what should the protege5 have?
 

from the factory,

i think it should have

- 40 more Hp (as an option and keep the base 130HP engine) so maybe 170HP and 170TQ
- Larger sway bars (i want zero body roll :))
- rear cup holders
- rear window can roll down (pwr of course)
- rear 115v (or what ever the matrix has) plug in
- rear view mirror should be attached to roof and not glued to windsheild
- dual projector lights rewired like the Rav4's lights (the lights closest to the grill are DRL, outside lights are the main lights, and when you throw highs on the DRL's light up with an additional element)
- full sized spare tire, no dounut crap
- rear speakers that use REAL mounting templates not 3 holed.... things...

that is all :)
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Kawasaki kdx400a

I think it's fine as is. Add all that you list and I probably wouldn't be able to afford it. Sure its not the fastest car, with the most room, or the best handling (though it is damn nice in the corners) it is a great car for $16K and change.

Remember, there aint no free lunch :) If I had another $5-8K I probably would have been shopping elsewhere (WRX etc).

like nramsey said for the price its a helluva deal. That is what attracted me to the p5. All it had to offer w/out the high sticker. 40hp would be nice but i can live w/ the 130 as of now. bUT FOR A simple change that would be nice i'd go w/ the back cup holders or the rear power window like a 4 runner.

all that would be good and nice, but you're probably talking upwords of the 22k range if they just added the performance side and such.....

for that id be sittin in a new jet black WRX, runnin on 18s, with a new exhaust and tint.

A couple cheap things they could do:

* Variable intermittent wipers
* Defrost timer
* Rear window lifts up (like the Matrix)

This wouldn't add much to the cost (other cars in this class have these) but would really be convenient.

A couple more cheap things to do...

*A better sounding horn
*Auto-full-open moonroof switch (don't have to hold the button)
*Don't have the a/c turn on when you put the selector on feet

IMO - I wouldn't pay extra for a full spare. Pr5owner, why is that so important to you?

The moonroof on my Contour wasn't one touch, but a person by the name of Chris Hightower made a switch that you wired in to make it work. Took maybe 20min at the most to do, and I love it.

Why would you need a full size spare, it just adds weight and takes up room? I puntured the sidewall of my OE tire and I was in a location that there was no replacement tire to be found.I had to drive 45 miles with the donut on the front until I had the oportunity to put it on the back, then drove 150 miles at 70-80mph with no problem

A 6th gear would be nice for highway driving. If you combine that with another 40 hp or so, I would be more content with the performance.

Not that I'm complaining of course!

6th gear has more bragging rights than usefulness.

The overall gearing could be a little more on the short side than long. Part of what makes the car feel underpowered is the gearing. If you could have closer gears to keep you closer to the powerband the car would be better. It zips when you beat the snot out of it, you just have to be aggressive. Yeah Baby!

If you swap out your cams you'll get that 40hp you're looking for. $500 and a perma-smile. :D

I just think for fuel economy's sake, if you had a 6th you wouldn't be pulling 4000 rpms while doing 65 or 70 mph.

Cams and 40hp ???

Man that's dreaming. think more like 10-15 max

Personally I would like a REAL spare too....I HATE DONUTS!!! for the simple reason...if you are out on the road....the last thing I want to be doing is spending time hunting down a REAL tire to put on the car after a blowout....its bad enough that I had to change the tire on the side of the road to start with.

Variable intermittent and the horn are two of my biggest gripes. I don't think the car is exactly slow but it could use a little more power (THE ES/5 SHOULD HAVE A BETTER ENGINE THAN THE FRICKIN DX!!!!). And the 6-speed would be very useful since Mazda seems to gear fifth so low, the sixth gear could be a fuel economy gear for on the highway.

I've never had a flat so I can't agree.

The one problem with a full size spare is that it is either used as part of your rotation or never used at all.

If you use it as part of your tire rotation, you'll always have one tire out of wack (tread depth wise) with the rest of the tires. So when the time comes to replace your worn out tires do you buy 5 or buy 4 different tires (who replaces oem rubber w/ oem rubber)?

If you never use your full size spare what a waste of money with a 5spoke 16" wheel/tire rotting away in the trunk.

I'd just keep that scraggly ugly donut under the carpet and call AAA ($20/year do it!) when you get a blow out.

kc5zom,
I put a 135db Fiamm horn on for $15 bucks from NAPA. 10mins and wahla. A screamer! I didn't do the air horn one, just a big black snail shell type. It mounted in the factory location using factory wires. I highly recommend it.

Why cant they just use real carbon fiber for those two strips. I would have paid the extra 25 bucks for that. Better thought out intake routing. Make the front passenger seat the same as the drivers. "hight adjustable". The map lights need to be moved up like a foot and there need to be small ones for the rear passengers. Feels like your trying to scratch your back when your trying to turn one on. Standard cargo mat!!!!

I don't believe I have ever seen an economy car actually mount a full-size spare on an alloy wheel. They usually just put it on a cheap steel rim without a cover.

Power rear window. I have a 4Runner and the amount of cooling you get with the rear window down means you can leave the other four windows up and not even need the A/C unless it gets over 90 degrees.

Better OEM tires. It's raining off and on here in So. Cal. and my traction has gone to crap. The tires slide a bit; it's quite easy to spin out even in 2nd; the tires have zero traction on the road paint, especially those big white turn arrows.

My salesman said that the car would have had variable intermittent wipers, but that the switch where it would be is taken up by the rear window wiper nob thingy. They should put the variable intermittent nob back on and provide a roll-type switch (like the dash brightness switch) on the left of the dash to control the rear wiper next to the switch for the fog lamps.

Not only auto-full-open moonroof, but the ability to auto-full-open all the glass with the remote or a button would be sweet (like the key method in that Volkswagen Jetta ad).

6th gear would be great. Doing 4k rpm at 85mph just doesn't seem right if I'm just cruising and not accelerating.

I'd like to the 6th gear, I do alot of highway and it would be gas saver.
Inverter outlet
Better lighting, instead of having to do ourselves but that wouldn't be much fun?
Auto sunroof

I agree with the auto sun-roof. When you turn the car off, it should close automatically. And I'd move the power window buttons, I always lower the rear windows by mistake. Intermittent wipers would be nice but hardly necessary. and a full size spare on a steel wheel would be the same as a donut. I think the donut is a good idea. Face it, for the money the P5 is perfect. Mybe a ballsier horn and a little more power for the stereo(at least 40w per channel would be nice)

$20 a year, I don't think so.

-- 6th gear would be nice.
-- Power door lock switch for the front passenger.
-- Rear cup holders.
-- Real Intermittent wipers.
-- Openable hatch window.

I've owned my P5 for almost a month, and it truly is the neatest car I've owned. The bang for the buck is pretty darn good. Most of the above suggestions are just nitpicks. The car is very driver oriented so who cares about the lack of cup holders in the back? I don't want anyone spillling anything on my leather anyway! ;) My Car...no food or drink.

when i turn my p5 off the sunroof does close automatically.....well it used to, i disconected the batteyr to reset my ecu after a intake install and now it doesn't close by itself anymore:(

I believe the P5 is pretty much on the top of its class for the amount of money that I paid. Of course there are always things that we want with the vehicle...but hey there is always an aftermarket world out there....

So look at the upside...you currently have a vehicle that can take a sharper turn around corners with a high level of control....that is what currently works great for me in the city.

I dunno the only other thing I guess is it shoulda came with "a trunk full of Faygo, car full of fat chicks"

HA HAHA HA HAHA F***YOU

I agree with those who want better suspension ah la MP3 :D

My SVT has a tire larger than the typical donut one, and it is monted on a wierd rim. I know it's not steel but I am not sure what it is, and it is painted a off-white color. Crazy, huh.

Better Seats!!!!!!!

Maybe its different on the P5, but the side bolsters on my seats suck. When I corner hard enough to squeal the tires, I have to brace with my knees in order to stay in the seat.

Also, I agree these cars need more power and better handling- like 170 hp 150 ft lbs of torque, and MP3 handling.

Buy a Porsche. These cars are morph'd econo boxes, not race cars. Spend your money on aftermarket goodies and take the car to the level you want it at.

I think most would agree that you'd rather spend your money on the accessories that you want versus what Mazda wants. They (Mazda) are just trying to deliver a product to the marketplace that will excite enough people to buy a bunch of them. If they put in aggressive seats, tighter suspension they just kicked a certain percentage of potential buyers off there radar scope (NOT GOOD).

So if you got your P5 for $16-$17k (Mine was $19.3k) drop a turbo for another $5k and there you go. Don't leave Mazda up to reading your mind only. Like I said this car has to appeal to a wide enough audience to make Mazda $$.

Dude, well said. Some people are just never happy...we have the best handling car in its class, and what do we we say about it? "Needs better handling." To me, it's pretty damn good as is, and remember my other car is a Porsche. Ditto for the 130hp, if I wanted more I'd buy a car that's designed to be a racer.

I do agree with some of the little annoyances, like the placement of the window switches, fixed rear window, and the door lock buttons that bump my elbow. However, if minor inconveniences like that are the only problems I have with my P5, I think that's a testament to just how good this car is. When I drove the Matrix I thought it handled like a minivan and the steering wheel blocked my view of the guages. Those are the kind of things that you can't ignore and can't really be fixed either.

A sixth gear would be nice, or at least a little tweaking of the ratios for the 5-speed. Six gears means a different transmission which bumps up the price, so I don't really see that as a good idea. As is, cruising at 75mph the RPMs do run higher than I'm used to, but I got 29.4mpg on my first tank of gas so who's complaining?

And to all you guys asking for rear cupholders, you mean to tell me that you let people have DRINKS in your car???! :eek:

I have upgraded the handling to MP3 specs and now the things handles awesome. As for the power issuse, I have a hard time believing that adding 30 or 40 more horsepower would cost the company that much more. I think it is all about marketing. They want to give us a low level of performance in a small car so that we have no choice but to move up to the next, larger model if we want more power. Having a small powerful car that costs more than a mid-size with less power hasn't made sense to them.

The WRX seems to have changed that thinking. In 2004 or 2005 we are supposed to get an all wheel drive Cosworth Focus with 25o horsepower, and since the focus and the Protege are going to share a platform, there may be a Protege equivalent. The BMW 1 series that will be available with somewhere around 250 horsepower and possibly all wheel drive. Of course there is the 210 horsepower Neon that's coming out soon. There are some others, but I think I've made my point.

I agree that our cars are a good value, but part of the reason that I bought it was that I didn't want a larger car to go with the larger engines most companies offer at around $25,000. I bought the protege planning on upgrading so I could have everything I wanted: a small car with useable back seats that looked great, handled great, and had a powerful engine. Now that the car companies look to be producing the kind of car I want, I'm hesitating about dumping more money in to the protege.

Aren't the rear windows power windows? And about them rolling all the way down, isn't that because they hit the side of the wheel well cutout and physically can't move any farther? For them to get the window all the way down, they would have to redesign the doors et al. Too much coin.

I would like stock:

A decent stock stereo (the stock sentra blows it away, though this would cost coin)
Better paint thickness or strength (more coin)
Shorter throw shifter
Rear cupholders
Better aimed fogs
Infinitely variable wipers
Heated mirrors (i hate friggin winter here) (tiny bit of coin)
Laser Beams
More aftermarket support (come on Mspeed)
And of course auto moonroof.

Of course not. But when my chauffeur is driving me to work in the morning I do so love to have a warm coffee in the back seat.

Seriously, guess I'm a lame ass or something but the only people that ride in my back seat always seem to be people I don't really like anyway.

Funny but alot of the things that many of you want I could live with out...that is except for the extra horsepower..
I dont know
but the only thing i reallly dont like about the P5 are the tailights
i like the tailights that are found the on the White AutoExe P5 we constantly see.

actaully i ment the hatch window.. anyways.. about the stock stereo.. i was hopping it would be crappier to cut the cost of the car down by a little more, i always change out the stereo in all my cars, i could care less if it came with an AM 8track deck :p
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For Porn

No Way, I love the P5 taillights. Especially the reverse lights, they're so bright. The other day I was playing basketball with my son just by the light of the reverse lights.

???????? Huh??????? How and why was you car in reverse while you and your son were playing basket ball? Wouldnt it have been better to use the headlights?:wtf:

And why on earth would you not let anyone drink in your car? It's a freakin protege, its not a Viper, or a Ferrari or sumthin. If I ever got into someone else's economy car and they told me not to drink in there I would look at them like "your fucking kiddin me right?" I drink all the time in my car, Faygo, tea, beer... well beer is bad, but I let my homies drink in there. We eat in it, fire up in it. ITS A CAR..enjoy it.

Q: What should the P5 Have?

A: A loving mommy and/or daddy who:
1) accepts it for what it is, and
2) Doesn't complain/bitch about its shortcomings
3) gives it frequent, gentle baths
4) provides plenty of proper nutrients
(Mobile 1)
5) Takes it for nice drives in the country

The parent should also becoming more learned in the art of Mazda-rearing. In lieu of "Dr.Spock for Protege Children", this forum will suffice

his engine was probably off, key is turned to ON pos. gear is in REV or he stalled it in REV,
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R1200c