Hi, I will be moving to Greentown PA, you can say Poconos its easier cuz thats the outskirts of Mt Pocono. I own a 2002 Mazda protege, and it gets cold and snowy up there. I was wondering if anyone who lives in bad winter condition areas if their mazdas drive ok? Besides TRIBUTES! Im talkin about proteges or any other model,thanks., i dont want to have to trade my mazda for a jeep or a diffrent kinda car. thanks

Also i will be attending college, so thats about 100 miles a day 3 days a week....i was wondering if you can help me with tips of driving in ice and snow...im a fairly new driver and its not snowing much here in Jersey. and if iwere to get all season tires will that help? thanks alot

 

You will be fine. When I hopped into my Mazda this morning, it was all of 1 degrees F outside. It was easily in the negatives when you factor in windchill. The car started right up.

It does well enough in the snow, too. This is its third winter, and no issues. Front Wheel Drive cars typically have decent traction, as the weight of the engine is over the driven wheels. SUVs typically have a lot more weight, and thus a lot more interia, than a little FWD car. Therefore, even if AWD or 4WD helps you get going in the snow, it won't help you stop or turn!

 

mine is a ES so i think its Rear wheel....and it has ABS which is good. What about tires? should i get all seasons? or chains? thanks

 

Oh, no, you are not RWD.
What kind of tires do you have on there now? SOME all-seasons are good, others can tres SUCK.

 

whatever came on them, factory im not sure but i can check tomorrow its too cold now.

 

you might also want to check into a tire and wheel package. usually consists of some 15" steel wheels and some good snow tires. like the dunlop graspic, or the bridgestone blizzak ws-50..(just to name a few).. if you are a new driver, i'm sure that would help alot in the winter.
also, just drive sensibly,.. winter handling is far more different than any other season, so change your driving habbits accordingly.
This is my first winter with my protege5, and i'm 110% happy with the way it performs/handles and the way it has performed in the past few weeks. compared to the rest of the cars ive own, (mainy GM's)

 

Hi! I can tell you something about winter - Protege (323 in Europe) is FWD so its OK for winter. My suggestions are: good snow tires, good battery and good engine oil. The best choise would be 0W40 but ... there is a "but" - if your car has another oil i.e. semisynthetic I do not recommend to change it, but if you are running on synthetic oil (0W....) it's OK.
If you want to avoid doors freezing (I mean when its cold and you cant open the door because its freeze-up) lubricate all rubber seals with silicon (just a little) - it should help.
One more remark - buy good windshield wipers.

 

thanks! where might i buy silicon...is there a specific brand? i want to go to pep boyz and get it, thanks.

edit: oh and how might i find out what oil i have? thanks

edit2: and u think i need to get a new battery? it is an 02 with 25000 miles on it.,

 

You should get a colourless silicon in any store with building materials.
Oil: its a little bit complicated. There is no way to find out what kind of oil you have in (lets say) home conditions. You should remember what kind of oil you have put last time. If you put 0W40 its OK - its the best oil for winter, just change it for new one.
If you have put 10W40 or 15W40 DONT change it for 0W40 - put good brand 10W40.
If your car has more than 70k mileage most probably you have semisynthetic oil (10W40).
If your car is pretty new- you have full synthetic (0W40).
And remember - change the oil every 7-8k miles or even often if conditions are very hard.
Battery: in my mind you should consider to get a new battery if you dont have any surprises

 

thank you. my car is an 2002 with 25000 miles on it. and how much might a battery run? like 100 dollars? thanks. also is it easy to install or have a proffesional do it?

 

It was something like -20C (-4F) here this morning and my car started up pretty quickly. I think it took about an extra second or so longer than normal.

We've got about 30cm of snow on the ground now and my '02 has done pretty well in it. I bought 15" Kumho KW17 winter tires and they perform really well. Hardly any louder than my Kumho summer tires too. I would definitely recommend getting winter tires... all seasons just don't cut it, especially if you get lots of snow and ice like we do. I just changed my engine oil, unfortunately I did not get synthetic or whatever is supposed to be best for winter. I assume Mazda just used whatever it is they use by default.

The worst part is the TERRIBLE mileage I'm getting. I probably won't get more than 350 km's on this tank. Assuming I get 350 km's (which might even be stretching it) with a 45L tank, that works out to something like 21mpg! We're in SUV territory now.

And... I need to get new windshield wipers. The stock ones suck. Anyone have any recommendations?

 

yeh... my tires are DUNLOP and its snowing here

i need tips

i was driving real slow, and when i made a turn i noticed... no foot on accelerator or on brake right?

cuz when i had fooot on accelarator i skidded hit curb// and when i braked my ABS kicked in and still hit a curb....so do you just let it turn by itself? and does DUNLOP have winter tires? thanks

 

graspic ds/2

 

hey im actually from nazareth, PA which is real close to the poconos...my best suggestion to you is that if you have a rear wheel drive car, you can be safe and have a lot of fun in the snow with a protege. If you have either a set of new-er all weather tires you shouldnt have too much trouble....and if you put some bags of dry cement or sand in the back you can have a hell of a lot of fun drifting around the windy snowy roads of the poconos.

If the driftings not your thing, some weight in the back and snow tires should pretty much allow you to be perfectly safe if you drive slow enough...

 

The stock Dunlop all-seasons SUCK. Especially in the snow.
However, the Dunlop Graspics (snow tire, not all-season) are pretty good.
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