Mazda Tribute

The Mazda Tribute (Japanese: マツダ・トリビュート, Hepburn: Matsuda Toribyūto) (Code J14) is a compact SUV made by JapaneseautomakerMazda from 2000 to 2011. It was jointly developed with Ford Motor Company and based on the front-wheel driveMazda 626 platform, which was in turn the basis for the similar Ford Escape on the CD2 platform. The Tribute was priced below the Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner in Ford's CD2 SUV lineup.

The Tribute and Escape debuted in 2000, offering front- or all-wheel drive and a choice of a transversely mounted 2.0 L Ford Zetec four-cylinder engine or 3.0 L Ford DuratecV6. The Ford Escape was also sold as the Ford Maverick in Europe with a Ford 2.0 L Zeta four-cylinder engine with manual transmission, or 3.0 L Duratec coupled to automatic transmission.

One main difference between the Tribute and the Ford Escape/Maverick is that the Tribute's suspension is tuned for a firmer ride than the Escape/Maverick, in order to correspond with Mazda's sporty image. As Mazda had offered "spiced up" models in other segments such as the Mazda3 and CX-7, the utilitarian Tribute was replaced by the more aggressively styled and in-house-designed Mazda CX-5 in North America.