the handling is dope!!! i had a grand prix b4 this and even tho it kills the 5 w/power, that only matters in a straight line! i have so much fun with this car it's unbelievable. i think my only real gripe now would be that since i'm getting older, i don't wanna race but these little punk kids always wanna race me. but i'm already stuck in cruise/mack mode and only care about my looks. sure i might pull tight corners and all cause that's what's so fun about my 5 (imo) but i really don't have any other complaints EXCEPT FOR THAT F*CKING CHIP IN MY PAINT!!!

sorry.

three words describe my car: F-U-N

 

onehawaiian I hear ya on the chip in the paint..

Two weeks after I got my car some @$$F*CK slammed their door into my passenger side door.. small dent & chip . It's not noticable from afar but when you get up close/the right sun reflection, its there.... God damn, why are people so disrespectful? You cant have anything anymore without some *** destroying it
I make sure I park on the end spots as close as I can to the curb now :P

<rant>
BTW, took it to the dealer body shop because no one else can mix the paint supposably . $500-600! Lemme think about that.. no.. The damn dent is smaller than hell, how can they charge that?! They tried to pull the whole "Looks like were going to have to replace the panel." I rolled my eyes and walked out.
</rant>

 

Man, you can't just get a tube of touchup paint? Is it still a stock color? The parts dept. should have touchup paint for like $4.

 

By the way, Paulf....JDM stands for Japanese Domestic Market. Basically these are the "stock" parts from Japan. As you know, it seems that Japanse cars are just a little tiny teeny bit more performance oriented than ours. So, JDM parts for us mean POWER!!!! Plus, there just damn cool

 

ToMaC: what % tint... I think that looks great on the silver too! About how much?

 

Hmmm, I got the slow wiper setting, then a fast one, and the last one is a kkrrraaazzyyy fast one that I never use hehe....

My cd player rarely skips...... depends where you're driving I guess.....

 

ToMaC:

A couple weeks after I got my p5 some drunk dude backed into my rear bumper while I was in the car. He was fully responsible so I took it to a local body shop. They had to remove the bumper, push the dent out and repaint the ENTIRE bumper. I also had them fix some chips on each front door and the hood. They mixed the paint all on their own and got it perfect It is the midnight blue mica color and even though it has some difficult pearl specks in it, they recreated it exactly. The bumper was around $400 Canadian and the doors and hood were $60. Total that is $287 American. So shop around and you'll find someone who can do it perfect and cheaper.

 

Hey Shawn...
How much for the system and install? Got a pic of the 3%?

 

Two fobs...or all on one?

 

i think i'm the only person in the world who isn't happy with their p5.

i drive in dense rush hour traffic for about 20 minutes each weeknight. the drive is first gear the whole way. the car rocks significantly as i take my foot off and on the gas peddle. it's like bog/lunge/bog/lunge/bog/lunge. extremely annoying.

i think there's some problem with the first 1/2 inch of gas peddle movement. the fuel delivery/cutoff is not continous, but notchy. it's there all the time, but is more noticeable in first gear. i've got a bunch of observations/comments to make on this problem, but i'll set up a new thread in the next few days to describe it better and hopefully see if anyone has a fix.

for me it's a significant problem with the car, but if you drive in suburbia/ rural/highway, it's probably not.

 

Hey man, i totally know how you feel, thats why i got a automatic p5 and man i love my car! not a problem in traffic or anything. And i live near LA and i dunno if you guys know what Los Angeles traffic is like but its absolutly HORRIBLE!!!! sorry, i hate the traffic here. Thats why i got an automatic.

 

hi hitman, thanks for your thoughts, but i'd have to say i have a different opinion. i think there's something wrong with the protege driveline...CV joints, engine mounts, fuel delivery, ???? i'd say it's something in the gas peddle/throttle sensor/emission control/etc. i've driven about a dozen stick cars and half dozen motorcycles over the last 35 years, and none of them have had this problem except the protege. for example my other car is currently a hyundai accent (talk about low gearing!!!!!) and it doesn't rock anything like the protege.
i agree that the driver can stop the rocking by pushing in the clutch at the same time he takes his foot off the gas, but that seems like excessive coasting. (i failed my drivers license the first time for excessive coasting!!!)
i complained to mazda canada about this and they just sluffed me off.
it's interesting that it doesn't happen when the car is initially on a fast idle (1500 rpm), but starts as soon as the idle falls to normal (about 700 rpm).
anyway i'd appreciate it if you or anyone else has any theories about what causes the rocking and any solutions. does anyone know of any experienced protege tuners that might know? i called Racing Beat about 6 weeks ago, but they didn't recognize what i was talking about. i'd be prepared to pay a couple of thousand dollars to get it fixed since i'd lose that much in depreciation selling the car now, and i like the car except for this one thing. thanks again for your feedback.

 

I'm with TheMAN on this one. Most every 5spd I've driven acted that way in 1st. Except for a Honda. . . probably b/c there's so little torque.

 

Even my grossly undepowered '86 Subaru wagon had the lurching effect if you decided to drive around in first gear... it took me about a day to get back into driving a standard tranny with my P5 and I went through the whole tooling along in first for too long deal... now I just move 'er up into 2nd all it is smooth as can be.

I still am not fully back into the compressional braking thing as my more recent car was a Chevy Beretta and it had zero compressional braking... I remember when I first got it how I marvled at how much I had to use the brake!

 

DBR
TheMAN
Exactly my opinion as it happens to me too. I tend to shift up a gear higher to avoid it when crawling through town.\.

It's annoying, but there is technically nothing "wrong."