leungwingkei

What things have gone wrong with the car?
The car is notably too new to have developed any marked problems, but I have noticed a squeak from the right rear suspension when going over bumps in the road.
General comments?
Get ready for an extensive rant and rave folks! This is detail...

The exterior and interior appearance of this car is brilliant; I.e. really cool. Aside from that, however, I've been disappointed with many of this car's characteristics to date:

There is no usable center arm rest. The storage bin they have in between the seats is too low and short to have any use as an arm rest, and that's a LAME, uncomfortable design.

The lock mechanisms are outdated and incredibly stupid -- You can't rest your arm on the car door with the window down, as the lock pokes you right in the arm. They should have put the locks as part of the door handle (like in my old Nissan Sentra), NOT on the top of the door.

The engine is noisy and unrefined, hands down. Starting it up in the morning sounds like you're running a diesel engine, and that flat out sucks. It's also underpowered for a car Mazda wants you to think should compete with the likes of Subaru's Impreza, Honda's Civic, Nissan's new Sentra (particularly the SE-R), etc.. It looks vastly better than all of those cars (especially the Civic, which I think is the ugliest car Honda has ever produced in modern times).

The transmission is NOT as nice as my old Nissan Sentra's -- The Protege's shifter (apparently made by Ford; no wonder it sucks), is notchy, and, even worse than that, is geared to be wasteful, loud, and incredibly annoying. An engine RPM of 3500 at normal, boring, freeway speeds!? (70 MPH) Not only is the engine noisy at that RPM (as if it's quiet any other time, anyway), it's also a waste of fuel in a time when *saving* fuel is what we need to do here. In my perhaps not so humble opinion, I think Mazda engineers were morons to set up a gear ratio in that range for normal driving speeds. EVERY other car I've ever seen drives at around 2500 RPM at 70 MPH: What the hell was Mazda thinking? Scratch that -- I guess they *weren't* thinking.

And another thing regarding the gear ratios: What's up with the speedometer going up to 140? NO WAY the Protege is going up to 140 when it's already whining away at 3500 RPM at 70 MPH. Thanks for nothing in that regard, Mazda. The high RPM level at relatively low speed is my single most hated characteristic of this car. It's bad, really bad, and Mazda should be served with a class action lawsuit for wasting our fuel, money, and shortening the life of the engine because it has to work so comparatively hard at slow speeds. This represents a gross and negligent lack of care for matters that should be simple common sense.

The speedometer is labeled in weird, 20 mile increments. 65 MPH, a standard freeway speed throughout the nation, isn't labeled at all. You have to sort of approximate where that is. Good one, Mazda!

The rear window defogger works slowly, and has no auto off timer (My Sentra did).

The driver's seat belt was improperly mounted -- It has an extra twist in it that's both unsafe and uncomfortable.

The charcoal black interior color looks really cool... until you try to keep it clean. Anything and everything, like lint, hair, etc., shows up right away on every surface. That's going to be problematic, to be sure.

Things I really like?

As said, it looks awesome. Well done in that regard.

Safety equipment is nearly as good as it gets in any car: 4 wheel disc ABS, side impact airbags, belt pretensioners, child safety locks in the back, child safety seat anchors, etc.. It's rated well in impacts.

The seats are comfortable.

For a small car, the Protege is very roomy, both in front AND back; a rare, and appreciated, characteristic.

Power everything: Awesome.

Instrument cluster at night is lit in cool, soft red overtones which are easily readable. The only thing cooler is the VW Jetta's blue lighting -- Never seen anything cooler than that, personally. Too bad VW's are so expensive and historically unreliable (reflected by the absolute worst warranty in the entire auto industry).

And speaking of warranties, the 3 year/50,000 mile bumper to bumper Mazda backing is better than the industry standard. That's a good thing; You might need it. The jury's still out on my particular car as I haven't had it long enough to discover its true problem areas. Time will tell...

EZ as 123

I agree on all the P5 comments 100%

lost_concept

ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM !

I like my loud engine, makes it seem like i have a V6 or V8 under the hood !

Sike naw

Thats the best rant i seen so far, i am speechless

Dermen

I think the center arm rest is perfect. If it was any higher than it would be in the way when you shift and its not too low to rest your elbow on. Maybe this just depends on the person though.

The door locks I agree. They could have put them somewhere else or made it so when the doors locked the thing is flush with the door panel. If they did that they would have to make it so the doors unlock when you pull on the handle from the inside which I think also would have been a great feature.

Then engine makes noise when it is cold because of the emissions stuff. I don't think it is underpowered for its class. Most cars in its class have the same 130hp. And Mazda did not build the car to compete with the se-r. Its in a totally different class along with the Mazdaspeed Protege, Civic SI, and other manufacturers sport compacts.

The transmission is not Ford otherwise most people on this board wouldn't have bought a protege. It is all Mazda. And in my car at 70mph the rpms are at 3200. I don't think that is high. No car I have ever ridden in cruises 70mph at 2500rpm.

I do agree that it could get better gas mileage. As for it working to hard at low speeds. If I am going under 50mph in my car the tach is between 2300-2700rpm.

The protege can do 120 so the speedo going to 140 is normal. Most cars I have been can do 20 under the highest mark on teh speedo. Not having 65 marked doesn't matter to me. Like you said who drives 65 anyway. Most the time you are going 70-75 if the limit is 65.

I like having control over my defroster. I only wish they gave us control over the AC as well.

My seatbelt is fine. Maybe you just got one that was installed backwards. The charcoal interior is hard to keep clean. But you should have known that before. Black is almost impossible to keep clean. I like it though because it gets me to clean my car more often.

All the things you listed good about the Mazda I agree with. Except the safety could be a little bit better. Its starting to fall behind a bit on that because all the other manufacturers are coming out with new models with better safety. But I'm sure the next gen pro will be up there with them.

This isn't meant to flame you or anything. Its just my opinion on the subject.

Sir Nuke

he he he....good call...

guess you havn't been reading the board much huh? ALL of these "problems" have been discussed and are KNOWN for a long time....

I would like to address a few......the speedo....being 140....do the math...IF its possible to take our car to redline in 5th....that is where you are going to end up at....140ish...if you decide to TURBO you might find that out if you decide to open her up....mine ISN'T....and I have had her to 125 on a long flat open road.....

the storage bin....its handy for CD cases if you carry a few...a standard jewel case fits in there perfectly in depth and width.

as far as marking 65 on the speedo....don't know where you live for sure...but the WESTERN half of the US's is ABOVE 70 mph...most of the states are 75....and its not marked either.....Texas is 70.......so just who are they supposed to please?

but with all this said.....we all see you DID buy a Pro....and thus the positives MUST out weigh the bad stuff.......

and we know you must be happy with the overall package....or you would be getting rid of it.

pimpprotege69

This is some good stuff!


Why this guy buy the car?

MP5s Make Ready

Amen brother......

mnkyboy

I have a solution. Goto your nearest Nissan dealer, give them the keys to your P5, and buy your brand new Nissan Sentra.

I agree with some of your views, but for gods sake, this is a car! I dont care what kind of car you buy, it WILL NOT be perfect.

The armrest has never been a problem for me. Maybe its because im 6'4 and I have long arms. I agree about the door panel, it should have been designed better.

My main point is these rants are the same rants you would have read when the P5 first came out. You knew (if you did the research) that the car had these "problems". This is how the P5 is, if you dont like it, dont buy it or trade it in if you bought it.

I respect your opinion, but I hate when people play "aint it aweful".

SEA_P5

Pretty much nailed on the head. Remember that you are paying 20K for a econo car...If it makes you happy go and buy a sentra...but do not expect that much passenger room.

tonkabui

i don't know about you, but i really think the nissan sentra's interior is bland and has a definite feeling of low quality. my friend owns a sentra se or something (the ones with alloys and fog but not the fast engine), and honestly, it's not that great. the seats are not as comfortable, everything is plasticky and cheap feeling (especially the radio, and i already think mazda's stock HU is pretty crappy), there is little room in the back seat, and the engine is just as loud, if not louder. then on top of that, the shifts are not smooth on his automatic. oh, one more thing... the car can't handle worth a turd. before i moved to arizona, he and i ran around on the back hills of santa barbara in our cars with some friends. we switched cars and i was blown away by the amount of roll and lack of steering response.

gosh, i love my protege, even with its little annoyances. my driver's window squeeks as i go over bumps when it's open just a bit. there's a phantom squeek on the passenger's side door that i have yet pinpointed. my girlfriend can't find it either when she's sitting there. the paint is real thin on the car and is prone to scratches.

i look around at the competition and i see no alternatives for the pricepoint. the lancer is a joke (ugly in sheep's clothes, and slow as one, too, with little handling improvements--definitely not better than the P5 in stock form). the civic is bland and lame looking... and cheap feeling on the inside like the sentra, although the no hump for the backseat passengers is sorta cool. the corolla? nah. something my grandma would drive, even with the redesigned headlights for 03 and the roof mounted antenna a la VW/P5/Audi. matrix? overpriced when compared to P5, even in XR trim. vibe? oh my... my friend adam has one. it's fugly. even more fugly than the matrix. it rides like a mini minivan. it can haul a ton of stuff though. impreza outback sport? tooooo costly. although i like the impreza look, it's way overpriced and the interior is totally cheap. probably cheaper than the sentra, i would say. and the back seat is tiny. and it doesn't corner very well, although the awd comes in handy for the backroads.

so that left me with the P5. beautifully crafted, reasonably priced, quality built (minus little shakes and rattles which will be looked at by the dealer soon), mazda reliability on the engine, and a blast to drive. i am more than happy with my car. it's not perfect, but it's a whole lot better than what is out there.

fat.elvis

test driving a '93 Sentra SE-R in 1993: fell in love, bought it (or my dad did for 12,800, I was 17)
test driving an '02 SE-R (and many other cars) in 2002: strangely angered and annoyed me
test driving '02 and '03 ES Proteges in 2002: not the fastest cars I've ever driven but I fell in love, so I bought one.
still own my SE-R. reluctantly selling it.

'nuff said.
There can be only one great sleeper car every five years. and our Proteges are it. Give it up. All the latest economy rockets blow. Read the latest Car and Driver showdowns. They are either boring as ****, butt ugly as ****, overpriced as ****, or some combination of the above.

fat.elvis