KirosKid

I'm new here, and that's because I've always driven Fords (Mustangs mostly) and so has my family since I was born. I just got a new 3 and can vouch for Mazda on this one, it is definetly no Ford.

premdrumusr

Well I dont know why everyone's trash talking ford I traded in my pos protege that broke every f-ing time I went to drive it for an 04 Ford Ranger Edge in Sonic Blue. This truck feels more upscale than the price I paid for it as the sticker said $18,585. I got it out the door at 14 because of rebates.. then 5K on my protege and then another thousand on top of that.. put 3300 down and have payments for 137.22 for 60 months.. if you ask me its not a bad deal.. I love this truck and thats all there is to it.. as for my protege.. mazda f-ed up on the old rotaries in the RX-7s and made them so they break, 99-up protege's fall apart from the day they leave the showroom and the minivans are just too tacky for anyone to give a damn.. Im not happy with Mazda nor my dealership.. The service sucked, the salesmen dont know anything and the 1-800 # did no good what so ever.. Im happy with my Ranger and at 480 miles with NO PROBLEMS its a hell of a lot more reliable than my protege ever was. We'll see which lasts longer.. my truck or the 99-up proteges on this board.

vkhosid

just a question guys, but just wanted to know if the new M3 comes with just a "regular" tranny or a "sport"?

Jasper

Premdrumusr>> Ive owned my 02 MP5 for close to a year and a half and not a single problem yet. Maybe u were just the lucky one to get a rare oddity. or a "friday" car as some call it.

ready2race

It comes stock with a 5-speed, the automatic option is a 4-speed sport.

VagaBond-X

hey hey heyyyy
first of all i've owned my 99 protege since MAY of 1999.

Last year i got a new engine put in (around MAY 2003) so for 4 years it drove perfectly.
The new engine thing that was kinda my own fault. I just got a new aftermarket clutch put in, in december of 2003.
The car runs perfectly.
I have no mods at all.
it has almost 100,000kms on the clock
and its still as fast as it always was.

Now to the rotary note. The rotaries were awesome engines. I love the design. and well frankly, I'm a rotor head. The rotaries were just as reliable as any other car, if well maintained. It was a pure bred sports car. but cause of the cheaper price, peopel thought they could treat them liek any normal car, and not liek those $100k+ cars.
have u seen how much people baby those ferraris and porches etc etc. they get them maintianed ont ime all the time, keep care of them, even if they do drive them fast, and race them. but then again u dunt see many with over 100k + miles now.

If well maintained and raced properly the 3rd gen engines have lasted to 120k miles - 150k miles easily. Now if you goto the older 2nd gen, NA (Naturally Aspirated) engines. People have those up at 250k miles with no problems.
It just depends on how u treat them and maintain them. IF u got the stock ECU don't boost over 10PSI on the 3rd gens. IF u go over 10PSI on teh Stock ECU (Which many do) u are running a lean condition in ure engine, results in trouble. Let the car completely warm up before driving (or at least before u start using boost), let the car sit and idle for a few mins before turning it off, get a turbo timer, and do the fan mod
maintian it properly, keep oil levels up (cause the rotaries eject some oil into the combustion chamber) so it uses a little more oil. and if u plan on going over 10PSI, then definately invest in a standalone ECU


lol sorry for the long post guys, happy reading hehe