Hello everyone,

I have a 2011 Mazda Tribute GT 4WD V6. Production date was April 2011 but the actual in service date was over a year later, September 2012 when I bought it new (zero miles) as one of the last remaining Tributes in stock. Three and a half years later the paint starts peeling off/bubbling around the rear wheel wells. I’ve had this vehicle rustproofed regularly and done the scheduled maintenance at the dealership. I couldn’t believe what I got to read when I googled “Ford Escape” and “prematurely deteriorating paint”. Thanks to the rather strong consumer protection laws here in Quebec, Mazda has no choice but to repair the rust and repaint the affected areas. That’s great for now, but looking at some other Escapes and Tributes on the road it appears that virtually everyone has the flaking paint troubles and my concern is that once the rear wheel wells are fixed it won’t be long for the lift gate door or the roof’s paint to start flaking off.

Needless to say I’m really disappointed since it's otherwise a great and comfortable vehicle. I would never buy a Mazda and the only reason I bought this one was I knew it's actually a Ford. A brand I thought highly of so far. Now I’m torn apart and can’t decide what to do. Get rid of the car once the issue is fixed and not deal with any future paint deterioration or not. What other big ticket items can I expect to come up within the next three to five years on that vehicle? I do have the powertrain extended warranty for 7 years/140.000km and since September 2012 have only driven 48k so I guess on the powertrain, transmission and transaxle I’ll be covered for a while. But what’s going to come up in terms of suspension, muffler, steering, air conditioner components etc between 3 and say 7-8 years on that vehicle….I feel I’d be better off getting rid of it now, get a new Corolla or Camry with extended warranty and be worry free for a good eight years….any thoughts?

Thanks,

Uschi