Junkyard Gem: 2006 Subaru B9 Tribeca

Since I live in Subaru-crazed Denver and make a point of

visiting all the local self-service wrecking yards

on a regular basis, I have the regular opportunity to photograph

discarded examples of just about every type of Subaru

sold here since the late 1970s. BRATs and Justy 4WDs and even SVXs— I see ’em all the time here. The

original pre-facelift B9 Tribeca

, though,

that’s

a real junkyard rarity. Not many were sold, and the owners of broken ones tend to

repair

them instead of summoning their local U-Wrench yard to send a tow truck. Perseverance paid off, though, when I spotted this clean first-year example in a yard just north of downtown Denver.

It’s an enlarged

Legacy

named after

the kind of hip/expensive neighborhood Subaru

USA’s marketers decided that urban SUV buyers admired. The name induced some cringes (perhaps the Subaru B9

Frogtown

would have been better), but it was this machine’s

face

that inspired comparisons to the

Edsel

and

Aztek

.

The curvaceous interior looks much more science-fictiony than the utilitarian settings found in

Outbacks

and Foresters of the middle 2000s, a welcome return to the

daring designs of the XT

of two decades earlier.

A 3.0-liter boxer-six engine provided 250 horsepower, which was adequate for the two-ton

B9 Tribeca

.

Subaru ditched the B9 part of the name

for the 2008 model year

, along with the goofy face, making the

Tribeca

blend in better with the ever-increasing hordes of upscale

CUVs

then crowding Whole Foods and REI parking lots in Denver. Colorado owners of traditional battered double-digit-horsepower

Subarus covered with brewery and dispensary stickers

were not consulted about the facelift and name change.

This isn’t the first B9 Tribeca I’ve found in my local wrecking yard, but it’s the first one that hadn’t been smashed to hell prior to junkyardization and then picked clean of parts immediately after placement in junkyard inventory. I managed to catch this car before runners from the local Subaru shops descended upon its soon-to-be-denuded carcass.

Watch as a B9 Tribeca (that may be this very Junkyard Gem, 13 years ago) vaporizes, crushes, and generally destroys other SUVs, while

Kansas plays

.