and aero bars.

 

[bionicbadger]

My comments after 4 months of driving a 2008:

I'm still getting used to the tires in the snow. They aren't terrible, but they sure aren't winter tires. You can slide pretty easily if you want to. I do have an extra set of factory rims I got off ebay for cheap I can use for mounting winter tires, but thought I would try the factory tires for the first winter since they still have lots of tread depth. (Also the fact that the Nokian SUV winter tires I want for the tribeca are $$$$)

The front center armrest thingy attracts dirt like crazy and we've had to cover it with a small cloth to try and keep it clean.


The retractable cargo cover is mostly useless unless you aren't carrying much in the back. They way its mounted prevents you from loading up a bunch of junk in the back, so I've been driving around most of the time without it.

Starts easily in cold weather.

Heater works great and it blows warm air quickly even at -20C
The lower/foot vents don't seem to move that much air compared to the main side vents.

Haven't had an issue with wipers yet, but its only been 4 months.

Rear seatbacks seems to get dirty/scuffed pretty easily.

Still waiting for a factory block heater for the 2008 to come out.

Overall really happy with it though.

 

[Magic Marker]

The retractable cargo cover is mostly useless unless you aren't carrying much in the back. They way its mounted prevents you from loading up a bunch of junk in the back, so I've been driving around most of the time without it.

Good to know. I was going to pick one up on eBay. Now I'll save some $.

Haven't had an issue with wipers yet, but its only been 4 months.

I have a bad feeling that I'm gonna have issues with the wipers once the snow comes.

 

[crazycanuck]

do the american beca's have the windshield wiper heaters?

 

[bionicbadger]

I have them on my US 2008 that I imported

 

[ralliartist]

Yes the american beca's have the wiper heaters. I know this because I recently had to replace my windsheild cause of a strong wind storm blew a branch into it and the glass place was astonished at how much the winsheild cost to replace and they told me it had partly to do with the wiper heaters.

 

[evlB9]

do the american beca's have the windshield wiper heaters?

Yah, they have wiper heaters. And they work great. My problem with the wipers is the rubber part. They seem to wear out awful quick and are expensive to replace. You can't just go to Walmart, Target, Auto Zone etc/ and get replacement wipers or wiper inserts. The wipers will not attach to the wiper arms and the inserts are just a little wider so they don't fit. That means...... Subaru specific wiper blades! Not happy. So I ordered the wiper arms off of a 2008 Tribeca. They are different. Just checked with my dealer today, the arms are no longer on 'backorder' and should be here soon. I'll let everyone know how it works, and take pics

 

[ziggy]

Do the '08 arms accept non Subaru blades?

I would like to get winter blades for my '08 and would like to not have to buy Subaru (expensive) ones.

 

[evlB9]

Do the '08 arms accept non Subaru blades?

I would like to get winter blades for my '08 and would like to not have to buy Subaru (expensive) ones.

Yes, the same as almost everyother vehicle on the road. That why I ordered them. (I hope they fit) They look like they should. And I think they were less than $60.00 (American) each....

 

[bionicbadger]

Ok, another rant...

It warmed up somewhat this weekend and there was fresh snow, so the roads were really messy. The tribeca drives great though this stuff, but the muck gets all over the sides of it (caked on pretty thick, over 1" in some spots), and between the door and body, especially the rear doors. When I open up the back doors, there is a bunch of brown sandy muck caked in the rear corner at the end of the door opening, and covers some of the horizontal and vertical parts of the frame that you see when you open the door. I've never had anything like that on other cars I drive, usually the door seals reasonable well.

Has anyone else noticed something like this on their tribeca?
Any Ideas what I can do to preven this? different door seals? Running boards?

 

[Magic Marker]

Yeah, I noticed that a fair amount of debris will accumulate in the rear door. I really don't understand why. I guess as long as it's not getting into the car, it's ok. As for getting dirty, I guess it's just part of driving an SUV.

BTW, I don't have OE mud flaps. They don't look very substantial and I don't think they would even help.

 

[bionicbadger]

I have the OE "splashguards" they don't seem to do much

 

[Riceman]

I got an 08 and I hate these Goodyear Eagle LS-2 tires with a passion.
They are absolutely horrible in the winter!
I've had a few slides which caught me off guard, these things have no traction. I thought they might have been summer tires till I looked them up and the ratings confirmed how bad they are in the snow.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Eagle+LS-2&partnum=555HR8ELS2&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&place=27&speed_rating=H&speed_rating=V&speed_rating=Z&speed_rating=W&speed_rating=Y&speed_rating=(Y)&minSpeedRating=H

Big disappointment this winter. Actually got stuck in the snow getting out of my own driveway on the first big snowfall too. It was shameful. A stanger helped push me out and said "I thought these things were unstoppable in the winter". I was so pissed, more embarrassed, but still pissed.

Our 2001 Outback (on new tires too) was absolutely fine.

Oh, the stock wiper blades on the 2008 still suck too. Can we just slap on those Michelin one-piece blades?
The driver side sprayer seems to be misaligned on mine too. Shoots into the air and the wind blows the spray onto the windshield. Is that an easy do it yourself fix?

 

[njjuliano]

Oh, the stock wiper blades on the 2008 still suck too. Can we just slap on those Michelin one-piece blades?
The driver side sprayer seems to be misaligned on mine too. Shoots into the air and the wind blows the spray onto the windshield. Is that an easy do it yourself fix?

The spray is designed to be a bit high for the times when you use it on the road to hit exactly as you mentioned. Its not meant to miss the car entirely when stationary though.

 

[snork]

I haven't checked the manual to see if the wiper spray nozzles are easily adjusted, but a simple way to adjust them is to stick a push pin in the nozzle and use that to adjust it into position. Just push the pin in a bit and pull it down, be sure not to use a pin that is not too long or you could potentially pierce the plastic feed tubing, another reason not to push it in too far is so you don't snap it off in the nozzle And if you do, you still wanna be able to pull it out w/ some needle nose pliers

 

[Riceman]

The spray is designed to be a bit high for the times when you use it on the road to hit exactly as you mentioned. Its not meant to miss the car entirely when stationary though.

What's weird is that the passenger side spray seems more normal. The driver side is defiantely "higher" than the passenger side. That's not right is it?

 

[Riceman]

I haven't checked the manual to see if the wiper spray nozzles are easily adjusted, but a simple way to adjust them is to stick a push pin in the nozzle and use that to adjust it into position. Just push the pin in a bit and pull it down, be sure not to use a pin that is not too long or you could potentially pierce the plastic feed tubing, another reason not to push it in too far is so you don't snap it off in the nozzle And if you do, you still wanna be able to pull it out w/ some needle nose pliers

Yea, I was thinking something like this too. I'll get at it on the weekend hopefully.