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I don't speak any Penna. Dutch but I do speak German fairly well (I understand it better than I speak it these days). I've actually seen a couple books written in Penna. Dutch and the language looks like what would happen if you wrote down a funny German dialect phonetically. Some of it I understood but a lot of it was brain-bending. My mother told me a story about how her grandmother used to speak with friends on the phone in Pennsylvania Dutch and would usually forget some words and just throw the English in there midsentence. Similar to listening to Mexican radio (I can even get FM from Ciudad Juarez sometimes here) and hearing blah blah blah Coca-Cola blah blah blah Michael Jordan blah blah.
1.)Ford Focus*
2.)Volkswagen Golf
3.)Honda Civic
4.)Toyoya Prius
5.)Toyota Echo
6.)Mazda Protege
7.Hyundai Elantra*
8.)Volkswagen Jetta
* Not Recommended because of below average reliability
My Personal Ranking
1.Mazda Protege-The best choice
2.Honda Civic-The safe choice
3.Volkswagen Jetta-The pricy choice
4.Toyota Echo-The odd looking choice
5.Volkswagen Golf-The funky choice
6.Ford Focus-The "Born in the USA"choice
7.Toyota Prius-The "green" choice
8.Hyundai Elantra-The low price choice
However, I think all of these vehicles are pretty good machines and would serve their owners well.
Andy, this is a long way from "the Penna Dutch Country"! LOL! BTW, whats your major at New Mexico State?
-Larry
God Bless,
Larry
Anybody can zoom,the real driver test is to beat the traffic and the control system. It's my road game.
Next week I am going on a 460 mile trip, will let you know my fuel economy and how the game played out.
fowler3
A buddy of mine has the identical car to mine (2000 ES) but his is an automatic, and mine's a 5-speed. A few months ago we got beside each other on the highway and our two-way radios (we're ham radio operators) and compared engine RPMs at 65 mph. My car, in fifth gear, was making 3,500 rpm. His, in overdrive (fourth) was doing only about 3,000.
So there's an obvious difference in how the two transmissions are geared. The 5-speeds tend to run faster than the automatics, giving them a more peppy feel, but sacrificing some fuel economy. My friend typically gets 34-35 mpg on the highway; the best I've *ever* gotten is 32.
Yes, it does sound weird ... this is the first car I've ever seen whose automatic has better fuel economy than the automatic. It even indicated such on our window stickers. But just test drive an automatic and a 5-speed (I did before my purchase, and before that I was intending to get an automatic) and there's just no comparison!
Zoom zoom zoom!
Meade
P.S. Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Larry, watch out for turkeys on the road, LOL!!!
Yesterday afternoon, right during rush hour, a tractor-trailer spilled its load of ...
FROZEN TURKEYS
... on I-95 in midtown, tying up traffic for a couple of hours. Can you guys and gals imagine what that must have looked like?
Meade
Meade
Awhile back, a web site that follows the japanese auto industry posted an article saying Mazda was coming out with their first MPS (the MP3 not having enough high performance for the MPS name). The article said:
"Mazda has decided to introduce a new sporty model based on the Protege (Familia) next spring for the North American market."
Anyone hear anything about this? Sticking another 20-40 (or more!) hp (or lb-ft) in a Protege or Pr5 would certainly make life interesting.
Meade
Go forth and EAT!!!
Meade
Pjd58
Highway -
MT - 31
AT - 31
Steve
Transport Canada Fuel Economy Ratings - Estimated
1.6L 2.0L
5MT 4EAT 5MT 4EAT
City 8.5L/100km 9.3L/100km 9.6L/100km 9.9L/100km
33 mpg 30 mpg 29 mpg 28 mpg
Hway 6.7L/100km 6.9L/100km 7.3L/100km 7.4L/100km
42 mpg 41 mpg 39 mpg 38 mpg
PF
PF
Automatic better than the automatic?
LOL
Meade: The gizmo I've always wanted to rig up for tailgaters is a small but powerful strobe light mounted in your rear window with a dash mounted switch or push button. Nobody would ever notice unless it's on and any tailgater foolish enough to get too close would end up staring at a very bright, fast blinking light. Mean? Yes. Illegal? Probably. A good deterrent? You bet
PF
I was driving a 1957 Plymouth with pushbutton automatic transmission. If you pressed the reverse button lightly the backup lights came on without actually going into reverse. Risky for the tranny, but it worked.
That trooper slammed on his brakes and the rearend of his car swung out! He pulled up beside me and then sped of at high speed. Bet he wondered how I did that without changing gears. LOL!!
fowler3
When I saw those lights flashing in my rearview mirror I wondered the same thing.
He was a fellow flying school student. The trooper and I were going to ground school the same night and he had missed the last class. He pulled me over to ask what he had missed. LOL!
He kept asking who I was waving to and I said my friends at work. They think you are giving me a ticket.
fowler3
How hard is it to find a protege with ABS? (none around here).
Anyway, any thoughts are appreciated. I test drove the LX today and did like it very much. I was actually very surprised at how much the layout and feel was similar to my '88 323 (even though it is much more car than my now junker 323).
mix
They depreciate faster but you grin all the way to the poor house. Just kidding.
Which car would you prefer to be seen sitting in with a state trooper talking to you? In the Pro I could accept a ticket proudly.
Turkeys drive Civics! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Gobble, gobble, gobble!
fowler3
And the turkeys falling off the truck story has me in the mind of a "Why did the turkey cross the road?" joke, but I can't think of a good punchline. Any ideas?
Hey all...got my personalized plates FINALLY!!! So if you see a Highlight Silver Metallic 2000 ES around with the plates "PROTEG 3" beep your horn to say Hi!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving all. I'm thankful for the love of my family, genuine generosity on the part of the American people for those in need after 9/11/2001, and for my favorite daily driver, the Mazda Protege!
Regards,
Pete
But most of all I am thankful that millions of Americans can still celebrate Thanksgiving with their families without fear and in freedom. Once again, bad people thought they could knock America to its knees, it is their knees which are in pain today,crawling around in caves and trenches to avoid bombs. God Bless America!
fowler3
just curious to know what rpm you prefer to shift at and why.
'duh'
Meade-At 65 mph your car is at 3500 rpms in 5th gear? They must have really changed the gear ratios in the 2001s because at 3500 rpms in 5th in my car I am going 75mph. Maybe that's why the 2.0L gets better mileage than the 1.8L.
Mileage hasn't been a real concern of mine, but I am going to start to keep better track solely because it's possible to spots problems this way.
PF
Dinu
the_big_h: dinu01 is in Canada, they celebrate Thanksgiving on a different date.
newcar31 posted this quote from Meade (mdaffron):
Meade-At 65 mph your car is at 3500 rpms in 5th gear? They must have really changed the gear ratios in the 2001s because at 3500 rpms in 5th in my car I am going 75mph. Maybe that's why the 2.0L gets better mileage than the 1.8L.
I went on a trip to Durhuam, NC, this afternoon and made a point to check my rpm's and speeds. I have a 2001 Protegé LX 2.0L. As I said before, I usually drive at 60mph and let the other traffic go by. Here is what my instruments tell me:
At 60mph the engine is running at 2,650rpm
At 65mph the engine is running at 2,850rpm
I set it on cruise control to pervent swings above and below the desired speeds and rpm's. I have to say the Protegé has an excellent cruise control! Far better than the ones I had on four Accords, one Civic, and one Odyssey. It doesn't vary more than 1-mph up hill, down hill, and on level Interstates it stays where you set it.
Didn't check the mileage because I didn't fill up the tank before going on the trip. Will fill up next week for a longer trip.
What I thought was an odd-looking cruise control, the stalk instead of buttons on the steering wheel, is used on Toyota and Lexus cars including the new LS 430. Gotta be because it is so good.
On most Japanese cars with the cruise controls on the steering wheel, the On/Off button is placed on the dash, usually behind the steering wheel where it is hard to reach. A major complaint by reviewers testing the Acura RL. With the stalk everything is in one place and easy to use.
fowler3
My '01 Protege ES used to turn 3050rpm at 70 mph with automatic, and I would add 500rpm for every 10 mph. Like 80 was 4000 rpm, 90 was 4500, 100 was 5000, etc. Never got it above 100 mph though.
If so, I have the same, and my dealer confirms my suspicions that it's probably a heat shield - he says that problem 'plagues small Japanese cars.' Apparently the fix is just a minor adjustment, I'll have mine done at my 8K service.
Wonder when they will make the inside center mirror power? That would be very helpful when trying to adjust the mirror in relation to the door mirrors in heavy traffic. Your hand wouldn't block the mirror and your eyes wouldn't be off the road ahead as long.
Have you ever noticed how many people set their mirrors wrong? Some set the inside mirror at an angle, cockeyed. Mirrors should be set so that when you see a following car leaving the leftside of the inside mirror you see it in the left door mirror as it begins passing your car. Same for the other side.
fowler3
(And the cruise control main switch was on the dash back then; it is now on the steering wheel with the rest of the cruise functions.)
As for the Civic vs. the Protege. Depends on what you want and how long you keep the car. I think that the Civic would be the better choice if you plan to keep your car for a while. My fiance's 93 Civic seems to have less rattles than my 01 Protege (especially when the Protege is cold). Also, we recently dropped by the Honda dealer to look at the new CRV and we parked my Protege next to a Civic and noticed that the Civic has tighter gap tolerances. There was a noticable difference between the gaps. The Civic will undoubtedly have higher resale value but this *may* be offset by the 0.0% percent financing and the lower price you might get on the Protege.
I thought the older (93+) 626's just had a switch that you pressed down on. I didn't know that it was push/pull ... I thought it was push/push.
I also heard that Mazda may have a service bulletin coming out regarding valve train noise when the engine is started cold. It was something about the timing belt and a ECU programming fix. Maltb????