This midsize crossover, with available seating for seven, still might not much be to look at, but what a personality.

Anyone who keeps up with the supermarket gossip mags — or the same stories e-mailed to you by friends whose jobs don’t keep them busy enough — can speculate on the worst face-lifts and other medical alterations this year. But I’m here to tell you about the best one I’ve seen: the 2008 Subaru Tribeca.

Subaru has always been at the heart of a counterculture that Santa Fe knows well: wagons, all-wheel drive and lightweight efficiency. The rest of the world started to take notice when Subaru butched up its stalwart Legacy wagon — more ground clearance, unique paintjob, an off-road-ready name — to create the Outback.

Hitching a ride on the SUV wave made the company immeasurably hip, both in our town and in the real world. Then Subaru tried its hand at an actual SUV, and the results were decidedly mixed: The B9 Tribeca had a name no one understood, and the new corporate nostrils on the front led many potential buyers to hide their eyes.

Back in action

Introduced only about two years ago, now isn’t really the time in the Tribeca’s product cycle for a major refreshing. But anyone who came face-to-face with the original can tell you change couldn’t have come a minute too early. Sales had been underwhelming, and Subaru listened.

Gone is the polarizing nose, replaced by one that could have come from Chrysler or Kia — anyone really. But that’s not a bad thing. Crossovers — meaning those tall, all-wheel-drive vehicles that trace their roots back to cars instead of pickups — are now outselling truck-based SUVs, but this is still a nascent niche. As long as they aren’t too awkwardly styled, what they look like doesn’t matter so much (see only that the difficult RX is the best-selling Lexus to know how little looks matter in this market).

And if looks aren’t a deciding factor, the Tribeca is now within the realm of reason. Actually it’s now quite handsome, but the face-lift is only the first step of Subaru’s plan to help the Tribeca fight its way back onto shopping lists.

More for less

Once car buyers take a new look at the Tribeca, they’ll see other meaningful changes, the biggest of which is a new engine. Normally this is bad: With each new generation, most cars get a bigger engine, and fuel economy often suffers. This is not a clear path into the future. But Subaru has worked some magic here. Replacing the former 3.0-liter six-cylinder is a new 3.6-liter unit. Horsepower is bumped from 245 to 256 while torque jumps from 215 to 247, a measurable improvement in a heavy vehicle: Torque is the force that allows an engine to move all that weight.

But the wily change is that the new engine only asks for regular unleaded, instead of pricier premium, for maximum performance. While it might look like fuel economy has suffered — down to 16/21 from 18/23 for the old engine — blame the difference on recent changes in how the EPA measures fuel economy for 2008-model vehicles. According to www.fueleconomy.gov, the new Tribeca’s numbers would have been an identical 18/23 using the old formula.

And this new engine is a good one: smooth but firm, and quiet as it revs — a welcome change for owners of past Subarus accustomed to engines sounding like they’re fighting their way out from under the hood. It easily powered the Tribeca up the winding road to the Pecos Wilderness area on our drive.

On the treacherously narrow road, hugging blind mountain curves, the Tribeca fit, feeling smaller as the runoff areas shrank. The five-speed automatic has been improved, Subaru says, with a new lockup torque converter and control unit that deliver faster shifts and quicker reaction times. The new transmission delivers smoother shifts with less lag and weighs less than the previous system — a reduction of 9.7 pounds overall for the new drivetrain.

They are a good match. The transmission is quick to jump down a gear when necessary and smart enough that there’s rarely need to shift it yourself through the gear lever. The engine happily zings up through the revs and never feels as though it’s struggling: It simply pours on the power as the Tribeca accelerates.

Though a bigger SUV was a leap for Subaru, the Tribeca handles with the deft touch we’ve come to expect from the company. It feels low to the ground and well-planted, eager to tackle narrow corners and never giving drivers reason to doubt its abilities.

This is a rare trick, even for a crossover, to feel so connected to the ground: Floaty is often the order of the day, in order to preserve the light ride expected of a peoplehauler. And the Tribeca feels remarkable in that respect, as well: Bumps are deflected with a minimum of disruption, delivering a peaceful ride for passengers even as the driver is cruising at a challenging-enough clip to keep himself entertained.

Compromised inside

It’s a shame, then, that the cosseting of the passengers is pretty much limited to the ride. The Tribeca offers seven seats, a new expectation in this market, but those seats are short on space and a bit tricky to maneuver.

Because full legroom in the second row only happens when the seats are pushed all the way back against the cushions of the third row, it takes the action of a few levers to gain access to the wayback. And once people are stowed in the two rear rows, only smaller adults and children will be happy with the available legroom for any trip longer than to the soccer game.

The GMC Acadia, along with its cousins, the Buick Enclave and Saturn Outlook, offer far superior accommodations in the rear two rows, and that trio does it for competitive prices while looking, subjectively, even more handsome and tailored than the Tribeca.

This is the tradeoff for tidier dimensions, making the Tribeca relatively nimble, both on twisty roads and in a parking lot: Those third-row seats, if you opt for them, aren’t meant to be used everyday.

The accommodations for the front-seat passengers are, by contrast, decidedly first-class. The center console was pretty much untouched in the refreshing, but a navigation system is now offered. I’ve never warmed to the dashboard design, with its swoopy metallic sweep and gauges that seem to be staring at you through crossed eyes, but the style has plenty of fans.

I also don’t like that, in order to change the temperature, you have to pick at the dial, one degree at a time. But that’s likely because I go to work when it’s daylight (and hot) and return late at night (when things have well cooled off).

So, the Tribeca’s interior styling is a matter of taste — the big step is that the exterior no longer is.

Jay Binneweg is automotive editor at The New Mexican. E-mail him at drive@sfnewmexican.com.

2008 Subaru Tribeca

• Price as tested: $31,640
• Type: Front-engine, all-wheel-drive, five- or seven-passenger crossover
• Drivetrain: DOHC 24-valve 3.6-liter horizontally opposed six producing 256 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 247 pound-feet of torque at 4,400 rpm; five-speed automatic
• EPA mileage: 16 /21, regular unleaded
• Length: 191.5 inches
• Wheelbase: 108.2 inches
• Curb weight: 4,190 pounds
• Built in: Lafayette, Ind.

Good guys salvage a bad day

Driving the latest Subaru was a pleasure, but it brought back mixed memories: Years ago, I had a big idea.

With the return of all-wheel drive to BMW’s 3 Series and Subaru’s decision to finally bring its amazing turbocharged WRX to the U.S., I wanted to compare five AWD sport sedans.

To take photos of them in a way that would work with the four-seasons photo illustration I wanted, we had to beg dealers to let us borrow them.

Long story short, in the chaos of multiple cars and drivers, we bent a new WRX borrowed from Garcia Subaru in Albuquerque. Mortified, we slunk back. But the people there were so understanding, accommodating and helpful, I was amazed. It made a horrifying day easier to survive.

It took me another year-plus to finally write and have the photo illustration finished — if you can believe it — and, by then, the WRX was ready for a face-lift. But I learned a lesson: The big car magazines can do these things because they have insured staffs. Now I’d rather just take one car for a drive.

There’s no mention of our folly in it, but I’ve posted the story here. — JB