It handles wonderfully. It's a manual shift and I feel very in control and safe in this car. From the outside it looks great. I also like the red gauge lighting.

After it rains, the breaks make a grinding noise. The road noise is little much and the sunroof is loud. The stereo/cd could be a lot better as I often get static. When I ride over bumps, the cd will often skip. The interior is not holding up----seating is comfortable but wearing terribly.

Overall, I am very happy with my Protege 5. It's stylish and it drives well. But--I am disappointed in the wear of the interior. My car is silver with muted black/dark grey interior that is already showing signs of wear. I'm regretting my decision to go with fabric instead of leather and I'm considering having the seating replaced because I'm tired of de-linting/trying to maintain it. No matter what I do it still doesn't look the way it should. Every little piece of lint that comes off of your clothing sticks to the seating and door panels and just looks hideous.

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My mom had the 626 for many years and loved it. She now has an oldsmobile and misses her Mazda.

Great style, and handles great. Braking is superior to anything else I've test driven. Best car in it's class. Wouldn't want anything else besides a BMW!

Cupholders don't hold anything more than a pop can without having to hold in fear of spilling.

The Mazda Protege5 is great! I love the hatchback feature and it looks real sporty. Handles great when zooming around curves. Some say the engine is a bit weak, but passing is no problem. It gets great gas mileage and has a smooth ride. I've heard complaints of rattles in doors but I don't have that problem. My problem was with the service department at the dealership. The service advisor was a real jerk when I wanted everything looked over before I went on my 2,500 mile road trip. And when I got my oil changed they lied to me about checking the tire pressure when in fact it was low and I had to fill it up myself. They also didn't have enough respect to put a plastic protective sheet on the floor and got grease on my carpet. I have to go across town now to get serviced, which is a shame

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Outback

Handling, grips like duck tape to the road with those PREMIUM Dunlop SP 9000 low profile tires. Nice 17" Racing Hart wheels. Nice lumbar support seats, great styling interior. Leather steering wheel by Nardi and leather shift knob by Mazda. Adjusted 5-speed ratio transmission system. A sleuth of many other SHOW items that would otherwise cost you some money to purchase in the aftermarket sector. Interior noise is minimum for this compact car that has good dampening materials in it. Don't drive this car aggresively and you should be fine and happy with it for the long run. Great stereo system!! Decent quality speakers with a nice self-powered amp subwoofer ... all by Kenwood. Not TOP OF THE LINE, but I promise that you can still shake your entire car with the volume turned up high! Just add a decent AMP and you are good to go for the long haul!! This is a LIMITED EDITION with only 1500 ever made in both vivid yellow and mica blue. 1000 sold in the US and 500 sold in Canada. Only 500 of the vivid yellow MP3s were made and only sold in the U.S. Lastly, this car is an alternative to ANY Honda performance vehicle. Honda is a GREAT car manufacture ... but Mazda gives me an option t

Uses a lot of gas. Not enough horsepower @ 140hp, but still uses a lot of gas. Only OK torque @ 142 lb/ft, but still uses a lot of gas. Trunk does not have remote release. NO CRUISE CONTROL! Aftermarket support is currently in development stage, not a lot out there for the Protege model to modify with. Some minor problems with it that seems to be universal but fixed under warranty. Suspension bushings squeaks during cold weather, replaceable under warranty. In 2003, Mazda will be selling another set of limited edition Proteges. This time they will sell 2000 Mazdaspeed Proteges. Mazdaspeed Proteges will come with a turbo system to give it a bigger boost in horsepower. Better clutch to go with the turbo, bigger tires on same size but different model Racing Hart rims, better sound systems also by Kenwood, and a touch of other nice novelty items. The price will be in between $21,000 to a possible $25,000 depending on what mark up prices the dealership will dare venture into for this new "LIMITED" edition Protege.

Great car for the price. Very reliable. Good quality manufactured vehicle. Very HIP styling, and eye catching. Customer service at dealership is still to be craved for. Many folks have complained about bad service after purchase. So-So from my experience.

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1991 Mazda 323 - reliable weak car. No problems until after 10 years of driving it.

Good build quality. Nice factory stereo. Excellent handling. FUN!

High revving....needs 6th gear.

Very nice car. No problems at all so far. Highly recommended.

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honda accord

Nice car

Bad dealers

The Protege is a good car, but the dealers in Dallas are awful. At one Dealer, the slime ball salesman got mad at me for not going straight to the finance department and signing on the dotted line. I told him I had to go to work... He then got the price quote sheet and wadded it up and threw it away. He asked me to leave his showroom. I asked to see his manager. His manager apologized profusely. The salesman was not even apologetic. He said he had spent 2 hours talking to me "all for nothing". Mind you, I did not go in on a Saturday, it was Friday morning. I did not keep him from other buyers. The manager offered me the price of $14000 on the car. Needless to say, I was not interested in dealing with that dealership. I then went to Big Billy. They matched the offer, kept trying to push me to drive the car home, even before financing was approved. I had been quoted a good rate on a loan, but had heard of dealers low balling you, then you don't get the rate. They then tell you your rate is 18%. I called the following Monday, said I wanted a guarantee in writing I would get that rate. They never called back. Due to the quality of Mazda dealers in North Dallas, I bought a Honda Civic.

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Honda Civic

Good acceleration, both at highway speeds and from a stop. Very good handling for an "off the lot" car. Lots of room and lots of included stuff that's only an option on other cars.

Mazda could've gotten more power out of a 2.0L. Maybe offer us young bucks a turbo option??? 4 Stars only because the lack of power out of a 2.0L.

So far this has been a great car. Feels very responsive and good acceleration for a 130hp engine. Price was very good for the standard features. Only downfall I see is not having ABS standard, but only an option which is only available with Moonroof option and then ABS is an extra $800 with side airbags. It's a tradeoff.

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1993 Honda Civic... with close to 200k and slowly dying a fighting death.

Sporty ride, good engine pick-up (5 speed), good breaking on 4 discs, good interior inluding seats. The gauges look like from expensive car. So far i have 27,000 km complete trouble free. The car likes to go fast where it sounds the best.

Noise in general, specially in the winer idling on choke. Some might not like the hard ride, but I like it.

I bought the 2001 ES with the Sport package as a goog value for my money. The price for the same options was far less than the rest (Civic, Corolla, Sentra, Golf) and the interior was the best. The car looks good,the paint is excellent and the extended warranty for mechanical and body (life time)reasonable priced. The ride is fun with the standart 5 speed. It is poor man's BMW.

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I traded my 10 years old Chev Lumina car. Nothing wrong with the Lumina, but wanted to buy something smaller to save on gas.

Very good acceleration for a 4-banger- I’m into 5th gear by 40 miles per hour, and the transmission isn’t lugging at all. The fuel consumption is better than advertised. This engine acts like a factory blueprint. Maneuverability- steering response, cornering, and suspension give a very sports car feel in city and highway travel. It is fast off of the line and it will get you out of trouble in a merge situation if you push on the accelerator. It has never balked at going faster (I’ve taken it to 80 mph without any vibration); I don’t need to race to get my jollies, so I don’t care if it goes past 70 even though I know it will. Interior layout is functional and comfortable. I can drive for two hours straight on the highway with little discomfort (I’m 5’ 10” and 170 lbs). AM/FM/CD stereo sound system is outstanding; I have no problem with CD skip or anything like that. FM signal strength is excellent. Air conditioning performance is outstanding in a small car. The paint finish is beautiful. The gold metallic (“sunburst gold” or something like that) is very appealing to the eye and tough. I (gasp!) have two nicks from flying highway debris (some red-neck’s *!/# junky pickup truck!), bu

Noisy windows over 65 mph. I can hear trucks TOO well when I am next to them. Tracking can be problematic on highways; if the road is rough the Protegé DX tends to follow into tire ruts. But this same handling makes it a snap to change lanes- so, which is more important? I have manual windows and the driver side one stuck; I took it to the dealer when I had a false read on the engine warning light sensor and they fixed the problem under warranty for no charge. It turns out that some foam insulation had caught in the gear mechanism of the window. My reverse gear has a notch in it; you have to release the clutch and re-engage it sometimes for it to work (doesn’t happen often). Stalls in first gear sometimes- engine is very quiet making it hard to judge first gear w/o tachometer. No ABS- it still has good braking, with no noticeable pull. Air conditioning will rob the 1.6-liter, dohc 16-valve inline-4 cylinder engine of power on a hot day, but I have not noticed too many cars slipping past me when I try to accelerate.

Purchase price: $12,000 @ 0% APR for 4 years. I got a deal on the DX with an AM/FM/CD right off the lot. I don’t think the sales manager was keen on giving me what I wanted because I had to pull out the newspaper ad for that weekend showing that particular special- below MSRP and no interest FOR QUALIFIED BUYERS. Fortunately, my credit is good. This car is a steal! I compared it to a, Chevrolet Prism, Ford Focus, Honda Civic, Nissan Sentra and Toyota Corolla. For the price alone it knocks the others out the door. And I would agree with the reviews I have read that say the Protegé is undervalued. I have had this one for over a year and have had no major problems. The performance is excellent considering the competion. I have seen a fair number of Protegés on the road where I live, so it seems that more people are realizing what a good value they are. My wife loves this car as well.

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1987 Toyota Corolla LE 1999 Ford Focus 2001 Chevrolet Prizm 2001 Honda Civic 2001 Saturn SL2 2001 Toyota Corolla

Looks sporty, great excelleration, ride is very smooth.

5-speed stick is a little rough

Paid 10,000 for the 2.0L LX with moon roof, alloy wheels, 5-speed, etc.

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Civic & Corolla

Handling Comfort The look-Attention getter standard equipment Parkway service

No back cupholders front cupholders are a little too close to the dash. headlights don''t turn off automatically if they are left on when the doors are open Larger front armrest

I just bought a p5 yesterday and i love it. I traded in a 01 tacoma and they even gave me 4500 dollars back in cash. I bought a yellow one and boy does it get attention. At first i was weary a bought the color, but it is really growing on me. Mine does not have a sunroof, but they through in floor mats,a cargo mat, and a bumper guard for free. I really like the handling and the gas mileage. The interior comfort is an A+. My fiance says i bought it because i want to be like the guys on The Fast and the Furious. I really love it. The reason i traded in my truck was because i am getting married and we could use a more practical car that is gas efficient. My truck was payed for so i got a really great deal. People have complaied about the stereo, but i really enoy the sound it produces. Although i am going to install XM radio.