turbonium959

I do not know if any one besides me read magazines, but in the latest huge test that Car and Driver performed, out of 11 compact 4-door sedans our Protege came out #1. That did not suprise me though, because when they tested Mazda Protege before, it came out on top as well, though I think it was P5. What did surprise e was that Huyndai Elantra came in second.

redrims

What? That wouldn't surprise me at all. If I had to chose another compact car, that would would definitely be it. My friend has that car and she whips my butt everytime on the highway(open roads). If I'm not mistakin it also come in a V6. I also think it looks pretty good.

Maybe it could be because I have an auto and she has a manual, but she still manages to beat me.

spammy56

The Elantra does not and will never come in a V6. Do you know how cheap that car is? I took my friend car shopping and the Elantra we were going to test drive would not even start and had to be jump started with another Elantra. Please! My friend got a Protege. Protege is hands down more fun to drive and much more easy on the eyes.

redrims

And that's your opinion.

Sir Nuke

and ya know what??? WE ALL got one of those....just like we all got one of something else! lol :{D

spammy56

The car didn't start and that is a fact. Also, Hyundai would never put a V6 in the Elantra. The Elantra is not billed as an emotional vehicle, they are trying to give you a lot for your money. Thats fine but it certainly does not make it better than the Protege.

redrims

I never said it was better than the Protege. I love my Protege and I would never trade it for an Elantra (maybe a Tiburon, but thats another story). Anyway, I was just trying to say that the Elantra isn't a bad car and I actually like it. I would never degrade the Protege, especially since I drive one.

ProtegeMaster

Hyundai has improved dramatically over the last several years. In fact, the Elantra is BETTER than the Protege in many, many areas-- Enough so that I think Mazda should be ashamed of themselves. This includes Elantra having a far better ride, and vastly better noise control-- But then again, Mazda doesn't really care about noise control in their cars-- They're all louder than their respective class standards. Why Mazda refuses to do anything about noise control seriously pisses me off, and that, along with incessant rattles from everywhere in my '01 Protege, is why I'm getting rid of it as soon as possible.

That said, one area that Hyundai continues to fail in is reliability. Their cars are fun to drive, quiet, refined, and comfortable, but they're pitifully unreliable, and always have been. Based thereon they're utterly unworthy cars, just like the Ford Focus (the Focus being top rated, by far, in its class, but sucks maggot ridden *** in reliability-- truly pathetic).

Mazda's only current virtues, at least in the Protege, are stellar reliability (which is my most important demand in a car), interior roominess, appearance, and handling. Beyond that the Protege has miserable ride quality, horrible noise control (heck, there pretty much *isn't* any), mediocre fuel efficiency, and poor interior component integrity (i.e. rattles up the ***). ALL other mainstream Japanese competitors build better cars than Mazda does in that sense-- As does a single Korean competitor, Hyundai.

If Hyundai would definitively address the reliability issue and build cars with at least 'better than average' reliability I'd drop Mazda's *** and buy an Elantra GT immediately. The GT looks like a Saab, which is cool. And it comes with standard leather interior! Does Mazda think we're good enough to have leather, even as an option, in the ES? No, they don't.

Bastards.

MarkSpark

Yeah I want leather. Guess we're gonna have to do it ourselves...

bmassche

My Father has a 95 Hyundai Sonata. has the same 2.0 litre engine
than my Brothers old 91 Plymouth Laser, which was actually a Mitsubishi engine. He has only replaced the timing belt, brakes,
and a battery in 8 years, and has 150000 KM on it. The only thing wrong with it is the molding around the windows is rusting a bit,
thats all.

Fulminatus

Maybe some dork salesman left the lights on overnight? If the engine couldn't turn on it's own, but worked w/a jump start, then it's a battery problem only isn't it? (or alternator which didn't charge the battery).