first upgrade?
 

ok, so if all goes well, I'll be the proud owner of a 2002 silver protege 5... I was wondering what is a good first upgrade? I'm thinking about a intake and exhaust are going to be among the first few upgrades...

What are some good sights that sell protege stuff? and does anyone make projector lights for the 5?

protegegarage.com, corksport.com, and the (in)famous ebay. All of those offer LOTS of stuff to choose from. Everything from performance, to interior and exterior mods.

Happy surfing.

awsome thanks man!

the best first upgrade is exhaust..it will compliment any of your other power mods..most people start with intake though, easier install and cheaper

Yup, exhaust was my first upgrade. Welcome to the site.
Other sites: mazadastuff.com for oem parts, generally cheaper than dealers, and I got my springs from adventon.com, best price I could find and excellent customer service.
Also check out the FS section, Chris (FC3Sboy) from SPD Racing always has stuff for our cars.
I got my intake from him & I'm very happy with it.

free the exhaust system
 

1)CAI
2)http://www.wagnermotorsports.net/index.htm
wagner header(u might choose other brand, but wagner's is inexpensive and good quality),down pipe w/cat(w/o cat,you'll have CEL problem for sure), and mid pipe w/o cat(if your state has no emission check).
3)nice brand of catback exhaust system
All above could give you at least 15hp.

If you're looking for power, then Intake and exhaust would be the first upgrades I'd go with. However, if you're looking for improving your driving experience, I'd go with a short shifter and some performance pedals (Mazdaspeed set is really nice) and some lowering springs. It all depends on what you're looking for.