No Mazda Tribute for 2007

Shane · February 22, 2006, 10:25:57 PM

Ford Plant to Suspend Production of Mazda Tribute (Update1)
Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co.'s Kansas City, Missouri, factory will suspend production of the Tribute sport- utility vehicle for affiliate Mazda Motor Corp. from May through the end of the year, the company said.

There won't be a 2007 model-year Tribute, Ford sales analyst George Pipas said today in an interview. The Kansas City plant also makes Ford Escapes and Mercury Mariners, small SUVs with the same basic design as the Tribute. At the end of April, the plant will stop making 2006 models of those vehicles and switch to building 2007 Escapes and Mariners, Pipas said.

The factory will begin making 2008 versions of all three models in January 2007, Pipas said. Jeremy Barnes, a spokesman for Mazda, declined to comment on why Mazda won't have 2007 Tributes produced. He said Hiroshima, Japan-based Mazda, a third owned by Ford, plans to keep the Tribute in its product lineup.

The Kansas City plant makes gasoline-powered versions of the small SUVs, as well as gasoline-electric hybrid versions of the Escape and Mariner. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford plans to boost production of all its hybrids 10-fold to 250,000 a year by 2010.

Ford shares fell 6 cents to $8.39 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have declined 35 percent in the past 12 months.

Laconian · February 22, 2006, 10:31:16 PM

Shucks, too bad. The Tribute was the most "sporting" of the Escape triplets. My naive guess as to why is that Mazda wants to get people looking at the CX-7 when they come to the dealer looking for a small ute.

Who really knows what the hell the reason is though. Brand engineering is stupid.

thewizard16 · February 23, 2006, 01:25:28 PM

QuoteShucks, too bad. The Tribute was the most "sporting" of the Escape triplets. My naive guess as to why is that Mazda wants to get people looking at the CX-7 when they come to the dealer looking for a small ute.

Who really knows what the hell the reason is though. Brand engineering is stupid.

If there were a CX-7 and a Tribute parked next to each other and I was shopping, there wouldn't be a bit of struggle in my mind on which to buy. I don't blame them for discontinuing the Tribute.

ifcar · February 23, 2006, 02:06:52 PM

The Tribute is much less expensive though.

TBR · February 23, 2006, 09:05:22 PM

Didn't they trademark CX-5? In which case they obviously did this so that they wouldn't have retool the Escape/Tribute assembly plant for two vehicles for the 2007 facelift.

BRealistic · February 23, 2006, 09:31:52 PM

QuoteThe Tribute is much less expensive though.

In base Trubute 'i' mnaual tranny two wheel drive form- yes. The Tribute stickers for much less. But the auto tranny all wheel drive turbo CX-7 is going to undercut the sticker price of a similarly equiped Tribute S all wheel drive. I guess the market has spoken. (shrug)

I do like the manual tranny 2.3 Mazda Tribute 'i' model. It is a very good low priced and well equiped SUV ground clearance tall wagon for the money.

TBR · February 23, 2006, 09:37:20 PM

I still say that there will be a Tribute successor for 2008 called the CX-5.

ifcar · February 24, 2006, 05:38:07 AM

Quote
QuoteThe Tribute is much less expensive though.
In base Trubute 'i' mnaual tranny two wheel drive form- yes. The Tribute stickers for much less. But the auto tranny all wheel drive turbo CX-7 is going to undercut the sticker price of a similarly equiped Tribute S all wheel drive. I guess the market has spoken. (shrug)

I do like the manual tranny 2.3 Mazda Tribute 'i' model. It is a very good low priced and well equiped SUV ground clearance tall wagon for the money.

The point is that they can draw in value-oriented consumers with base Tribute models, but they cannot with the CX-7. And the CX-7 will be going much closer to sticker than a V6 Tribute as well.