You better belive it I'm just very passionate about my car...lol

My point is what i said before its your money buy whatever you want,
And i agree the handling in any protege is way better than any civic, and i can vouch for that becaue i've had a 90 civic a 90 protege the protege no matter how you looked at it was a much better car than the civic.
Now i have a 02 protege and i was considering a 00 Si sure the Si in the 1/4 mile is faster but i never race in a 1/4 mile so i don't give a crap,

also like some other people mentioned the protege is a considerably cheaper car i paid 5K for mine with 52,xxx miles on it the Si i was testing was a 00 with 83,xxx miles and they wanted 11K for it to me thats rediculous when i could buy a turbo and put it on the protege and have about 200 or so horsepower and still not have paid as much as for the civic.
So no matter how I personally look at it, the protege is better but again its your money so buy what you want.
peace
dante

 

Ok this says a lot! LOL
At your age its easy to get offended by the adults, they're not being mean they are just passionate about there cars. That’s why this is a Mazda forum, you just simply asked the wrong question to the wrong people.
Personally, if I have a better paying job would never have bought either car. I would have kept my Z28. I am not as bias as some of these guys so here’s my opinion.

I looked at the 03 civic, corolla, focus and the protégé.
One the Mazda was a lot cheaper 2-3k.
Then I looked at power. The protégé had 10 more hp than the civic ES (127hp and 114 tq). The LX protégé has 130 hp and 130 tq. I liked the look of the pro over the civic, and the civic was 14k on sale and I got my pro new at 11k. Plus the handling is a big plus on the protégé side. None of these cars are fast. Yes you can spend 3-5k in a turbo but that MIGHT get you close to what I was running in my Z28 and I only spent 2k and was in the 12s. But where can you race safely on the street now days? NOW WHERE!

And the numbers still favor the Protégé for the 2000 models. Yes the Honda is a great car, but everyone has one. I don’t like being like every one. Now, you’re what 15-16 yrs old. If I were you I would probably go with the Honda. You defiantly want to be in the in crowd and that’s what you would get with the Honda. Plus the protégé has high insurance cost in TX. But don’t buy Honda because it’s faster. You need to make a grown up decision, remember if you get caught street racing now days you’ll loose your car and your license. And if you’re a smart guy (which I feel you are) you’ll be going to collage, you want have a lot of money to put into your car. Ask the guys on any forum their asses are BROKE! So take your time and think about the future and about what you want, not about what others think,
Peace!

 

thank you guys alot for taking the time to type up these replies. It's not that I had my mind set on the honda, here's what happens to me! I have basically a list of 5-7 cars that I am going to look for in a few months, and everytime i add a car, i get all physced(sp?) up about it.
I won't "street race" ever, at most just take my car up to 85-95mph for a little fun (on a road that could almost be considered a highway but is very unused.) So all In all I 'm sorry i sounded like a dumbfounded honda ricer, but i was just trying to acknowledge that they are great cars, and at the time, I was in the mind set that they were the best ( stupid me ).

And just to clear things up, I am only 15 soon to be 16 but I am very mature for my age, I have maybe 2 friends in my class and the rest of my friends are either sophmores juniors seniors or in college. I don't care about being accepted by a crowd, some things that I didnt list that turned me on about the civic were, The interior design, I like cars that the center console is curved up the dash, not leaving a gap like the proteges'. The sound of certain aftermarket exhausts at VTEC were just incredible. And the amount of aftermarket parts for it, not just engine interior stuff like seats.

All in all i think once i drive the two cars I will most likely pick the protege by a hair, but I will still have the civic on my list just incase the lots i goto do not have any Protege5's.

hopefully I won't run into this problem, because my parents are very good friends with a couple that owns a local used car lot in my town, and since we have bought 2 cars from them already, they are willing to look specifically at the auctions for a car that I want.

Again, thank you guys, and I hope I can join this club, in car, not just forums someday!