Heavenly days! Well, I can appreciate why she might feel this way after just
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| "You know I normally love Subarus right? But you're not going to make me drive this all week are you?" said my wife. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
giving back a Volvo XC70, which offers the most comfortable front seats in the industry, as well as a Chrysler Pacifica that we had during the same week-long testing period, which exemplifies the domestic brand's many years of experience building people haulers - it's a superbly designed crossover by the way. But Jennifer stipulated that she needed a seven-occupant vehicle for this week, as her sister and two nephews were in town, so therefore she was stuck with the Tribeca, like it or not. Being that we had multiple trips to her mothers, taking about an hour each way, plus one to her step dad's, at about an hour and a half, I knew I'd get plenty of time behind the wheel too, so I felt she could manage OK. I told her to give it some time, and maybe she would grow to like it. But I had already become frustrated with the Tribeca for other reasons, and therefore was brewing up my own biases. For instance, I had to outfit it with the two child safety seats, as just mentioned, and in so doing decided it would be interesting to take a seat in the third row. OK, getting back there is no easy task. First, you need to be on the passenger side of the vehicle. Subaru provides a lever on the seatback of the second row passenger side only, which will flick the seatback down a bit while rolling the lower cushion forward, allowing a narrow opening almost large enough to fit a shoe.
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| The third row of seats are a challenge to get in to, and not comfortable once you're wedged back there. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press) |
Prior to stepping into the rear, make sure and move all seats forward so that there's enough room for your feet once seated. And watch your elbows when sitting down. I banged mine on the hard plastic armrest-cum-cupholders, which are too high to rest your arm on yet interrupt the seating area so much that I didn't really have a choice but to stick my elbow in the cupholder itself, and that was uncomfortable. There was plenty of headroom for my 5-foot, eight-inch frame, however, which incidentally is not the case in Chrysler's Pacifica, so Subaru's crossover should be ample for any of your sub-15 year old kids. The legroom, however, is more than abbreviated unless the second row is shifted forward, which of course, lessens legroom between it and the front seats.
