Hi everyone! As a newbie here, I would just like to say that I've driven a lot of new cars, and the new Protege/P5 is one of the most fun for the buck (but you guys already knew that, didn't you?) I will be in the market for a new ride in the fall, and I've pretty much decided on the P5. I can afford to by a faster more expensive car, but I'll pick a 'fun to drive affordable car' over a 'straight line over priced speed only car' any day. And believe me, I speak from experience. Some of my past few cars have been a 94 Z28 LT1, a '95 Vette Convertible, and a few BMW's, VW's etc. I'm not stating that to show off, but to emphasize that I believe power is NOT the most important thing for a street car. I loved my Vette, for example, but to really appreciate it's potential on the street was both dangerous and costly (a few speeding tickets). A P5 that can be driven at 8/10 on an offramp is much more fun than tooling around in a 300hp V8 that barely breaks a sweat in the city. This may be a bit long winded, but the bottom line is that I had a BLAST test driving the P5 the other day, so come this fall, I'm probably going to get one. Don't get me wrong, I'd love for it to have a bit more power, but it's fun-to-drive quotient is #1 in my book. Just my 2 cents.

 

welcome to the club!
never drove a miata but they are suppose to be fun cars too

 

wHat'd you mean by 8/10 off a offram?

8/10 meaning? ..

 

ive got to agree here, ive driven my fair share of cars... but sitting in a mazda, the funness is just not matched by any car...they may not be the fastest, but the attention to quality (steering wheel, fit and finish, etc etc) and ride quality (handling, wheels, tires...etc etc) is all there where it should be

and mazdas new styling rules!

 

Probably meaning driving the Protege at 8/10ths of its drivability.

It's funner to drive a slow car (well not really) fast than drive a fast car slow.

 

NagatiZE has it right. The performance limits of a P5 are, for example, lower than cars like Vettes and Porsches. You cannot resonably reach those cars limits on the street - far too dangerous. But a car like the P5 can be pushed to '8/10' of its capability without being too careless, on the street. Therefore, one can extract more of the car's potential on a daily basis. That, in my book, makes cars like the P5 more fun to drive during my daily commute.

To proman : Thanks for the welcome! Miatas are a blast to drive. I wanted to get one for a long time, but space is very tight and they do not make the best winter cars up here.

 

welcome sledgehammer! and let me say this, i don't think i have ever heard an explanation like the one you just gave. that is sooo freakin' cool! most of the time ppl are say we are under-powered blah blah blah, but from your point of view, it's more fun that way! coolness! i too have driven my share of fast cars (all american muscle cars) and never thought about it that way.

again, welcome to the club!

 

Fun comes in different forms, but I think twisties are most fun regardless.

 

Welcome to the board. Way to go, hehe, sounds like you're having fun. Hope you are as much as I am

 

That's one of the main reasons we bought our 2001 ES. Fun factor. I've had and have driven a lot of cars in my life, but this is the first one I've actually purchased new. I've always waited until a car was 4-6 years old and lost a lot of the initial value before I was willing to buy it. I used to be a mechanic (still am on my own stuff and a few friends' cars) and just couldn't justify spending a lot of money on a new car when I could buy a slightly used one and spend the rest of the money on mods or something else we needed.

My last project car was a 1973 Porsche 914 that was EXTREMELY fast. It didn't look like a 914 anymore due to a custom body kit with a slant nose. It had custom suspension, brakes, wheels, gauge cluster and a huge list of other mods. It had a 400 HP 355 CI small block chevy engine and an '86 Carrera transaxle that had been fully strengthened for high HP and had a Quaiffe diff. The car only weighed 2350 lbs so you can see what power to weight was. It did 0-60 in 3.8, quarter miled in the low 11's on street tires, topped out at 175 and pulled slightly over 1 Gee lateral on sticky street tires. Yes it was fast but I was going to get myself killed or put in jail because it wasn't really fun until you were in the Felony offense zone.

I only use that as an example because I actually have more fun in the Protege. Yes, it needs more power. But it's still a kick to drive and I'm working hard on the more power thing. It's also a lot more civilized while being that fun.

 

that's funny, so what did you end up doing with your Porsche?
Remember, this is a fun car that is also Functional and Looks Good. To answer Zoolander's question, there IS more to life then being really reallly good looking

 

I sold it last November. I would have gotten caught in it eventually. I had a REALLY hard time keeping it out of triple digits. The guy that bought it was a 22 year old rich kid (I sold it cheap really but you could tell he was a rich kid) from over by Seattle. He said he wanted to keep in touch whenever he wanted more information on how to set things and how things worked on the car. I never heard from him again. I figure he probably wrapped himself around a large stationary object in it. He struck me as the kind of idiot that would do that kind of thing.

 

Thanks for all the warm welcomes guys! I'm looking forward to being more active here when I get my P5. Seems like there's a nice bunch of folks here. Nice site!

 

A hearty welcome, Sledge. Kick off your shoes, get comfortable, and make yourself at home.

I agree with your statements all the way - straight line has it's fun points, but it's limited. It's much more fun to throw a nimble little car around than drag race a big lumbering powerhouse. Plus, it's a nice test of driver skill and "*****". Anyone can mash the gas to the floor, but not everyone can figure out how to hang the tail out on a front wheel drive car through a nice sweeper. Not that I can, but I'm having a blast trying!

Sorry to hear that a Miata can't meet your needs. Hands down, that is the most fun car out there. I had a '93, and the balance the car had never ceased to amaze me - sooooo stable and soooo fun, even with the wimpier, barely-over-100-horses 1.6L engine.

But the Protege is a well-done car. Economical, great-looking and fun - what more could you ask for?