2008 Mazda Tribute

Completely redesigned both inside and out for 2008, the new Mazda Tribute makes a powerful statement with a bold, tough exterior and a more upscale, comfortable interior. Offering more traditional sport-utility-vehicle (SUV) styling than Mazda's other SUVs, CX-7 and CX-9, the 2008 Tribute is Mazda's entry-level offering in its family of unibody-based crossover SUVs.

The updated Tribute combines the best of both worlds – the capability and styling of a traditional SUV with the versatility of a crossover. The Tribute is small enough to be nimble around town, but still looks muscular and sporty. By maintaining its traditional styling, the new Tribute complements the CX-7 and CX-9 crossover utility vehicles, offering Mazda buyers an alternative choice in SUV functionality.

Exterior

The Tribute has received an extensive redesign for 2008. The freshened exterior includes revised front and rear fascias, hood, exterior mirrors and liftgate. Newly styled alloy wheels and a raised beltline provide a sleek profile, while new headlamp and taillight treatments make the Tribute even easier to recognize. The result is a bold statement that accurately reflects the Tribute's sporty character in a modern, refreshing and truly Mazda way.

Interior

Underneath its new skin, the interior of the redesigned Tribute reflects its modern, sporty attitude, with new seat fabrics and colour combinations, chrome accents and available high gloss piano black trim elements. It seats five passengers in comfort, while still providing versatility and excellent cargo capacity. Ergonomic enhancements for 2008 include switches, gauges and instrument controls that are intuitively placed, easy to read, and user friendly, providing information at a glance or touch.

Performance

The Mazda Tribute is an SUV with a capital "S". Its driver appeal comes from a host of sports-oriented features, including the standard 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine, found in the Tribute GX model, or the optional 3.0 litre V6 engine good for 200 horsepower.

An easy-shifting five-speed manual gearbox, which has short, sporty gear changes, is standard on the Tribute GX-I4. It uses multi-cone synchronizers (dual-cone for first and second, single for third through fifth) to reduce shift effort and a cable-shift for improved gear-change precision.