I never really had that issue, but that's most likely due to my tendency to get out of the Mako and fight everything on foot. Which went double for Colossi and Maws.

The Hammerhead was... sometimes fun as an infinite rocket platform, but otherwise I just moved through those maps in as little time as I could manage.

Andromeda's Nomad has a lot of elements of the Mako, though with out it's vertical power and any form of weapon, it's kind of fun to just floor the 'pedal' and tear across the terrain.