I regret buying my 2004 Mazda Tribute. I was looking for a 4 wheel-drive SUV to replace my '93 Toyota 4Runner. I'm glad I haven't sold my 4Runner yet. At least I still have one predictable driving vehicle to drive in the winter. I live in eastern Canada, Newfoundland actually, and I wanted to buy my first new car. Naturally it had to be 4 wheel-drive or at least all wheel-drive and a SUV to carry the wife, kids and dog.
I test drove the Liberty(gas guzzler), Rav4(too dinky), Escape, and tribute. I like the Escape and the Tribute when I test drove them in the summer. They handled well, were very peppy and was just the right size. Also the specs say a gas mileage of 18/23. The Tribute's interest rate was 3.9% vs. the Escape's 4.9%. All seemed wonderful. So I bought the darned Tribute.
Now I know winter driving like the best of them. I made sure the Mazda dealership (PennyMazda) threw in studded winter tires before I bought it. I thought it would be great in the snow what with it being all wheel-drive and you can lock it in 4 wheel-drive. So much for assumptions.
The darned thing is really hard to control in the snow. When you try to get out into traffic it understeers like a front wheel-drive car and when the front wheels spin, the rear wheels engage with a kick that makes it oversteer like a rear wheel-drive truck. It almost wants to do a 180 every time. So in order to get out into traffic you have to lock it into 4 wheel-drive to avoid it wanting to do a doughnut. That's a pretty poor all wheel-drive system if you ask me.
Also if there are any rutts in the road from ice or snow build up, good luck trying to get it out of the rutts. It just bounces around as you try to steer it out of them.
Also, just trying to steer when driving on snow while going downhill is like riding a crazy carpet. It just goes where ever it wants.
So it's a big dissapointment in winter driving. Then there are the little things that frustrate me that I foolishly didn't notice before I bought it. Like the fact that there isn't any light in the glove box or a light on the ignition to show where to put the key in when it's dark.
There seems to be something weird with the throttle. When you press on the gas peddle lightly, at first nothing happens then about 1 or 2 seconds later the engine starts to rev so you can't smoothly roll out into traffic or away from a stop sign. Either that or you push the peddle down a lot and speed away.
The ignition switch was broken when I bought it. When you took the key out, the ignition switch thought the key was still in and would sound the chime. The same chime you hear if you left your headlights on. So the dealership replace the ignition switch at no cost to me but when I got my Tribute back the fuse pannel cover was on the floor in the footwell and the clear plastic cover over the instrument readout(tach, speedo) was scratched up. It took them all day to do the work, I guess it was a warranty job so no need to rush. The service manager took the Tribute for a test drive when I told him about the lag with the throttle and he noticed it too but doesn't think there is anything he can do about it. It's just the way it is, although I test drove a different color Tribute before and it wasn't lagging. Another stupid thing I have to bring it back to the dealership for is to find out why the passenger side mirror keeps popping out of it's encasing. It's a good thing it's a heated mirror because the wire attached it the only thing that stops it from falling off completely. When I go back for this problem I and going to make them replace the clear plastic they scratched over the speedometer as well.
I am only getting on average 13 miles per gallon. So much for the specs saying 18/23. I get about 280Kms per tankfull.
I would recommend this car only to someone who doesn't want it for winter driving and has a second vehicle.
Amount Paid (US$): 28960CDN
Condition: New
Model Year: 2004
Model and Options: Auto, 4wheeldrive, Air, CD