The seven-spoke alloy wheels are okay, neither eye-catching nor detracting from the overall looks of the SUV. The Tribute's clean sides would be a nice canvas for great looking aftermarket wheels, though. The waistline has been raised by 1.5 inches, making taller doors and a safer cabin. The flares around the wheelwells are just right, and the gratuitous cladding of previous models has been erased. The flat black or flat gray of the plastic valance carries along the rocker panels, and the door handles are body colored. There's no chrome for the sake of the chrome, except for one wide strip over the rear license plate indent, matching the strip over the grille.
The B-pillar slopes back with a small angle to give the side windows some angularity, but there's no attempt at fancy shapes as with, for example, the Honda CR-V, a competitor to the Tribute. This allows a practical sized rear cargo window, for better visibility and safety. The liftgate window opens separately, a nice feature that used to be common but is less so, nowadays. The taillights, like the rest of the Tribute, are no-nonsense: big and blocky enough to be safe, with just enough shape to be handsome.
The rear bumper has a flat shelf having a rubber strip, making climbing up to the roofrack easier; that rack, with crossbars that easily adjust by fingertip knobs, is standard on all models but the Sport. It's little things like this that indicate the thoughtfulness behind any vehicle; you have to pay extra to get the crossbars on most SUV roofracks today, and many of them are a challenge to slide forward or rearward for the size and shape of the load. Next Page