Hi everyone!

I am in the market to buy a car and was very interested in the 02 Protégé ES. I like it over the Civic and Corolla because it offers more for the price and I think it looks and feels better than the other two.

I came across this forum from searching the web for facts and opinions of this car. I wanted to get opinions from Mazda owners of the reliability of theses cars as my research and from word of mouth revealed that Mazda hasn’t had the best record for reliability over the years. I consider Protégé owners to be experts on their cars and I value any advice or thoughts about this topic.

Key insight from ’01 ’02 Protégé owners would be of the most help in making my decision, but finding out how Mazda deals with their customer when it comes to defects with the cars is an issue as well.

Also I live in Toronto Canada where we obviously have winters (not as bad as Buffalo NY) and would like to know how the Protégé (engine etc.) responds to that type of weather?

Thanks a lot and I look forward to reading all responses.
Canadian

 

well im not tryin to persuade u to get a protege. But, it all depends on what you want to spend. if you cant afford a brand new protege or P5 or whatever, then settle for a 2-3 year old car.
The corollas are pretty nice, i like all the mods that can be done to them. the (i think) 93's is the year im tryin to think of. Ive seen one that has clear corners, clean bumper lights (front and rear) with custom altezzas. The car is really nice lookin. its a dark red. ill get pictures of it and post em. ( currently the car is sittin in a dealership...i guess the dealer owns it since its coverd up 90% of the time).

but get a car that u can afford, and that is easy to mod.

 

well im going to do the same and not directly say you should get the protege.... but its an amazing car, it stands out infront of the civics, and has more power and more engine than the new corolla (which is cool, but kinda clunky if you ask me)..... hondas have always been seen as very reliable, but recently the new civics are slipping heavily on quality (from consumer reports) and the new proteges are out doing all the competition and are also very good, reliable cars. you read around this board, and you will see this, these mazdas are made tough, and with quality... you look at jessies car, which has over 100,000 miles on it, and very little engine wear, and this is a car that is raced heavily in autocross.

about winter driving.... the dunlops that come with the protege are exceptional tires, but for winters i will always stick by mounting up a nice pair of snow tires. with the snow tires on the protege is a beast in the snow, i have had no problems with our harsh winter here in nebraska, and having that manual tranny is the best when it comes to snow.... this car will not disapoint you when it comes to its capabilities

also one quick note, look for the new mazda speed protege.... it will be turbocharged putting out about 170hp (im sure youll be able to crank that up though) meaning youll have some nice power too..... but the protege5 and es are both great cars.... check them out, drive one, youll have the most fun driving that you have had in a long time!

zoom zoom

 

I got a 2001 LX 2.0L Protege, and after 21,000 kms never had a problem. My dealership is great with services, and for our warranty we only have to take it in every 8,000 kms, while all other car companies make you take it in every 6,000 kms and charge you much more for tune-ups/checkups. It depends on the dealership too I guess, the cost of them, but so far I haven't had any problems.
I love driving my car and look for any excuse to take it out.

The only complaints that I can think of are some people that had a 'rattle' problem in the morning, and which goes away after a minute. That was a few Protege owners, me being not one of them. I think it's the best value in its class

 

Hey Candu,
I live in Hamilton, and will address the winter driving part of your question. I have a P5, one aspect of this car that most people have mentioned but don't relate to winter driving, is the balance of the car. It has very little understeer usually associated with frontwheel drive cars. Very neutral feeling. I just have the stock summer tires on right now, and even in that snow storm last week when the plows were on strike I was doing easily 20 km more than everyone else and the car felt remarkably stable. So stable I even had to try twitching the wheel to find out if I was just fooling myself. The car rocks in winter. Plain and simple. A set of snow tires on that puppy and you would be able to handle pretty much anything.

You have nothing to worry about driving a P5 in a canadian winter.

Stocker.

 

The bottom line, if you like the car, buy it within your means. I bought my car (00-pro-lx) because of; good price; style; feeling; and best of all 0% financing (compared to Civics, Corollas, etc.). Why don't you get out there and test drive the zoom, zoom car. That's what I call, FEELING.

00-pro-lx, touring pkg., 5-speed, black, tints, fogs, clear lights, lowered, meshes, alum. int., & more, spicy looking.