pantherES

I'm considering selling my 99 Civic Si in favor of a 02 ES w/auto. I need a auto so my girlfriend can drive my car also. She has a 99 ES and we are racking up the miles on it because the Civic just isn't practical. I have driven it a grand total 6000 miles in the last year.

Anyway, what I'm looking for is how everyone feels about their car. Still happy with it? Any problems/opinions with sport shift auto? How is the acceration? Just any comments that would be helpful. What I'm not looking for is people bashing Honda.

FYI, I plan on ordering a 02 ES, Emerald Mica, ES package, Auto, Dimming Mirror, M/R Deflector, Cargo Net, Alarm, MazdaSpeed Axle-Back, $17350 +tax. Does that sound fair?

Also, Does anyone know where on-line to order leather interior for the Protege.

Thank-You

Maniac8888

I bought my wife a 2002.5 ES and we are really happy with it. The acceleration is good for a 2.0 engine and haven't had any problems although it is only 3 weeks old. We bought it with auto (sport shift), ES package (ABS, side air bags, moonroof), alarm, 6-disk changer and wheel locks and paid $15,400 plus tax. Keep in mind that the California market has been offering a $1,500 rebate on Proteges and this price reflects the rebate.

I am really impressed with the car and it is significantly better than the Honda Civic and Nissan Sentra and less money (at least here). The handling is much better than I expected and it makes a great platform for modifications.

Good luck.

Aaron

i love mine. still only about 5700 miles, no troubles though. this car really performs better with the manual trans. i drove both and chose the manual. better acceleration and it's cheaper. i say..... teach your girlfriend how to drive a manual.

130hp

i have a 01 ES....basicly the same as the 02. no problems so far. i love it. you won't be disappointed.

Jhatfi

I just bought my 02' ES a few weeks ago and love it. I went from a 00' Dodge Dakota 4x4 with a 4.7L V8 and my ES is far more fun....plus it gets better gas mileage. The acceleration is pretty decent (although not burly like my V8 was) and it handles really good actually. I have a couple small nitpicks, but overall I do not think that any other compact car in the price range can compete in terms of style, performance and quality. I suggest just going and driving one and see for yourself.

I cannot complain about reliability yet, but then again I've only got a little more than 1000 miles on the clock.

By the way, my 02' ES with 5 speed and sunroof was $14300 after $1500 rebate. I did take a little hit trading in my Dakota though, but not to bad.

dkny

I recently began my lease for my 02 ES AT with the GT package for 20800 Canadian.

So far I have no complaints - before I was driving a sunfire and this car is ten times better in every department: acceleration, interior room, looks, but most importantly handling. This car is extremely fun to drive.

I thought I would get better milage; right now I get about 9-10 L/100 Km; I think you can get better milage with a Civic. But the interior on the Civic is damn ugly, has no tachometer, and has puny 15" wheels.

Don't bother wasting your time... I already did shopping around and at this price this is definately the best buy by far.

proman

what is so impractical about your civic? just wondering. i got a 2002 es and no complaints so far. if you shopped around you'll see you get the most value for the car compared to other cars in it's price range. I think so anyways. truthfully i only got the car cause i needed a decent priced yet reliable car and turned out i'm am quite happy with the decision. you definitley should go test drive one before you buy it though. good luck

multipath

I absolutely love my '02 ES (auto). I got it just over a month ago, and I honestly think you cannot go wrong buying this car.

pantherES

Thanks for all the replys. The reason the Civic is impractical is with two doors, it's just annoying to help my 4 year son into his booster seat. With the four doors, it's much easier. Plus, the Civic doors don't open all that far.

I have tried to attempt to teach her the art of manual driving. Unforunately, I guess some people just don't get it.

I have test driven a 02 LX, but the dealer does not have any ES models in stock. I wasn't sure if with the different packages, if one accerates a little better than the other. I have tried other dealers in the area, but no luck. It's funny, when I bought the Civic, I tried to find a manual ES with no luck, all auto. Now, I try to find a auto, they're all manual. It's funny how the target market for the Protege has changed in 3-4 years.

Has anyone kept track of their gas milage with their cars?

Makaveli

As for performance, LX and the ES will both perform the same. Gas Mileage is good but I isn't quite as good as your Si's.
When we go somewhere, people that have to sit in the back always choose to go in my car over Z24 and the new Civic EX.

noodles

Correction, the civic ( no rims ) has 14" hubcabs. That's why i traded my 2k1 civic for the 2002 MP5. Everything is standard, power everything, and 16" nice looking stock rims.

[Cruzer]

I love mine, I just didn't like how she looked. So she has a few
face lifts from stock as you can see from my sig. as Aaron said,
just go teach your girl how to drive stick. It's much more fun
driving stick then auto.

well have a good one.

Dermen

I just got my ES manual last week and I love the car. So far I am not regreting getting it at all. But it has only been a week. One thing with the alarm is you have to disarm it by unlocking the doors before opening the trunk or it will go off. And after you close the trunk the doors lock again which I found to be kinda strange.

noodles the SI does have 15" alloys.

Aaron

hey cruzer...... love the "mp3" look. what did you end up paying to get all the body "add ons"? got any more pics of your car?

pantherES

Well, a little update. The dealer can't find the color I want in auto, but could find it in 5-speed. So, I went to another dealer to test drive a ES with manual. The problem I think was, I drove the Si to the dealership. I was VERY dissapointed in the performance of the manual transmission. It didn't seem to pull at all. I mean, I am used to my car that pulls from 5400-8000 like a mother, but it didn't feel like this car even had a powerband

I know it accelerates better than the automatic, but honestly I don't think it's that big of a differance. Oh well. I guess the dealer needs to look harder now.