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If you are not happy with the rules of the Town Hall, you are more than welcome to address your issues to our Consumer Services Manager, Jonah Brown - his email address is jbrown@edmunds.com.
This conversation is totally out of place here - as I said earlier, I'll be happy to discuss the issue via email, and do please feel free to write to Jonah if you'd like.
Can we talk about the car now?
Pat
Host
Sedans Message Board
Incidentally, I am of German ethnic origin. I'm first generation Canadian. Maybe i should be horrifically offended. After all, the sky is falling, the sky is falling....
Incidentally, I don't blame Pat. She has a job to do, but that darn term is part of auto lingo and used by orientals alike. Just total PC gargabe that has a total idiotic double-standard.
I'm gonna hop in my "Molson (Canadian Beer) Machine" soon and head off to my hockey game. Waiting too for the inevitable, non-sensical,
"ze rulez eez ze rulez" email...
P.S.- The Protege is a great little car...Does that help?
--Dale
POLK(A).
I also love the Protege.
I hope you weren't making fun of Polish people ZoomZoom. Bad girl.
We have them in our Civ....green car and they sound great.
Hope none of you green people are offended.
Birds crapped on my car today and I went out and immediately washed it off. LOL. How's that for obsession??? With my former vehicle, I would have let it dried on there for weeks....
i love my pro5 and still carry the privilege of not seeing too many around my 'hood.
secondly,
i too immediately wash off any bird droppings because it is my understanding that bird droppings have a way of eating away paint, much like an egg, and i've already had to repaint my door from an egging, and don't wish to have to do it again.
thirdly,
I am Korean-american. I like rice. I call certain people's cars the same. What I don't like is to be called "oriental". that's reserved for furniture and rugs. Please refer to us yellow types as Asians.
Thank you and keep zoomin'
boopoppa
You can't have a forum and not have the occasional comparison why you bought the car. I will admit that my diatribe got out of hand on my Civ... I mean green car but I took it where it belonged.
I mean how do you know how much you love your car if you don't think it's better than other people's cars?
Seriously though on those Polk audios. Anyone try to fit a set in their car? They sound as good in the car as my home ones do in the living room. I'm thinking of getting Zoom a set for her b-day.
To use FOLEX on fabric, put a small amount on a soft cloth (or paper towel) and dab or blot on the spot. Do not rub the fabric. You may have to do it a couple times.
I use FOLEX to remove pet stains on carpeting. Works good. No trace when it dries. Also good for removing mechanic's (grease) stains left on car upholstery after servicing.
Duh_ster, when I said the Pro's heater works great I didn't mean at the North Pole. Where you live, any car will get instantly cold as soon as the heater is turned off.
boopoppa: I copied your notation about *oriental* to pass on to others on-line and off-line. Thanks for the clarafication.
fowler3
fowler3
There were 117 new posts when I signed on today. Too bad they were all about how a civic with a WRX engine can beat a jetta with a 1.8 ethanol hamster wheel engine while pulling a streamline trailer full of rice and memorial day fire crackers or something like that. (Can you tell I don't really read those posts!!)
Is it me, or are there more Canadian flags than American flags on this list now? We should probaly start talking about day time running lights and block heaters!!!
I had a hamster and I'm sure he would not like his species to be misrepresented in that manner.
#8767 - chicagopro
Yes, I was driving while I took both of those pictures. I'm having a lot of fun with this Canon Powershot A20 I just bought a few weeks ago. I sure as heck wasn't doing it in the middle of a lane change w/o my blinkers weaving in and out of traffic, everything around me at the time wasn't a hazard, so I thought it'd be ok.
I have a couple more, anyone care to see??? LOL...
Here in the southwest, it's impossible to avoid rice. Seems like it's served with every local dish. Ever been to Santa Fe? Rice, corn, black beans, and chile, yumm! And of course many people like their cars the same way around here, but I'm content enough calling them Eurosports (or Euros for short, even if they're all really Hondas and Mitsubishis with a couple Neons and Cavaliers thrown in).
As for my PROTEGE5 (topic related, woohoo!) something I've been wondering for a while now. Is it safe to use the overdrive button on the automatic to shift out of overdrive to use engine braking to help slow down (like downshifting a manual)? I accidentally did this once at an interstate off ramp and found that it worked pretty well but don't want to continue doing it if it's harmful to my tranny. Thoughts? Comments?
rbrooks: I may have missed whether you got your speaker problem fixed amongst all that other stuff, but are you still having bass output issues? The first thing I would think of is that the speakers may be out of phase with one another. In other words, one makes bass by pushing and the other by pulling. They make equal amounts of bass but the waveforms are out of phase and the bass cancels. This is always a concern with sub installations. I imagine you could find out if the two speakers were out of phase by chaning the fade from front to full rear and then changing balance between left and right. If they're out of phase, bass should be weak at center but better at left or right (when only one speaker is firing). Unfortunately I don't know how to fix out of phase speakers, but better to either know this is the problem or isn't, even if you have to dig deeper for a solution.
possible causes of poor bass:
-speakers connected out of phase [all grounds to same terminals]
-speakers too inefficent for power output of amp
-speakers designed to give little bass 'cause manufacturer wants to sell sub-woofs
And why does all the fun stuff always happen in the evenings?
BTW everyone, I'm on the Atkins diet (low-carb). I've lost almost 20 pounds since January 5. And I can't eat any of those starchy veggies y'all talked about last night. Used to love 'em -- nothing like a big ol' helping of Zatarains red beans and -- well, you know -- ah, I LOVE the South!!!
Meade
I know it can be very helpful in panic situations, but I don't find it a necessity on small, FWD cars. Of course, I've spent my entire 15 year driving life in northern New England, so maybe I'm used to driving in crud. :-)
I checked the NHSTA web site and only 2 TSBs came up for the 2001 Protege. There was also 1 recall and 15 Consumer Complaints. 16 TSBs came up for the 1994 Protege. I didn't bother to count the ones for the 1998 Cherokee. Edmunds' numbers seem to jive with NHTSA's. Where are you getting your numbers?
If it makes you feel any better, a search for TSBs on my 2000 Protege returned 13 -- 6 of which are "2000-specific."
When you get to the last pull-down selection, don't select a specific component -- just click on "submit make, model and year query" and it'll give you the whole list.
Meade
Meade
2000 ES
87-octane regular ALWAYS
http://theserviceadvisor.com/octane.htm
Meade
Talked to them the other night...they picked up a fully-loaded 2002 ES for $15,100 out the door.
Total transaction time: 20 minutes (no, they didn't do a test drive, which I don't necessarily agree with).
They're the reason I bought Mazda in the first place...this makes six for them over the years, all from the same dealer (probably a big factor in the successful negotiating
I got the annual issue from Consumer Reports in the mail yesterday. They said something about the Protege having questionable side impact scores. Any comments?
Meade
http://www.mynrma.com.au/motoring/cars/ancap/car_rr_crash_anc_s_00_mazda323protege.shtml
Acceptable means acceptable! I would think if they didn't assume it was safe, it would be called "unacceptable."
I'll say what I've said a dozen times here ... the only proof I need is how my '92 LX performed when I totaled it. There are two pics of crashed Proteges in my Photos folder in the Yahoo! group ... one of NHTSA's 2001 Protege crash test, and one of my totaled 1992 Protege. Note how mine did virtually the same thing the government's tester did: hood crumpled as designed, no damage to door frames, etc. -- and mine was going 45 when it struck the Volvo. Oh, and the '92s didn't have air bags. And oh, I walked out of it.
Once again I'll say it: I'm sold on this car's crashworthiness. I don't need any government test to tell me how safe my car is -- I've experienced it first-hand!
Meade
Also, with the accident you had, you hit something flat-front with the car. The energy was distributed across the front of the car. Of course it's going to do well. Try it offset. Also, side impacts are a heck of alot different than flat-front into a solid barrier. As a matter of fact, alot of accidents happen offset or side impact, more than flat-front (I know, because my best friend works for Geico insurance as an investigator).
What I'm getting at here is that there are variables in all accidents. I've been hit from the side before -- a guy going about 40 ran a red light in an intersection in 1989 and struck the side of my 1988 Hyundai Excel (!) as I was going through the intersection. Instead of hitting me fully in the door, like in the tests, however, I was hit on the side of the bumper about a foot from the back of the car. Result? A 270-degree spin-out in the middle of an intersection at 45 mph! Talk about a hair-raising experience. The car's frame was bent so badly it took two days on a frame straightener to get it straight again -- but even that cheap little car wasn't totaled by that crash, and again I walked away from it. (I was even able to drive the car home, although it shook a lot and looked a little funny with the rear bumper offset about a foot to the left!)
You can't predict if or when you'll ever be in an accident, and then what part of your car will get hit. I would think front-end accidents are more common than getting T-boned. But whatever -- I have had a bad accident in a Protege and I came out of it unscathed. That has really cemented my faith in the car, and I feel safe in it.
Just my opinion, but based on some (still very vivid) personal experience.
Meade
Meade: Yesterday at a traffic light stop the light changed and I slamped on the brakes. We have those #@&%*@# cameras here now. The car behind me was still going fast and I waited for the crash. When the driver saw I had stopped she hit the brakes and it stopped just inches from my bumper. It was a BMW, thank goodness. Whew! Been there done that...not again.
fowler3
fowler3
2000 PRO-ES: stock size: 195-55-VR15
Options,I'm looking at: 205-55-WR15
205-50-HR15
Before I tell you about the specific tires I'm shopping for at Tire Rack, I could use an education on the dynamics, of these specific sizes. Also, are the speed ratings O.K. for my Mazda Protege?
Thanks in advance,
Larry
http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html
As for speed ratings, here is a chart:
http://www.toyo.com/tires/tire_basics/speedchart.html
I would think that H rated tires would be fine, although it is slightly lower than the V rated tires. As for dynamics of having a wider tire, handling should improve, but fuel economy will worsen.
CR should always be taken with a grain of salt. Their "reviews" are pathetic when it comes to things subjective. They are for all intents and purposes a numbers book. They publish what the numbers tells them. When they talk about "promising" it has nothing to do with subject things like ride or handling. it's more to do with things like issues reported. Hondas for the most part are very reliable automobiles. You can be fairly safe in saying that a vehicle produced by honda is going to be reliable. How reliable they can't say but it's a good bet. A cherokee on the other hand has never been a spectacularly reliable vehicle. Even after the refresh they have still had their problems. However they may make a pretty goo d real SUV (unlike the CRV)
Just plug in your stock size, the size you're considering, and a speed -- and it'll show you all the details. (I have it bookmarked on the Yahoo! group.)
For tire speed ratings, go here:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/general/speed.htm
(The speed rating key is a little ways down that page.)
BTW, don't forget to read the customer reviews under "Reviews" at each tire at tirerack.
Meade