Interior

First off, I’m annoyed that the Tribeca doesn’t have a telescoping steering wheel. This invention makes a world of difference for us shorter drivers, and I get a little annoyed when crossovers don’t incorporate this fabulous feature.

There were a bunch of little issues with the Tribeca that added up to major annoyances for me. The jet-cockpit-inspired dash looks cool when you’re peeking at it through the window; in reality, its metallic-looking plastic swoosh, which houses the center stack’s buttons, is a problem. I couldn’t read some of the buttons because they faced the passenger side; they’re buttons the driver would use, not just the passenger. Another problem was the buttons were metallic-looking with white lettering on them that made them difficult to read. The metallic-colored plastic of the center stack also reflected sunlight; it wasn’t blinding, but it glowed just enough to remind me it was there. I often found myself wishing for a cloudy day when I was test-driving this car.

The Tribeca’s vents are droopy-looking rectangles that look weird. Their placement is odd, too, because the vents follow the swoopy lines of the center stack. The vent adjusters are also on a funky angle, and they kept getting stuck. You could get over this if you gave yourself some time, but who wants to spend time getting over their new car’s vents?

A feature that I liked in the Tribeca was the cord pass-throughs in the center console. The center console houses two 12-volt outlets and an auxiliary jack for your MP3 player. You plug an MP3 player into the jack and feed the cord through a slot between the console and the lid; this allows the lid to close properly.

In the backseat, my kids’ little hands operated the seat belt buckles just fine. I loved the width of the rear bench. The 40/20/40-split seat allowed for plenty of room between my two kids, and the flat bench easily accommodated their booster seats. Nice! The Latch connectors and the tether anchor were easy to access. In the backseat area, there are a set of cupholders in the center armrest and a bin in the rear of the center console for rear passengers to use. Shorter kids won’t be able to reach this cubby, so you’ll need to get everything squared away in the backseat before you leave your driveway. My kids really didn’t have a lot to say about the Tribeca. They were fine in the back and thought it was … fine.

There’s another reason I’m not happy with the Tribeca: the pesky center hump in the backseat floor. Many cars we test now don’t have this hump, and without it that’s a perfect spot for a purse. I needed a spot to carry a foam-core board illustrating a science project, but I couldn’t store it behind the front seats because of the hump. Hmph. That left me to put the board in the rear cargo area. The cargo area itself was just fine and had no shortcomings. If you put the optional third row in there, however, I’m sure it’d be a serious squeeze. If you’re looking for a three-row crossover and plan on larger folks sitting back there for any length of time, I’d try out that third row during a test drive of the Tribeca to see how it really functions.

Storage Compartments (Puny, Fair, Ample, Galore): Fair
Cargo/Trunk Space (Puny, Fair, Ample, Galore): Ample

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