First Drive Review
Most of us on this staff love Mazda. It's one of the few brands that claim to be fun to drive and then actually put solid fun-to-drive engineering behind those words. But a about six years ago, controlling entity Ford gave its U.S. Mazda dealers—if not Mazda purists—something they'd been clamoring for: an SUV. Yeah, hooray. Little more than a rebadged Ford Escape, the Mazda Tribute succeeded in keeping people looking for a small ute from leaving the showroom outright, even if it clearly didn't adhere to the "Zoom-Zoom" mantra that's become the brand's calling card.
To be fair, the Tribute was warmed over slightly by the Mazda engineers at the beginning, resulting in about a six-month delay. However, with all the trucklet's hard points set in stone, the Tribute couldn't escape—so to speak—its Ford origins.
Not that the Tribute is bad. It's not. On a scale of 1 to 10, we'd give the Tribute a 6. By some measures, 6 out of 10 is spectacular; in baseball, for example, that would translate into a batting average of .600, enough to scare pretty much any pitcher. By other standards, 6 out of 10 would earn you an F on say, a history quiz. The Tribute's rating, alas, is neither spectacular nor failing. It's just, well, not great.
