Mazda Recalls Over 200,000 Tributes
Mazda has announced this week that they will be recalling over 200 thousand Mazda Tribute SUV’s. Supposedly, they have a problem slowing down after the the gas pedal is pushed down all the way. Mazda specifically said in an NHTSA filing that many Tributes have “inadequate clearance” between the engine cover and the speed control cable connector. This is funny, because Ford recently recalled nearly half a million Ford Escape SUV’s. Ford and Mazda worked together on a project to build the two similar SUV’s, and they were infact all constructed by Ford at their Kansas City plant.
The recall specifically affects 2001 to 2006 as well as 2008 Mazda Tributes. They all have a 3L V6 Engine that seems to have been flawed from the start. Nearly 100 complaintes have been made regarding both vehichles. It’s speculated that a problem with the throttle, which Ford is also addressing with their recalls, killed a teenager in Arizona.
People have long complained of flawed engine covers causing various problems in SUV’s and trucks. Since Ford and Mazda have built the two SUV’s for a long time, they had an almost exact problem in 2004 where 600,000 combined SUV’s were recalled for very similar throttle problems. Ford supposedly fixed the issue in 2005, yet Mazda continued to make these broken engine covers and accelrator cables. A ford spokesperson confirmed this by releasing a statement regarding the recalls. Marcey Zwiebel said that “Mazda did not make the same change for 2005 … and that is why theirs covers additional model years.”
While both companies will cover the charges of fully fixing both vehicles if you happen to own one, I imagine there are going to be quite a few lawsuits for Mazda and Ford failing to fix these problems eight years ago when they were first notified. While Ford did fix their problem, they obviously missed something otherwise they would’ve recalled these half million Escapes in 2004, as they were all on the road by then.
