Subaru B9 Tribeca (B9X)

nhsteve

Has anyone heard anything about updates to the nav system?

jerrys2

Just returned from 1800 mile trip, at 70 to 80 averaged 22.5 , the closest I got to 100 was 87 for a few miles ... suspect mpg dropped to around 20. Changed to Mobil 1 at 1k (prior to trip). Based on prior Subaru experience anticipate mpg will improve as I get more miles on the car.

Jerry

foxbat121

If anyone drive anywhere near 100mph, it would be B9Driver IIRC. Do a search on this thread and I think he posted some mileage figures about high speed driving (and get hammerd by other members for driving at that speed). The car is designed for US high travel and runs most efficient between 50 to 70 mph. If I'd take a guess, you'll probably at something around 20 mpg traveling @ 100 mph.

ateixeira

Nope, but I think it takes 2 DVDs that you insert under the driver's seat. Call 800-SUBARU3 and ask them if they have newer updates available for purchase.

I don't think they use the same mapping software that Garmin does, but I know Garmin has an update coming out on 10/15 or so and I can get it for free since I bought mine recently.

NAV was very useful yesterday, coming back on a road trip we used the POI feature (points of interest) to find a place to eat dinner. The way the Garmin works is nice - in real-time it lists the places in order by proximity. For instance I didn't know there were 2 Dennys in Annapolis. Pick one and of course it gives you directions there. We were able to see them on a map to make sure the detour wasn't too long. Very useful!

-juice

cluelesspa

there usually is an update at least once per year. typically purchased. with Chrysler they gave you a card you sent to Alpine for ONE FREE update DVD. that was nice as I waited for a year then updated. as the DVD is typically about half a year old coming from the factory anyway.

as far as software you would need the DVD from Kenwood and not even sure if they need a unique to Subaru Kenwood NAV DVD.

cluelesspa

jeffmc - can't you do most of those things just clicking the lighting knob one click toward ON? the first click should bring on your parking lights? the only difference is that the parking light switch operates with the ignition off.

of am I missing something?

subienewbie2

My guess regarding Navigation functionality (not mapping) software would be that our factory units require unique software.

There are several functionality and user features in Kenwood's after market units that are different or non existent in the factory version.

The fact that our units put up the Subaru logo and also are integrated with the radio and CD player/ DVD system would indicate they could not use after market software.

SOA probably doesn't want us buying from Kenwood when they have us captive so we must deal with them.

subienewbie2

I assume the it is intended for situations where you are going to leave the car unattended & with the key removed or in the off position.

With the B9 if you turn off the ignition the lights turn off to save the battery.

Only the flasher or Parking Light switch work without the key.

ateixeira

While we're at it ...

OK, I encountered a scenario where Subaru's NAV beats the Garmin - time-restricted roads.

"Becky", as I called her, let me use Canal Rd in the AM, which is one-way incoming to the city. "Lady", our Garmin NAV, kept telling me to detour, I guess thinking that at times I'd be going the wrong way. To be fair, the times are odd, not exactly matching the 7-10am and 4-7pm rush hours, but still.

I called Garmin tech support and they said I could set up a POI (point of interest) to warm me that the road ahead might be closed and the NAV might ask me to take the detour, but it would still avoid that road like the plague.

Advantage: Becky.

-juice

cluelesspa

unfortunately my NAV is more like Sybil

and routes me in strange ways around Pittsburgh. Is there a way to say select prefer Large roads or highways using the fastest route method?

I miss that from my old NAV system. I could pick prefer Highways and get a highway solution instead of the NAV taking me on some side street with tons of stops signs that is parallel to the highway but .1 mile shorter!

cluelesspa

is there a setting some place?

Someone said that when they had their front wipers on and put the B9 in reverse, it did a single swipe of the rear wiper. mine doesn't do that. is there a setting for it?

ateixeira

If I recall correctly, you can pick between quickest and shortest routes. I just used quickest.

Becky liked to send me on the highway even for short trips, so my guess is you have shortest selected.

-juice

jeffmc

cluelesspa - you and subienewbie2 have both got it right. It is easier to just turn the lighting stalk than the parking lights switch if you're keeping your accessory power on or engine running. If I'm in a line where I know I'm going to be parked for at least a minute, I just crack a window for ventilation - if it's not raining - turn the key all the way off and hit the parking light switch. It's become a habit, I guess.

c_hunter

If you have the rear wiper on intermittant, it will switch to continuous in reverse. But it has to be on first.

foxbat121

In DC area, the 'quckest' way in NAV is usually the slowest (our highway are more congested than locals). I hope there is a way for me to sepcify a highway to avoid at all times (route 66) ! I really hope SOA could offer the real-time traffic Nav like the one Acura offers.

cluelesspa

nope Sybil sends me the back way quickest way thru side streets. that is the default selection if I remember as well... the roads around Pittsburgh are tricky but the Alpine based NAV system and the one from the Acura both did a 10X better job of mapping out the routes.

one time a few days ago it sent me down this road that was more like an abandon road then useable road. instead of sending me down 2 blocks to a major road parallel to it. I had to turn around and then it kept rerouting me back to that closed road!

cluelesspa

THANKS exactly the info I was looking for... too lazy to look up the manual.

I did have to look up what the button was that turned out to be the wiper defrost button. Pretty COOL. wondered why the front wiper arms were so large.

njdevils1

I was also interested to know if anyone has any comments about this ranking. Just read an article in a local paper referring to J.D. Power ratings and Subaru was rated in the bottom five along with Hyundai, Saturn and Suzuki.
I enjoy my first Subaru (Tribeca), except for the lack of telescoping wheel.
Thanks,
Ross

foxbat121

If you want to judge a car by first 90 days of ownership only, J.D. Power ranking is what you have. If you want to see how reliable the car or brand is, Consumer Report is the one to look for. Some how J.D. Power never give Subaru any favourable rankings. And Consumer Reports always favour Subarus. Call them biased

The fact that Aztek place 3rd in "entry SUV" and all Koran cars top each category says it all about JD Power rankings.

I'm on my 4th Subaru now. And that just speaks my satisfaction for myself.

stever

JD Power rankings go out to 5 years, depending on which study you look at. We have the JD Power Power Circle rankings on many of the cars here at Edmunds. My '97 Outback gets 3 and 4 stars in their Long Term Dependability rating for example (link).

I haven't seen them publish results correlating the Initial (90 day) study with the longer term ones unless the IQS fine print talks about that somewhere.

Steve, Host

subienewbie2

You need to refer to the Nav Manual & play around]d with the setting.

When you enter a destination and touch the checkered flag it usually gives 3 choices: quickest (which is normally wanting to use all Highway & toll roads. Shortest ( is usually just what it says the shortest route in distance) this could be any combo of roads. I really don't remember the 3rd but think it is alternative route.

I also think you can block road types in the setup area. So if your Highways are always congested - you can deselect them from the options offered by the nav.

cptplt

there was an article in the WSJ a year back addressing the very issue of the early vs late "quality" in JDP surveys. Things which it pointed out were that some GM cars came top in the initial survey - IIRC the Buick Regal, and that car, along with other luxury brands esp German ones which did fairly well early on were slipping badly after a year or two of ownership when "dependable" types like the Hondas/Toyotas(which also do quite well on initial surveys) and ones like Subaru (which aren't great on initial survey) do very well after several years ownership.

foxbat121

JD Power rankings go out to 5 years, depending on which study you look at.

The one I talked about is initial 90-day survey. My guess it kind make sense for Korean cars when most owners are first time new car buyers. It will be their best car ever owned :confuse: so far.

aka1

When you have the parking lights on via the stalk mounted switch, the interior lights go on as well... Switching on the parking lights via the steering column, only turns on the parking light without any interior lights (dash mounted lights). The last Volvo I had, 95 850 GLT that you could turn the dash mounted dial to parking, and if the ignition key was out, the interior lights would stay off as well. This design eliminates the need for an extra switch: cost efficient and less things to go wrong down the road.

I wrote in a post a couple of weeks ago about the rear wiper going on automatically when put in reverse, I had the front wipers on LO and the rear ones were completely off (if I recall correctly), when put in reverse the rear wiper "swiped" once. I'll confirm as soon as the next rain here...

AKA

AKA

cluelesspa

I usually select Quickest which if you dont select any of the routes is the default or if you just hit START without selecting. so it should take me via the highways. and yes Alternate is the 3rd route.

but in Pittsburgh Quickest doesn't usually pick the highways here. I guess our roads are too complex for it to figure out. And I dont want to have to select waypoints to get it force the highway route. you can deselect I think Major Roads, Toll Roads, Limited Access Time Roads and Ferries I think are the four allow or disallow...

stever

Korean cars

Perhaps, perhaps not. :shades:

Comparison Test: Hyundai Sonata Takes on the Accord and Camry (If you don't want to read the test, the Sonata handily dethroned the twin kings of the family sedan segment).

It's a bit early to tell what the long term results are going to be for the Tribeca, but looking at the reliability of other Subaru models should be a pretty good indicator.

Steve, Host

cluelesspa

aka1 that was the posting I was talking about. I tried to get it to swipe once but it does not work that way on mine. I am guessing you had it on rear intermittent already before you started the car? but that should have put it on all the time when in reverse.

I did get mine to go to full on when its in intermittent and you put in reverse It would be cool if it operated as well like AKA says but I could not get mine to work that way with the front ON and the Rear OFF and put it into reverse.

megreyhair

The software in the B9 is different then the one from Kenwood. 2 things are missing that I can find. 1 is voice commands, you tell it what to do, NOT the nav telling u to turn left or right. The second one is alt route calculation based on REAL TIME traffic report. The Europe version has it for free while the Kenwood US version requires subcription and XM radio.

IAW, we will need to wait for SOA

subienewbie2

My annual policy renewed last week and this is the first time I looked closely at the rates. I was shocked to find that my new B9 is costing me almost as much as my $60K Infinity that it replaced.

When I called my insurer to question the premium they informed me that when it comes to safety, the B9 is at the top of heap when it comes to protecting its occupants, thus it enjoys a very low rate medical but that it is among the most expense cars to insure due the extremely high costs to repair it & that it causes much more damage to other vehicles in a collision.

Has any one else found this?

saedave

This seems strange. My 2005 Outback VDC lowered my rates very significantly from what they had been with a VW Passat W8 wagon. Since the B9 is derived from the Outback, its crash damage would appear to be similar.

Perhaps there is no data yet and the insurance company is just being prudent.

cluelesspa

mine was like $50 more per 6 months then my Pacifica (same value of SUV as the B9 when new approx $38k). so in essecence it was the same. State Farm insurance

c_hunter

What model year was your infiniti? What had it depreciated to when you replaced it with the B9? That would have to figure in as well.

I am not surprised that it would cost a lot to repair the B9 in a frontal collision -- given how large the plastic front nose piece is, any small damage to any region of the nose would require a whole new nose. That has got to be expensive.

Craig

subienewbie2

The Q45 was a 2002 & replaced this year.

The residual was about 28000, but the premiums for changed very little while I had.

I'm with progressive - one car - good driver rating and they are whacking me 899.00 every 6 months.

Here the detail:
BODILY INJURY & PROPERTY DAMAGE LIABILITY $378.00
BI $100,000 EACH PERSON - $300,000 EACH ACCIDENT
PROPERTY DAMAGE LIABILITY - $100,000 EACH ACCIDENT
MEDICAL PAYMENTS $5,000 EACH PERSON $12.00
COMPREHENSIVE ACV LESS $500 DEDUCTIBLE $53.00
COLLISION ACV LESS $500 DEDUCTIBLE $419.00
RENTAL REIMBURSEMENT $40/DAY FOR MAX OF 30 DAYS $28.00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Premium by Vehicle $890.00
Policy Level Coverages
Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Bi $9.00
$100,000 Each Person - $300,000 Each Accident
Total Policy Premium $899.

This rate is for a town in rural Illinois

ANY Thoughts?

foxbat121

I'm with Progressive as well. Insurance premium went up a small amount when I replaced my 98 OB with B9. Sounds reasonable to me. At the time (July, 05) they don't even have B9 in their database.

cptplt

its the highest I pay on any of my cars but its still only about 750/yr, my WRX is about 660

jay_24

ANY Thoughts?

Yes. Switch to a different company. In theory you can even use Progressive's web site to check other companies prices.

I have USAA and pay $650ish for my OB wagon and $600 on our Tahoe (4x4) per year. Our previous Plymount GrandVoyager was sometwhere in-between.

--jay

stever

My coverage is similar to yours but my cars are older so I only pay $720. A year. Are you guys subsidizing Chicago way down there or something? I shop rates every couple of years and change companies about every 5; I think I'd compare rates at least.

That reminds me, I got some good coverage advice recently over in the Questions About Auto Insurance & Accidents discussion.

Steve, Host

foxbat121

Insurance rates vary dramatically from region to region. For example, I pay $680/6-month for my WRX and B9 together. It's useless to compare them if you're not in the same area.

foxbat121

for both front and side impact. SOA Press Release

tidester

What do you pay for insurance? may also be helpful.

tidester, host

kmartin

I know that the rate on my '05 Outback went down slightly AFTER all of the crash and rollover tests were completed, some six months after I bought it in May of '04. I actually got a refund of all of $12 :-) Maybe this will be the case for the B9, but with more significant savings???

-Karen in AZ-

jeffmc

That's super news! I was wondering how long it was gonna take for those side impact results. Now we just need the rollover ratings and we'll have the complete set.

Here's the link to the NHTSA site with B9 Tribeca's detailed results, if you like to look at the numbers:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ncap/cars/3797.html

ateixeira

Good news for Subaru, they needed that.

Maybe your insurance will drop now.

Let's see about the tougher IIHS tests. I'm hoping for a Best Pick front and side.

As for the surveys, ask yourself what matters more: the first 90 days, when you are under a full warranty, or long-term, 5 years +, when you are not?

To me the answer is easy.

-juice

x5killer

I'm going to look at Pep Boys today for the Sylvania Silverstar H7 (low beam) and H3 (fog light) for my beca and I will see what if any H9 (high beam) bulbs they have that will be more like a xenon or whiter/bluish brighter light upgrade to the current highbeams. I don't care about high beam as much and think when i changed bulbs on my pathfinder not sure I even bothered with the high but I guess it would be stupid to have this nice white low beam and then a yellowish high beam

If pepboys doesnt' have any other decent H9 upgrade since Sylvania supposedly doesnt' make I'll order 2 from http://www.v-mod.com/shop/viewProductGroupDetails.asp?CID=64&PID=2490

for 11.95.

Speaking of my old pathfinder, the headlights were kind of a pain to change. How hard/easy is it on the Tribeca? I may just take them to the shop to have them put them in as it might not be ready until Friday now for a total of 3 weeks I will have been without her. I figure the bulb upgrades will be one small thing that will make my beca better then before she went in the shop.

I wanted to get the chrome center caps but didnt' get around to it and would have to find a place that can dip my current ones and then I would want to order 4 factory replacement center caps (non chrome) to put on during bad snow/salt.

Anyone get the factory chrome rims yet? OEMrims.com does it but they never got back to me about the caps and I think you have to send them your current ones which they either dip or switch out with chrome ones and sending them out is a pain. I wish they could just send me 4 chrome center caps and then I'd still have my original ones.

onestar

Dont bother with the blue coated bulbs (whoever makes them). They are junk.

megreyhair

Headlight change in B9... WHAT A PAIN. After taking off the rubber cap, there is a screw that hold the clip that hold the bulb in place.. Its easy to unscrew the screw but every difficult to keep it on the end of the screwdriver, even with a magnetic tip, and not having the screw fall into god knows where...

The passenger side is a little easier see but the driver side is a pain becasue the batt. is in the way.....
Good luck!!!!!!!!
I think you will need it....

ateixeira

Would a short screw driver help?

Or maybe put a dab of thick grease on the tip to help the nut stick to it.

-juice

saustin

Hi,
Just got back from 14 hours on turnpike (NJ, NY, CT, PA, MD) roads this past weekend and was wondering if anyone was as frustrated with the front window defrost & AC system as we were. Constantly had to put the ac and defrost off and on as the front window fogged up and then turn the ac off as my wife turned into ice. Any suggestions for keeping this even appreciated. Car drove perfectly but this is VERY ANNOYING in a luxury vehicle.

subienewbie2

When conditions cause windows to fog up - you need to keep the A/C running in order to de-humidify the cabin. That said, you do not need to run it at a cold temp setting. Raise the temp setting until you are comfortable.

Once the cabin is dehumidified you can turn off the the defrost/de-fog mode - but leave the system in the auto mode (the a/c compressor on) so it can maintain the humidity at a reasonable level so the windows do not fog up again.

c_hunter

I agree completely -- leave A/C on but turn the temperature up to something comfortable. I take it from the original message, saustin, that you were not using the climate control in "AUTO". That would also have minimized the problem as it runs A/C almost all the time, even when the heat is on. Remember that one of the main functions of A/C is to dehumidify.

After watching my wife duel with auto climate control for several years, my advice to people is stop fighting it. Put it on AUTO, or another mode like DEFROST, and then tailor the comfort level with the temperature knob only. That's how these systems are meant to work. If you go any deeper, you're better off in full manual mode.

I believe one downfall of Subaru's climate control interface is that they tell you too much information. On an Acura, the only thing you see/control in AUTO mode is the temperature. They have dumbed it down to the point of one input and one display. Subaru shows you temp, fan speed, vent mode, etc... and it ends up confusing the heck out of everybody. Not to mention the fact that there is a self-possesed semi-automatic mode between full AUTO and full manual that can be confounding.

Craig