Model years › Mazda Tribute

2006 Mazda Tribute

Complaints about this year name well far more often than the model's other years — 16% of them, about 13× the usual rate of 1.3%.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

Also unusual this year

• gas pedal — 27% of complaints, 3× usual
• stuck — 16% of complaints, 5× usual
• wheel well — 8% of complaints, 20× usual

What owners wrote

DRIVERS SIDE REAR SHOCK BROKE COMPLETELY AWAY FROM FRAME. (TOP SIDE). PASSENGER SIDE REAR WHEEL WELL IS RUSTING AWAY BADLY.

WHILE DRIVING AT ANY SPEED, THE VEHICLE MADE A RATTLING NOISE. A MECHANIC DIAGNOSED THAT THE REAR PASSENGER WHEEL WELL AND THE SHOCK MOUNT WERE EXTREMELY RUSTED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE [VIN] WAS NOT NOTIFIED. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 98,0…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 15E045000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
• 12V357000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
• 05V525000 VISIBILITY

Own a 2006 Mazda Tribute? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the Mazda Tribute was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.

This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.

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