Southern Fried Crossovers: 2002 Lexus RX300 vs 2005 Mazda Tribute

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Welcome back to your favorite way to waste time in the morning, Shitbox Showdown! This morning, we’re traveling south of the Mason-Dixon line to look at a couple of car-based SUVs in an attempt to answer the question: Just what do people see in these things?

First, of course, we need to take a look at yesterday’s results:

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The Taurus wins it, and that’s no bull. It’s just more car than the little Topaz. Neither one is a terrible choice, but the Taurus will give you quite a bit more for your money.

Love ’em or hate ’em, crossovers are here to stay. They already make up a huge chunk of the automotive landscape, and they’re trickling down to the cheap end of the used car market in large numbers. Are they worth checking out if you just need cheap wheels? Let’s look at a pair of them and see.

2002 Lexus RX300 – $3,000

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Engine/drivetrain: 3.0 liter overhead-cam V6, four speed automatic, AWD

Location: Lawrenceville, GA

Odometer reading: 231,000 miles

Runs/drives? Yep

The Lexus RX300 was one of the earliest luxury crossovers, and it quickly became a fixture of the suburban landscape. And I swear ninety percent of them are this color. You’ll be forgiven if you never noticed that there are a dozen of them in every HomeGoods parking lot, even to this day. It was successful because it works: it’s a comfortable, luxurious vehicle that rides like a car, but sits high like an SUV. For the soccer-mom set, who loved the commanding view over the hoods of their Cherokees and Blazers but hated the trucklike ride, it was a revelation.

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I’ll say this for all of these twenty-year-old RX300s: they’re aging well. Lexus vehicles in general don’t seem to show their age; it’s as if there’s a picture of the car somewhere getting old and rusty and dented while the real thing stays looking new. (Maybe that’s why so many of them are painted Gray.) This one is no exception: At well over 200,000 miles, it looks a little tired around the edges, and that’s it.

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We aren’t given a whole lot of information about this Lexus’s condition, other than an assurance that it has never been in an accident. But it does look clean and well-kept, and as it’s a Toyota under all the leather and power toys, it should be holding up well mechanically. The RX300 is powered by a three-liter V6, and this one is all-wheel-drive. The only available transmission is an automatic, of course.

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And yeah, I know, this is not the sort of vehicle that us enthusiasts are drawn to. But it is practical, reliable, and nice, and for most people who don’t know what an apex is and have never taken something apart on a car for fun, there is a lot of appeal in that.

2005 Mazda Tribute – $2,950

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Engine/drivetrain: 2.3 liter dual overhead cam inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD

Location: Lake Butler, FL

Odometer reading: 239,000 miles

Runs/drives? You bet

This is, of course, not the best SUV in the world. This is just… well, you know. The Mazda Tribute is the sister model to Ford’s Escape; it’s a handsome little unibody SUV meant for making Costco runs rather than blazing trails off-road. This one especially is confined to the pavement – it’s only front wheel drive. Tributes and Escapes were available with four or six cylinder engines; this one has Mazda’s well-regarded 2.3 liter MZR twincam four. You could get a Tribute with a stick, but sadly this one only has two pedals.

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This Tribute has a bunch of miles on it, but it looks well cared-for. And despite the bargain-basement powertrain, it’s well-equipped otherwise, and everything still works. This seller has several other listings, including another Escape, which makes me think they’re one of those dealers masquerading as a private seller. It doesn’t matter much, but don’t expect to get any history or service records. Be prepared to check it out carefully on your own.

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Tributes and Escapes were available in some fun colors, which makes it kind of a shame that this one is refrigerator-white. But beggars can’t be choosers at the bottom end of the used car market; you take the car in the color you can find. At least it has the gray plastic cladding to break up all the white, and it looks clean and straight.

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Really, with the four cylinder and the automatic, and only the front wheels driven, this Tribute is hardly an SUV at all. What we have here is a small, tall station wagon. And there’s nothing wrong with that – small wagons are supremely practical vehicles. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to sit up high so you can see clearly. Again, these things are popular because they work.

Every other vehicle on the road is a crossover these days, so there will be more and more of them for sale  cheap in years to come. But for now, these are what you’ve got to choose from. Which one is worth the money?

(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)

 

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51 thoughts on “Southern Fried Crossovers: 2002 Lexus RX300 vs 2005 Mazda Tribute

  1. That Mazda looks a bit large to comfortably scoot around with a 4-banger. I’m no leadfoot, but I do need my car to be able to get out of its own way when circumstances demand it.

  2. I’ve never been a fan of the Escape/Tribute. They are very durable and I’ve seen a few get close to 300k miles. But the ride is awful, the seats are uncomfortable, and the interiors are absolutely dreadful. It’s gonna feel a lot more like a truck than that Lexus. My dad had a first gen escape as a company car and had to get rid of it after a couple months. No matter what he did, driving that car gave him terrible back pain.

    1. I can confirm all of this. I had a 2nd gen Escape, which was really a refreshed 1st gen. It was hilariously unrefined compared to the competition. My wife hated it because of the stiff ride and lack of sound deadening. It was cheap though, and the hard plastics were easy to clean up when I used it to haul gardening supplies.

  3. I hated (HATED!) that Lexus for most of it’s existence, but I must have gotten old around the time I was looking for a car for my daughter. I sat in one that was priced less than a comparable CR-V and thought “Dang, I ought to get ME one of these”.

  4. The Escape/Tribute wasn’t a bad vehicle, but this is a plain entry-level model, and both vehicles seem well cared for and have comparable miles. Even if the Mazda had the V6, the Lexus would still win on refinement. Curious about the timing belt on the RX, but even if you replace it as a precautionary measure it seems like a decent deal.

    Also on 90% of the RXs of the era being silver…let’s not forget the amount of beige ones. With the pics being in the shadowy light, going on the first image I wasn’t sure if it actually was beige or silver until seeing the other images.

  5. Toyota makes the best cars, but the 1MZ is downright scary to work on! The crossovers and minivans are even worse than the Camry with the same engine!

    For that reason, I chose the Tribute/Escape with the easy I4 that gets better mpg, and you don’t even need the AWD, either. The I4 came from Mazda, while the V6 came from Ford.

    Had the Tribute also had a V6, I’d take the Toyota because if you have to deal with a transverse V6 either way, Toyota is better than Ford.

    Also, I fucking HATE the Escape/Tribute because it made Ford so jealous that they didn’t offer the Mazda6 wagon with the I4 in the US; it was V6-only. But for a cheap daily driver, I4 > V6 every day, so in this case, I chose it over the V6

    1. Eh, I don’t think they would have offered the I4 on the wagon either way. Buyers would have been expecting a V6 in a “family vehicle” at the time, especially for that price point in the mid/upper-20s. Plus this was a time that some options were still locked into the top engine at different OEMs. For the first few years of the 6, if you wanted automatic climate control you had to get the 6s V6.

      VW had the 1.8T as the base powertrain in the Passat wagon, and Mazda wasn’t quirky enough to get away with a four-cylinder wagon like Subaru was (and even then they were selling more Outbacks than regular Legacys).

  6. This is one of those rare occasions where I like both choices and only picked Lexus solely on reputation, as good as the Mazdas were at the time.

    That said, I thought the vote count would be more even.

  7. I had an ’01 RX300 that got some very annoying rattles around 100,000 miles and was kind of glad to part with it even if it had not caused me much mechanical trouble. It still would be the clear winner over a comparable Tribute.

  8. Mazda has a worse engine, less power, less luxury, and more miles? How is this even a question?! When I first saw the matchup I figured it would be a bloodbath, then saw the amount of miles on the Lexus and thought the Mazda was probably significantly less for the same price, but nope. More. There are no points whatsoever going for the Mazda for me.

  9. I was all ready to vote for the Lexus like everybody else since it truly is the better vehicle in this match-up, but then you made that Tenacious D reference for the Tribute (see what you did there) and I had no choice but to vote for the Mazda.

  10. Lexus all day. Change all the fluids and drive it another 100k. You know why you see these everywhere?Because they refuse to die. If I was looking for a car for a new 16 year old driver. This would be near top of the list. Heck I’d probably end up keeping it for myself.

  11. We have a 2005 Tribute with the V6 and 2WD. The car has been nothing but reliable over its 190,000 miles. If I didn’t own one I would pick the RX but my biased view believes these little Escape twins are pretty durable when regular maintenance is done and they are protected from rust.

  12. I never thought I’d see the day when autowriters were nostalgic for the early 00s plastic cladding. That stuff was universally reviled at the time, comically so in some cases.

    1. Aesthetically it should be reviled, no question; from a functional perspective – i.e. preventing dents – it seems to be moderately successful, as long as it doesn’t accelerate rusting of the panels beneath.

      I wouldn’t say Mark was being nostalgic per se. To me he appears to be searching for a positive among the… other features.

      “At least it has the gray plastic cladding to break up all the white” is sort of like “You broke both your legs but at least they’re not compound fractures”. Yay? I guess?

  13. I’ll pick the Lexus because I always kind of liked those, but what I’m really curious about is the definition of what’s a “crossover” and what’s an SUV.

    When these vehicles were new, the term “crossover” wasn’t really part of the automotive zeitgeist, so I’m fairly certain they were marketed as SUVs, but I understand that definitions can morph over time. Still, I definitely think of something smaller and car-like when I hear “crossover” — your Subaru Crosstreks and whatnot. Heck, even though the Mazda is somewhat on the small side, it’s still body-on-frame. If these aren’t SUVs, then what vehicle other than a Suburban/Tahoe IS an SUV?

    1. To me, an SUV must be both RWD based and body on frame. Anything else is a crossover/CUV.

      That definition is imperfect for sure, but it is simple.

  14. I had a ’98 RX300 that I drove up into the mountains in Washington State (and past a pickup truck on its roof) to go skiing.
    Then I drove it across country from Seattle to Boston and drove it around Boston for a couple of years. Insanely comfortable and easy to drive, but a bit thirsty. Traded it in in 2001 for a 2002 WRX.

  15. I’d take an Escape (same car) Hybrid over the Lexus. I had one for years and it got great mileage and gave me no problems other than a busted shock mount from jumping speed bumps.

    Otherwise, the Lexus Flexus from Longbeach to Texas.

  16. I think the Lexus is the clear winner here:

    – it’s a tarted-up Toyota, so longevity is included (as Mark indicated)
    – it has a V-6 and AWD
    – it does not have ill-fitting seat covers

    It’s basically an appliance, but a noticeably nicer appliance than the Mazda.

    1. The visibly ok front seats in the Lexus are a real plus. Every time I see a seat cover in a used-car ad especially at this age, price and mileage I assume a completely trashed seat underneath.

  17. While I’m a big fan of the MZR and I feel like it’s a strong runner I can’t love the Escape or its ersatz Japanese twin; it’s the Lexus for me.

  18. The Lexus for me. Much as I love Mazda, I’d have more confidence in the Lexus still being on the road in another 100,000 miles. Just make sure you look it over very carefully. “No record of accident” is not the most reassuring thing I’ve ever read.

  19. My brother’s RX300 made it to nearly 400,000 miles before he felt compelled to cut it loose. I’d rather spend my imaginary internet money on something with a track record like that than the Tribute. It’s a Mazda in name only with enough known powertrain issues that the lemon juice ain’t worth the squeeze.

  20. As of this comment, we have 12 votes for the Lexus and one for the Tribute. Explain yourself! Similar price and mileage, I will take the Lexus 8 days a week.

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