Test Drive Mazda Tribute 2001 - 2007 SUV

Chief applicant

In every class of cars, be it limousines, sports coupe or SUVs, necessarily there is a model that either became the source of this class, or is like his face. And in the car sector for outdoor activities, the so-called SUV, until recently, Toyota RAV4 was this king. Now, apparently, he will have to be sighable - new Mazda Tribute comes to the market!

The struggle in this class of cars is serious, as almost every year is on sale one or two, and sometimes three new models. And each claims if not in the first place in a car hit parade, then at least for a serious piece of cake called the market. And novice, and with the Mazda Tribute, I remind you, and its relative-twin family Ford Maverick comes on sale, it will have to be very difficult. For a successful, but another state of Mazda affairs does not suit, confrontation of competitors and conquest of the Market Olympus, it is necessary not only for nothing to give up such models of other brands, but also to have their own chip, which will make buyers when choosing a car to pay attention to Mazda Tribute. And as shown by our test, such a chip, and not alone, this car has.

In fact, the designers responsible for the appearance of the new Parketnik, you can only sympathize, because their car should be attractive to all groups of buyers. Let's say, look aggressively, but at the same time be quite harmonious and carry some elements of corporate identity. As for the appearance of this car, neither the Mazda Tribute should not cause a feeling of disappointment from his new owner. Usually about such people speak okay, firmly sewn. Although, on the other hand, in his appearance it is difficult to find something outstanding or memorable. Remember how this or that item looked, will be problematic. But the Japanese managed to make individual strokes in the design of the exterior: the proprietary rhinestone rampant radiator makes Tribute brighter and memorable than his fellow Ford Maverick. The interior design of Maverick and Tribute very strongly issues car affiliation to a specific brand. If we talk about the general features of these cars, then their main advantage will be, of course, an incredibly spacious salon. With its not the largest dimensions of Mazda Tribute, thanks to the half-armed layout, please the driver and especially the rear passengers with an incredible space inside. Perhaps, over time, even the seven version of this car will appear, at least the length allows.

Structurally, Mazda Tribute is practically no different from the parkelors that are already struggling on our roads. Although no, there are very serious differences in the transmission, but later, later, I would like to dwell on other pleasant innovations. Joint with Ford Development of the model helped not only save money, but also led some, very uncharacteristic for a Japanese car, features. Let's say a two-dimensional rear door. Depending on the need, you can only open the glass of the fifth door, in order to throw something light, and for more hard things to raise the door entirely. By the way, despite the relatively small height of the car, in the open state, the fifth door turns out to be so high, which allows you to stand under it without being flexing. The rest of the TRIBUTE design is very traditional, but in this case it can be considered only worthy. After all, it is designed by the most fashionable now patterns - independent suspensions of all wheels (rear - multi-dimensional), connected four-wheel drive, carrying the body. And the fact that the car was designed with a pure sheet, and not on a platform of some known car, in this case only positive parties have. In terms of safety, Tribute / Maverick will probably turn out to be headed above earlier, in the sense of debut, models of other firms. Moreover, the company had time to analyze all the disadvantages and advantages of such competitors' SUVs. Therefore, some serious flaws should not be simply. Although I found one small puncture concerning the ergonomics of the driver's workplace: the lever of the handbrake is located to the right of the central tunnel, so it turns out to be a little further from the driver's seat than in the usual car. Of course, if you use it once or twice a month, then there is no problem, but it is constantly tilting the body to the right to get the handbrake, completely inconvenient.

The driving qualities of all-wheel drive SUVs with independent front and rear suspensions are largely dependent on how closer to the asphalt is positioned by one or another model. Let's say, the short-terrestrial, sweating elastic suspension will be very good with an aggressive driving style and in general on good roads, but at the road, the driving quality cars will be much worse than the car with a soft, long-time suspension. Therefore, each manufacturer, which produces the next parquetnik, determines which characteristics of the suspension are priority - road or off-road. And, apparently, the creators of Mazda Tribute preferred asphalt, reasonably suggesting that everyday trips around the city or highway for this car would be more familiar than the Paris-Dakar type rally. Although, in my opinion, the designers still stopped a bit in their desire to give to some degree off-road car with a high center of gravity of the sports car chants.

The suspension is a bit rigid, especially if you are not going on asphalt: the whole little thing is properly transmitted to the body and controls, notifying the driver about each of the bodies overcome with a small shock and sometimes causing a low-frequency resonant hum. And if you sharpen a car on the primer, then the shiver of the whole body begins to bother a little.

But on asphalt - quiet and grace, especially if you move at a constant speed. Then the suspension settings are most optimal, and small body shudders when entering the next hole on the road perceive as proper. Moreover, such an elasticity of the suspension seems already normal, as it is better to have a small discomfort during the speed slam on off-road, than to feel blows on the body due to the breakdown of the soft suspension. The most interesting thing is that with increasing speed, the suspension begins to seem more smooth: those irregularities that at 40-50 km / h she diligently worked out, it is simply 100-120 km / h. And the further increase in speed does not force the driver to strain, trying to keep the car on a given trajectory. As it should be parked, the car rulits itself very well. In general, if on the back door there was a GTI star, it would not be much surprised: the driving quality of the car, if not taken into account a little big, than usual, rolls in turns are at the level of well sharpened passenger cars.

The steering is sharp enough, and for full conformity to sports image lacks only the bucket chairs and a bass silencer. Not in vain during the presentation, the Japanese talked about him as a SUV with the nature of the sports sedan. After reading this expression after the test, I realized that what Tribute was similar in motion - on Xedox 6 sedan with a 2.0-liter engine. And competitors will have to reckon with this. Especially manufacturers of such popular sports orientation models like Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V. After all, it is with them and will be directly competing a new Mazda - all other parkets in our market are not so wide. By the way, the owners of these parketnies most of all paid attention to Tribute. It was worth appearing in their field of view, how the most real provocation began. At first, the car was long considering almost emphasis, and after that, what anger, they still tried to overtake! Naturally, these jepreskov did not work, because despite the fact that this copy was equipped with a basic 2.0-liter gasoline engine with a capacity of only 130 hp, in terms of the dynamics, especially when starting from the place, Tribute is always ready to give a worthy rebuff. Until hundreds of this car accelerates in just 13 seconds. The result may not be the most outstanding, but it will remind, just the basic version of the Mazda Tribute, and there is also a version with a 3.0-liter six!

But if most classmates Mazda Tribute are parcktails in the full sense of the word, with appropriate off-road opportunities, this Japanese deserves the superparcake epithet. The fact is that, unlike most such models, Tribute is equipped with a more advanced transmission, which allows it to have more outstanding due qualities both on asphalt and outside it. In the normal modes Tribute, as the absolute majority of his classmates, is a regular car with a drive to the front axle, but as soon as the electronics receives a signal indicating the inconsistency of the speed of rotation of the front and rear wheels, in other words, as soon as the drive wheels are slipped, part of the torque Can be transferred to the rear axle. Moreover, the automation itself determines, in what ratio to share the torque between the axes, and, if necessary, 50% of the torque can be transferred to the rear axle.

The connection is soft, and even on ice it is impossible to determine which moment the rear axle joined the case. So what's this? - Associate experts. - Most parcktails the transmission has exactly the same opportunities. But the whole thing is that one distribution of torque over the axes of the possibility of a new transmission Mazda Tribute is not limited. Despite the parquet appearance and design features, outstanding the car to this subclass, Tribute has a ... Blocked intersecting differential. True, there is no differential itself, but its functions are quite successfully performing a friction clutch, and it can be blocked by one hand, it can be blocked, thus providing a constant distribution of torque in a ratio of 50:50, which is equivalent to blocking the inter-axis differential on traditional SUVs. What does it give, I think, you don't need to explain the drivers with experience. Thanks to only one of this, Tribute's permeability is delivered to a new level. A nondescript button with the inscription Lock, located on the front panel, opens up new, grand capabilities - now on off-road car can almost all! Well, if not all, then almost everything. If you replace the tires to more toothy, then on a slightly rough terrain, especially in the snow or other very slippery coatings, Tribute will simply invinciate. About the fact that he will make almost all the existing parquets, it is possible and not to say: the central locking gives Tribute the ability to compete with traditional SUVs such as Opel Frontera or Mitsubishi Pajero Sport.

Of course, in more difficult conditions, the classics will undoubtedly win, but tell me which reasonably thinking person will drag his new car, which stands like a two-room or even a two-bedroom apartment on the outskirts, in a swamp or quarry? And if you are not avid jeeper and do not participate regularly in jeep trialys, then why do you constantly carry with you, in the sense of carrying, heavy frame, dispensing, dependent bridges? After all, according to statistics, about 95% of the total runs are all all-wheel drive cars, including serious SUVs, rolling on asphalt. And here, then the Mazda Tribute will be on the head above the traditional models, because only parquets with their independent suspension can provide a worthy level of comfort. And on the off-road, as you can see, he will not be the last. The only thing that can hurt him greatly in this business is a lack of torque. Like all the parquets, this SUV does not have a downstream, which means that in difficult conditions will have to either burn the clutch, or quickly get out of off-road with a thread. But if the soil is more or less solid and the wheels in it are not visited, then you can stop the car only with diagonal hanging. However, to make a professional SUV creators of Tribute and did not strive, because in this class, first of all, the driving quality of the car on the asphalt are valued, so the presence of a blockable inter-axis differential can be perceived only as a way to significantly increase the permeability without prejudice to the challenges, and not as an incentive to various off-road vigi .

Subjective opinion:

(+) Spacious salon, rich standard equipment, acceptable dynamic characteristics.

(-) Noisy engine, uncomfortable arrangement of the handbrake, harsh suspension.

Text: Pavel Kozlovsky
 

A source: Autogase / N 40 (343) from 05.12.01