Prices start from a whisker under £29,000 in a move to undercut the Nissan Murano, Volvo XC90 and BMW X5 – the established rivals in this fiercely competitive market sector.
The brand is hoping that the vehicle's high levels of standard specification, the option of a seven-seater and Subaru's undoubted sports appeal will enable dealers to add some useful incremental sales.
The brand is being pragmatic about its volume expectations with 300 sales planned by the end of this year – thanks to an order bank with 100 deposits –- and just 1,000 a year after that.
Although the car may have a price advantage over its competitors it will not be offering a diesel derivative as the brand's first oil burning engine is still a long way off and promised to the Legacy range ahead of anything else. Instead all three derivatives are powered by the Legacy's 3.0-litre 245PS petrol unit which claims 23mpg in the combined fuel consumption cycle. However, Subaru is also considering importing an LPG model.

Trendy target
The real target for the company is the lucrative gas-guzzling US market hence it being named after a trendy part of New York, while the B9 prefix is its internal code which has somehow made it into the public domain. UK models are built in the US but have undergone rear suspension fine tuning for the European market.
“We've got to be realistic about our sales targets as we don't have a diesel,” UK managing director Peter Kinnaird, told Motor Trader.
According to Kinnaird the addition of the vehicle has been welcomed by dealers, especially by those who have already seen it either at Motor Trader's Dealer Drive show in May or one of the many regional agricultural shows it has been displayed at.
“Dealers are enthusiastic about the car as we're an all wheel drive brand but have not had a full size SUV before. There will be a good margin on the car and it's up to them not to give it away. This part of the market is a bit of a jungle but retained margins are vital for successful dealers,” he said.

Conquest sales
Kinnaird expects dealers to see a good proportion of conquest sales although he also admits sales to existing customers are inevitable.
“Dealers will be seeing customers with BMW, Mercedes and Lexus on their shopping lists – I would expect 70 per cent of sales to new customers,” he said.
With such low volumes the brand will not be pushing out the boat when it comes to marketing spend preferring to concentrate on direct mail, regional shows and building a high presence for the car on the internet.
“We're only planning on selling 1,000 units . Even if we spend £1,000 per car that's only going to raise £1m which is relatively small when it comes to ad spends,” he said.
Meanwhile the brand is still looking to grow its network from 89 outlets to an optimum level of over 100 and is looking for more owner-drivers to come on board. While its representation is strong in rural areas it admits it is still weak in the south east and London in particular.
“We're not obsessed with numbers but we would like to eventually get to 115 sites but they need to be of the right quality. For a small brand we need reasonable coverage – the trend in the industry is to have less dealers rather than more. You only have to look at the success of Lexus and Porsche in the JD Power surveys and they don't have a great number of dealers,” he said.

Tribeca at a glance
PRICES: S5 £28,995, SE5 £31,995, SE7 £33,995
ENGINE: 3.0-litre 245PS petrol
STANDARD FEATURES: full time all wheel drive, Emergency Brake Assist, dual zone air conditioning, powered front seats, six-disc CD autochanger
SEATS: five seats standard and seven seats in SE7 model (which also includes DVD system and rear air conditioning)
ON SALE: November