Rio Grande

What is the difference betwwen a 03 and a 03.5. I believe the 03's came with the side markers and the sports tronic auto. I don't think the 02's had either of these. Can any one straighten me out here? Thanx

Prote-J

The only vehicles I see as 03 and 03.5 are the Mazdaspeeds, and in those the differences are in the spoiler on the rear deck, the removal of foglights on the front clip and some other minor cosmetics. They also changed the muffler tip from round to an oval shape in 03.5. Hope that helps.

Poseur

the main differences in 03-3.5 is that roof racks became optional, and Subs became standard. The auto-thing was a 02-03 diff. as were sidemarker repeaters, different style wheels, and Cupholders.

Prote-J

Sweet.. thanks man.. I know nothing about the P5's. you and your plethora of knowledge.... hehe

Rio Grande

Thank you both. If any one else has any input, please don't hesitate to add.

Poseur

If yours is a 03.5, the sub's the easiest way to tell. they've also got a raised cargo-floor to accomodate it, it's quite a silly bunch of crap they included for a simple little bit of bottomend... Thatsaid it doesn't sound allthatbad, of course I couldn't leave "not allthatbad" alone...

I also just remembered, 03's got the "sail tweeters" and a different shift ****. There's also a distinct difference with 02.5's from 02's I think that was the sidemarker and cupholder difference. not really sure when the auto transmissions switched. SO eventhough there's only 2yrs they made P5's there's 4 distinct models. TO further confuse it, alot of dealers got "refresh packages" to update 02 models to closer-to-03 spec. But some say the 02-02.5 difference is the same as the 02-03 difference, I'm not really sure but I think that of the "refresh package" some cars only got parts of it done to them.

juddz

You know what's funny? I have a 2002 Protege5 catalog and a 2003 Protege catalog. They reused the same press kit photos for the 03 catalog, and air brushed on the side markers and other details that changed for 03. They even reused the same photo of the interior, and just cropped it to hide the different 2002 console and shift ****. I guess not that many people notice; I mean, who goes looking to buy one of these cars for two years in a row (except for me)? There is one more difference that I am aware of - my 03 has a factory leather interior, but that was not available on the early 02 cars. I guess it could have been a running change. The leather is great, of good quality like everything else on these cars, but it does freeze my nads on a cold Michigan morning... there are no heated seats!

Poseur

I just remembered that I actually noticed that as well. the wheels airbrushed as well. Pretty sneaky. I was impressed they even botehred to change the details....