For example, Ford Motor Co. owns 33 percent of Mazda and essentially controls the company, along with Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. Ford-appointed President Mark Fields runs Mazda in Japan.

So it is hardly surprising to find Ford’s influence in Mazda’s latest offering, the intermediate-sized Tribute SUV. The Tribute is a twin of the new Ford Escape SUV, with slightly different sheet metal, a more sporty suspension, and a Taurus-derived V-6 motor. The Tribute and the Escape were designed largely by Mazda and are loosely based on the Mazda 626 platform. They are both built in a new Ford factory in Kansas. Under the hood you will find Ford’s little blue ovals on many of the parts.

The excitement in this SUV is the engine. A 24-valve, 3 liter V-6 that puts out 200 horsepower and when punched sounds and feels like you are racing in Le Mans — until you come to the first corner anyway. Acceleration of 8.2 seconds from 0 to 60 mph is a lot of oomph for an SUV.

Mazda’s new Tribute SUV has a Ford influence and provides much oomph for an SUV.

This engine feels and sounds good enough to be in a sports car. For those who would prefer a more sedate highway experience, it’s a little noisy under hard acceleration; for those who dream of being Mario Andretti, it is sweet music to our ears.

This is a pleasant-sized SUV for many people. With car-like road feel, all-wheel-drive and reasonable fuel consumption as measured during the road test at 18 mpg city and 21 mpg highway (at more than 70 mph), it is smaller, more manageable and more affordable than one of the monster SUVs.

Cargo volume available with rear seats up is 33 cubic feet, and with seats down is 74.4 cubic feet. The seats-down cargo volume is better than the Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV 4, Honda CRV, Land Rover Discovery, Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Nissan Xterra. Tie-down attachment points are located above and below in the cargo area. It has a full-sized spare tire and an opening window in the rear hatch door.

The suspension is slightly on the stiff side, steering is precise, and cornering is pretty flat, but if you overdo it a little bit the tall body will start to lean over. It zooms up hills effortlessly, thanks to the spunky engine.

Although the brakes felt good during test drives, Mazda has ignored the march of progress and installed old-fashioned drum brakes on the rear wheels with discs on the front. Antilock brakes are an option.

The all-wheel drive is similar to many others on the market, with the drive biased to front-wheel drive on normal road surfaces, and the rear wheels being brought in to help when the front wheels begin to slip. A dash-mounted button locks up the axles when activated to further help traction in slippery conditions.

The interior has plenty of room for four people, even an occasional fifth. The instrument layout is fairly spartan and ordinary, and the column-mounted automatic gear shift is not particularly convenient; it makes access to the radio volume control difficult and can easily be confused with the windshield wiper/washer control. On numerous occasions during the road test, the windshield got wiped when a gear was selected. The overdrive button is inconveniently located on the end of the gear shift stalk — I kept looking for it on the end of the wiper stalk.

Mazda offers eight Tribute models with different engines, levels of trim and drive systems. The low end of the range is the DX two-wheel drive, powered by a 4-cylinder, 2.0 liter, 16-valve, 130 hp engine, with a five-speed manual transmission. It sells for $17,210. This configuration was not tested.

At the top end of the range, the tested ES four-wheel drive model retails for $23,025 and comes with V-6 engine, A/C, alarm system, power door locks, windows and mirrors, keyless remote control entry, fog lights, luggage rack, three power outlets, cruise control, leather/vinyl seats with power driver seat, tilt steering wheel and alloy wheels.

Options include a nice-sounding premium audio system with a six disc in-dash CD player and cassette for $505, a luxury package with moon roof, overhead console and the premium audio package for $1,090, a trailer towing package for $350, anti-lock brakes with dual side air bags for $495 and other smaller items.

Even though this SUV is not loaded with personality, it does a lot of things right and has just been named the winner, tied with its sibling the Ford Escape, in an off-road contest held by Car & Driver magazine comparing 11 intermediate-sized SUVs.

For anyone in the market for a medium-sized SUV, this one has to be on your list. Visit Cush Mazda in Escondido, Westcott Mazda in Chula Vista or John Hine Mazda in Mission Valley and ask for a test drive.

Motoring since 1952, Austin Lynas has owned 54 cars and at one time raced mini-sedans in England. An aerospace engineer, he was instrumental in developing the anti-skid systems used in British military aircraft that preceded today’s ABS systems. Lynas can be reached by e-mail at osten@aol.com.