Mazda Protegé

dsm6

in your rear-view mirror the other day, lights a-blazin'?

mdaffron

dark gray and unmarked. Blue strobes behind grille.

Ask Dale what she saw in HER rear-view mirror this morning!!!

Meade the More Fortunate

vocus

Did you get a ticket?? Come on now, we wanna know...

She would probably offer the officer and his partner a big group hug and get out of it.

mdaffron

Geesh, Paul, it's old news over there!

Meade

mdaffron

We have a brand-new Daddy over on the Protege5 topic! (He even posted his wife's ultrasound pic!)

Go on over there and offer your heartfelt congrats!

Meade

chicagopro

Aaaagghhh!!! Why didn't I think of that??!!???

Of course, the group hug!

Just a measly little speeding ticket...clocked me doing 64 in a 45.

Prolly go to traffic school to have it dismissed.

Bad way to start the day, though.

mdaffron

I was clocked at 67 in a 35! C'mon Dale, you coulda zoomed better than that! Make it worth the trouble, for crying out loud!

(Just make sure you've got relatives in the court system first, hee hee hee nyah nyah nyah!!!!)

Hugs 'n Kisses,

Meade

vocus

That's not as bad as I did in my 2001 ES. 85 in a 55. The ticket was 5 points (wreckless driving), but I got out of it. I only got 2 points, because he wrote 66 on the ticket instead of 55.

I have a good family friend in the court system, and a couple friends at the Maryland MVA as well.

dsm6

What's the worst you've ever been caught speeding?

Sorry to hear that Dale, but these things happen I guess. At least that is what I keep telling my wife every time it happens to me. :-(

mdaffron

Good pun. I think you meant "reckless."

Then again, in your case, maybe you did deserve a citation for not having a wreck at that speed.

'Cuz as we all know, NO one EVER drives that fast ... especially ME.

I'm outta here for the day ... have a good one y'all!

Meade

P.S. You have 66-mph speed zones up there?

vocus

I made two mistakes in that post. One was that I spelled "reckless" wrong. The other is that I meant to write 85 at the end, not 55. Sorry.

fowler3

Are those wheels or chrome plated manhole covers?

I thought that car looked old, 40-ish or 50-ish.

fowler3

speedypt

I was clocked doing 126 mph actual in my '92 Pro LX. This was back in '93, and was clocked by a friend of mine who was (is) a Illinois State Trooper, on a deserted, newly paved road. Does that count? It was planned....so maybe not! :-)

Unplanned...I was clocked doing 99 in a 50 mph zone in 1988 in Marion, IL by another Illinois Trooper (I didn't know this one!) on the motorcycle I had at the time. He let me go with a verbal warning due to the fact that when I saw him clock me, I pulled over and waited for him. He appreciated not having to chase me. I appreciated not going to jail!

Regards,

Pete

protegextwo

Many years ago, I was LATE for work on Labor Day, lol! I thought, what the heck put the pedal to the metal. Like Pete, this Pa. State Trooper let me off with a verbal warning due to the fact that when I saw him clock me, I pulled over and waited for him. If I recall correctly, I had my car stopped before he even completely pulled on to the highway. Nonetheless, his lights were flashing! I almost crapped in my pants waiting for him. I had to be clocked at +90 mph?

He asked me the usual stuff; license, registration, whats your problem, yada yada. I told him the truth, plain and simple. I WAS LATE FOR WORK AND I NEEDED MY JOB! He returned to me car with a yellow warning ticket, which stated: I was operating my vehicle at 64mph in a 55 speed limit. The Trooper asked me to sign the warning ticket(no points or fine) and SLOW down, PLEASE! No problem officer; I replied. He looked at me for a long second and told me; "I had you on rador doing 91 mph,... any one THAT dedicated to getting to work on Labor Day deserved a 2nd chance". However, if he ever caught me speeding again, I could expect a lot of grief and NO mercy. I have never met up with this fine law enforcement officer again!

-love train

vocus

I had a similar experience when going to a friend's apartment over a year ago now, when I had the 99 DX. I stopped and turned left, up this road that had a very steep hill. I stopped at the line, which was about 5 feet back and around the corner with bushes on it. So I turn the corner (and it's pretty dark there) and all of a sudden these lights flash on. The guy yells out the window for me to pull over, so I did. I asked what I did, and he said I ran the stop sign. I was like, "No way, the stop line is around the corner and back a little, on the other side of the bushes. How do you know if I stopped or not?". He came back with a warning ticket, and told me to be careful. I think I would have gotten more grief, but my roommate (at the time) was in the car with me. I was really mad! Had he given me a ticket, I would have taken pictures to court and everything to fight it. Thank God I didn't have to though.

newcar31

The fastest I was ever clocked was 88 mph in a 55 mph zone. I was heading northeast on the two harbors expressway along lake superior. I was in my Mustang and I had been cruising at 130 mph for a while. I had my radar detector and there was nobody on the road, so I felt safe. I slowed down to about 90 mph (after cruising at 130, 90 feels slow). I saw a state trooper up the road and he had someone pulled over. As soon as I got near him, he got out of his car and waved me over to the side of the road. They had an airplane in the sky. Busted! Luckily, they never clocked me when I was doing 130.

On a different note, I stopped by a Mazda dealer yesterday and checked out the new P5s. Besides the new rims and side marker lights, they have a new leather wrapped shift knob, tweeters in the door, and a different cupholder setup. To be honest, I like the old rims better. I wonder if the sedans are going to get this treatment also?

shrique

Personally I've been pulled over 11 times and I've only got one ticket. This is the best one though.

Picture this it's 3am in the middle of a MN snowstorm I go out to my 75 Plymouth Valiant (in 1993) with no heat. I pull away from my friends house slowly waiting for that ancient thing to warm up slightly so that the moving car warms the outside air up and dribbles across the windshield. I look up from messing with my radio (it's hard to put in a tape when you have a comforter over your legs and your wearing elbow length leather mitten) and what do I see? Of course Mr. Policeman. He pulls me over and I'm waiting for him to come over. He goes through the normal "do you know why I pulled you over?" I had to say no to that one. Turns out that "The cup on your dash is too big it might impare your vision and your license plate light is out. You should really get that repaired and remove that cup"

I only received a verbal warning on that one. I'm sure he was just fishing for drunks but man what a lame "reason" to pull someone over.

danili19

Hey everyone, I'm in the market for a new car, and I was primarily focusing on the P5, Elantra GT, and VW Golf.
The Elantra is fun, cheap, and has an unbeatable warranty...but something tells me you'll have to use it more often than not. (quality of some parts, defects on the car I test-drove!
-The Golf was painfully slow (Why did they stop making it w/the 1.8 this year?? and was too expensive for what it was...
-The P5....wow...not too powerful, but the comfort for a guy who's 6'4, 210lbs was amazing, and the cornering! unbelievable...but here's my situation:
I haven't driven a Protege ES yet...but I hear the handling characteristics are very similar to the 5. It's also about 2k cheaper. First off, any suggestions? Has anyone else driven both and found anything? And second, are the same improvements for the 5 (side markers, SIX speakers instead of those 4 horrible one-ways, etc...) going to carry over to the sedan? thanks!

vocus

The improvements from the wagon will carry over from the sedan, but not the side marker lights (I don't think). Everything else will (sport automatic, leather option, six speakers).

And the P5 and ES have the same suspension settings and same tires, so they are going to handle about the same.

protege_fan

The P5 has a tower strut bar to improve handling over the ES. IIRC, you can get one for the sedan for less than $200.

newcar31

The ES has the rear strut towers braced from the factory and the P5 doesn't. The ES is also more rigid because it doesn't have a giant opening for a hatch. To top it off the ES is lighter. BTW, you can get the front strut tower bars for the ES for about $100 from mazdastuff.com. If your main concern is handling, the ES is what you want.

protege_fan

Is the LX setup the same as the ES in terms of the rear strut towers being braced?

newcar31

Yup, all sedans have the rear towers braced. The brace is built into the car. I don't believe they make strut tower braces for the rear of the P5.

protege_fan

Do any of the Pro's direct competition (you know which ones I mean) have rear tower braces? I guess my question is, what makes the Pro handle so much better?

protege_fan

Think I found the answer to my question courtesy of a post from our old friend Jerry:

The big thing about the Protege's handling is the suspension geometry. No matter what you add to a car, the suspension geometry will limit your efforts. The Protege benefits from Mazda's long history of performance vehicles and racing. Most vehicles have identical front and rear roll centers. Mazda has learned that lowering the front roll center and raising the rear roll center increases handling by shifting the vehicle's weight towards the front wheels during hard cornering. The Protege's Twin-Trapezoidal Link (TTL) rear suspension was originally developed for the RX-7 and is now used on the Protege and 626. The TTL provides passive rear-wheel steering during hard cornering. The TTL also provides extra negative camber during hard corning for extra stability. The TTL and offset roll centers both contribute to counter understeer which is inherent of all front-wheel drive vehicles. All Protege's are also equipped with dual-action shock absorbers, meaning they not only damp compression, but also damp rebound.


Post 587 from the "Low End Cars: Japanese v. American v. European v. Korean" board.

newcar31

This place has been really slow....

protege_fan

I dunno...eerily quiet!

chicagopro

Well, at least you have each other

dsm6

I too struggled with that one. At first I was hooked on the extra utility of the P5 (though the hatch is really quite small), and the exterior appearance upgrades, but went for the $2k and the ES in the end. I'm such a cheapo. ;-)

protege_fan

Sure, now you crawl outta the woodwork....

chicagopro

Well, where were YOU yesterday? Kept waiting for you to chime in with some smart a** remark about my speeding ticket...

:P

protege_fan

I was in a conference call ALL DAY!!! Can you say "bored"??

No smart a** comments here

Take your car in for the steering yet?

chicagopro

Knew I was forgetting something...thanks for reminding me. Doesn't seem to have gotten any worse, though.

protege_fan

Does it still feel screwed up?

chicagopro

Seriously, it doesn't feel that screwed up even. Just a tad looser than it used to be. It had probably been happening very gradually, and it just reached the point where I began to notice it.

newcar31

Now you sound like my Mom. My brother's name is Mike.

chicagopro

Awwwwww.....

norcan

Re. speakers answer.

Thanks for the info and sorry I didn't reply earlier - I can't check in as often as I'd like.
'Taking door panel off' seems intimidating to me!

fowler3

The only time I was stopped by a cop I was going 35mph in a posted 35mph zone. He pulled up beside my car and yelled, "You are holding up traffic!", and zoomed off.

Sheesh!

Whatever you don't drive at the posted speed limit, others will report you for reckless driving. jk

fowler3

mdaffron

To everyone who's coming (or who's interested in coming) to the third-annual Mid-Atlantic Protege Picnic (MAPP III) next Saturday, May 18 in Northern Virginia:

I have posted the first update on who's coming and what they're bringing on the Yahoo! group mazdaprotege:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mazdaprotege

It's message number 2309.

We currently have 31 people and 20 cars on our list! If any of you are still on the fence about coming, make your decision and let me know! You can e-mail me at:

mdaffron@the-rma.org

MAPP III: NINE DAYS!

Meade

mazdafun

It's not bad, once you know the sequence of screws and snap-in plastic pieces to remove BEFORE attempting to take off the door panel. I had to figure out to remove a snap-in part of the door handle that exposed two more screws before I could get the passenger door panel off. It's not bad. Worth the extra couple hundred dollars someone wants you to pay them to install your new speakers.

And you probably already have most of the tools needed.

mdaffron

Where the heck is everyone lately?

Meade

protege_fan

Maybe they're all in line for Star Wars Tickets??

sfrat

protege_fan

I am jealous

maltb

I'm trying to sleep still.

meinrad

WAKE UP!

Everyone is busy preparing meals for you to eat at MAPP.....

I'm not gonna get to see Star Wars probably till June sometime :----( gonna wait till my buddy comes to town and go see it with him.

protege_fan

Are you nuts???? Sorry, but as a true Star Wars Fanboy I have to see it within 1 day of opening.

maltb

I wish I could come to MAPP.

At one time there was talk about doing a Southern California picnic, but there just aren't enough of us on this board.

protege_fan

Hey if you guys from the Western US could come up to Montana, those of us in Calgary could easily come down for a NAPP - North America Protege Picnic.