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Comments
Meade
I'm married, over 25, male, but have a clean driving record. My car is also garaged, in a neighborhood considered low-crime, but lately someone's been breaking into homes, cars and businesses in the area. Probably a small ring or gang targeting a community that's been growing quickly of late, and one unused to crime.
I found rates for the Protege to be comparable to similar vehicles (Foci, Civic, Sentra). I think the insurance data indicates most cars of this size are driven by younger, less-experienced drivers that tend to drive a little too enthusiastically for their given abilities and road conditions. The Taurus, Accord and Camry are generally lower due to the demographic that drives them and the way they are driven. Then again, I find these cars a bit too sedate for my liking.
Better safe than sorry (or upfront than cover-up, as Mitsubishi found out).
I missed a turn and ended up going through a rather decrepit part of downtown on my way to a supplier in a suburb north of Detroit.
I thought the suspension on my 99LX felt fine over those pock-marked roads, but you'll have to settle that yourself. Take any vehicles you test drive on the same route, and take a tape recorder for verbal notes. I have to say that some of those potholes on the freeways there were pretty big. I tried to avoid them than drive over them. What I couldn't avoid got transmitted through, but not too badly (a Cavalier probably would've fallen apart, judging from the rentals I had on other trips). I can see why so many people there drive SUVs though, with their greater wheel travel. The Ford Focus is supposed to be softer on potholes, but there are so many reliability issues, I don't recommend it. The Sentra may be another one to try, but its rear seat (and front) are too cramped for me and I find its styling to be rather droopy (esp. the rear). The Corolla and Elantra have softer rides (at the expense of handling again), but I can't find a good driving position in the Corolla (steering wheel too far away) and the Elantra has poor crash scores.
I think the only difference between the LX and ES suspensions are in the wheels and tires. If you want a bit softer ride, go for the smaller wheels with tires that have taller sidewalls. You could also exchange the performance tires for touring tires, at the expense of handling response (as the sidewalls will flex more, and the rubber compound and tread design may be less grippy on dry surfaces).
Dear Mazda Owner:
Mazda Motor Corporation has determined that a defect exists on some 1999 and 2000 model year Mazda Protege vehicles produced from December 1, 1998 through July 31, 2000. If you are a recipient of this notice, your vehicle is included in this campaign.
What is the problem?
On some 1999 and 2000 Protege vehicles equipped with the 1.8L engine, the driving performance may deteriorate, causing hesitation, rough idle, and/or Malfunction Indicator lamp (MIL) illumination, due to failure of the ignition coil.
What will Mazda do?
Your Mazda delaer will replace the ignition coil with a modified one free of charge. The repair should take approximately 30 minutes, however, it may take longer depending on the service workload at your Mazda dealership.
What should you do?
Please make an appointment with any authorized Mazda dealer to have the ignition coil replaced at your earliest convenience whether or not you are experiencing any of the problems described above.
blah blah blah
....it is recommended that you have your vehicle or engine serviced as soon as possible. Failure to do so could be determined as lack of proper maintenance of your vehicle. Also, your vehicle may fail a state or local emission inspection if this recall is not completed.
blah blah blah blah blah
Sincerely,
MNAO
And to folks who may be considering a Protege and might be scared off by this, well, I understand your concern BUT...
It seems to me that the Protege actually has had far fewer recalls than say other cars in this class.
--Dale
Meade
Meade
2000 ES 5-speed
P.S. to Paul: I don't remember eleets asking for a comparo between the sport-shift on the Protege and those on other cars. Keep the Jetta out of it, OK? Thanks.
Meade
According to the letter:
"You do not need to bring this notice to the dealer, but it may assist in the check-in process."
Maybe they can check for sure whether or not your car is affected.
So I guess I'll be first to experience this recall, if mine's affected. If it is, I'll have a full report tomorrow!
Meade
P.S. Like you, I've had no driveability issues with my car. But I guess a new coil at 40,000 miles will be good preventive maintenance!!!
Has anyone heard from him lately???
Meade
my 99 ES did exactly that just before it ran out of warranty few months back. Dealer replaced the ignition coil and wires.
talk about poor acceleration. I was soooo worried what the heck is wrong with my car? was it my imagination or was my car getting old.
Thanks goodness, it was the ignition coil, and not my brains
;-)
Meade
more pictures can be found at:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291580451
As far as insurance, I do know that auto insurance rates are exceptionally high here in Michigan. I pay extremely high rates (IMO) in spite of the fact that I'm over 25, have a clean driving record (no points), good credit (yes, they're using that now to rate you) and no accidents or moving violations. However, I live in a major city so I get slammed hard for that. Even though I'm in a nice area of the city and my car is garaged. It is such a ripoff. I need to move to the state where that person (I forgot who said that) is paying $40/month. LOL That is unreal and would probably only happen in MI if you had no-fault only and lived in the boonies or something.
I know a lot of factors are considered in the rating process, but I was still surprised that the Protege costs so much more than my Camry, with all other factors remaining the same. This is a new insurance company for me, so I won't be able to change for at least 6 months anyhow.
However, I have rationalized that the extra insurance costs could be offset by my savings with gasoline costs. I use premium in my V6 and although it gets decent gas mileage for its size, the Protege will give better gas mileage. How's that for thinking it through.
Plus, if I get the 0% financing, there's the major part of my savings. Also the website said that your car payments would be waived until January 2003. Wow!! This is such a great deal. I plan to do a test drive soon. This could actually work for me.
P.S. Who was that who was in Detroit on MI-3? I don't even recognize that and I pretty much know all of the major streets and expressways and their respective numbers. I don't know where in the city you were. Just curious about the whole MI-3 thing.
Now I'm going to be seeing them everywhere ....
P.S. For some reason I'm thinking that MI-3 might be Gratiot Avenue? This is going to bug me until I figure it out.
Here's my theory that I posted over there:
"My understanding is that the S-plan is the Ford employee/retiree discount program for Mazdas and the X-plan is a non-Ford employee discount program for Ford and all of their subsidiaries, including Mazda. My employer offers the Ford X-plan. I don't work for Ford Motor, but we have a "partnership" with them."
I have access to both plans and if my theory above is correct, I might be better off using the S-plan through my Dad than the X-plan through my job. I think the S-plan offers a bigger discount. Anyhoo, if anyone can explain all this S-plan/X-plan stuff to me, I would really appreciate it. TIA.
2000 Mazda Protege ES Silver
Automatic
Sunroof
Svc history-Changed my own oil every 5k miles, rotated tires every 5k miles, spark plugs every 35k miles, transmission fluid flushed every 35k, new antifreeze every 50K.
That's it!!!!
Times to svc dept-------------- 0*
Times car wouldn't start------- 0
Times car quit on me----------- 0
*I guess I need to go for the coil recall, I just got it in the mail today-they better not mess up my baby!!!
The car has been fabulous. I bought the car in July 2000 for work. I drive approx 1k miles per week. Stop and go, I'm in and out of the car 15-20 times per day. Can you say start and stop. Engine has been cranked literally thousands of times.
As far as interior wear goes. There is a noticable wear mark on the center consold lid from resting my arm on it. Color difference only. No tears or wear marks in carpeting, seating, headliner. Driver's side floor mat is fading from me scrubbing my greasy foot prints out of it. I do have a small wear mark on the drivers door panel where my arm rests, but not too bad.
Paint is holding up exceptionally well. Although the car is only two years old, I've subjected it to years of rock chips on the front. The front bumper cover has some scratched from rock chips (interstate driving).
Can't believe I've driven 100k in just two years time period. Hopefully the next few hundred thousand miles will be as trouble free.
Any questions?
Thanks
--Dale
I put in a new Purolator Air Filter every 6 months or sooner if needed.
I am going to replace the timing belt this weekend. I know I've pressed my luck by going this long, but I've seen several cars with over 150K miles that have never had the timing belt changed.
Probably replace the hoses at the same time I do the next coolant change.
-Larry
Mobil One every 5,000
New NGK's last month.
One Air Filter each spring. (2)
Original Coolant
Original RE 92's.
Regards,
Mark
p.s. The ignition coil replacement is interesting. I have had a couple of episodes the last 500 miles that have felt like a brake was depressed during hard acceleration. I had an appointment for this Saturday before receiving my letter today. We shall see?
Like I thought I would, I too received Mazda's recall notice in my mailbox yesterday. This happened to coincide very nicely with a visit to my dealership's service department that was already planned, so I had the recall performed. I asked why my coil needed replacing when the car's been running fine for 40,000 miles, and the mechanic (I never talk to service writers; I've been a customer at my dealership since 1991 and I know some of the mechanics by name!) said that some '99 and '00 ES's "up north" had had some coils break down. That's all he knew. Anyway, mine was replaced and I SWEAR the car has a tad more lively acceleration now; also the slight hesitation I used to experience once in a while taking off in first (it's a five-speed) seems to be gone.
I have scanned the recall notice and placed it in the Files section at the Yahoo group. It's called "Recall 7-02.pdf." You'll need Acrobat to open it. I have also taken a nice pic of the new coil; it's in the Photos section at the group under "Meade's Proteges." It's called "Recall replacement coil.jpg."
I wish I'd taken a look at the original coil before it was replaced; maybe one of you with a '99 or '00 ES with the original coil can take a pic and post it for comparison to see if there's a physical difference. I have no idea what the change is; maybe somebody like maltb can enlighten us a little more?
The whole job took about half an hour, and look at those shiny screws!
Some of you who've been following my goings-on of late may remember that this visit to my service department was really to fix my stinky A/C. Well, I was a little timid and expecting the old "Could not duplicate" since (of course) the a/c had no odor whatsoever yesterday, but here's an example of a good service department: Instead of spraying that cleaner into the ducts and giving me my car back, my mechanic met with me and the service writer and said he'd like to have the car for a day sometime soon so he can take the heater box out and physically clean it for me -- to make sure all the mildew is gone. Of course this is a warranty job. So I'll be scheduling a day at camp for Zoomster sometime in the next week or two.
Is that service or WHAT?
Meade
I called my service writer and he said my 01 isn't on the recall list.
On another note, with only 12k on my Potenzas, I feel like I'm not glued to the road. When I take a corner hard they squeal and during a rainstorm last week, I was scared to death. Mazda needs to consider a better OEM tire.
Pjd58(Pete)
Anyway, I found the car I would've bought yesterday if I didn't have my way-cool 2000 ES already. It was a blue (love that blue) Protege5 5-speed with no roof (i.e. more headroom for big ol' me), leather seats and all the usual options. It was in the mid-$17s. Beautiful car.
They had original 2002s and "mid-year refresh" models on the lot, so I had a chance to compare them. I noticed that they've toned down the shiny trim on the dash considerably -- you know, those "carbon fiber" lookalikes surrounding the center console -- they're not shiny anymore. In fact, on that blue Protege5 I was looking at, the sides of the console actually looked more like matte plastic -- more along the lines of the trim in my 2000 ES, but without the golf-ball dimples.
I really like those side signals though.
Meade
Meade
P.S. Unfortunately, I don't think Mazda's listening. They've been putting Poortenzas on their cars at least since my first Protege, a 1992 LX I purchased in September 1991 and proceeded to total (hydroplaning, of course) in August 1992 at 28,000 miles. In my wanderings around the lot yesterday, I was pleased to see new Proteges with Dunlops on them, but the 626s were still shod with Poortenza RE92s. I hope they don't put 'em on my 2005 Mazda6!!!
Pjd58
Hey, if you and your Wife have any more rugrats in the future:), consider the MPV. I HATED minivans, but the MPV handles very well and the GFX package looks way cool, it even comes in Midnight blue.
Pjd58
I insure 3 cars (two drivers, both over 25 etc.) on the same policy (my 99Pro is the costliest to insure at $240/6months since it's the newest, so the coll & comp is highest). Might be some discount for that too, but this agent's always been charging me less than other agents, even those from the same insurer (Allstate). I think it's because he's been in the business so long that he's willing to take less commission on new policies. Anyway, shop around, and also call different agents from the same insurer (they don't have to live near you...for instance, there are several Allstate agents physically closer to my residence, but I've stayed with mine since 1991, even as I've moved around). Rates will vary. I've found rates can vary as much as 100%, or even more. Sometimes a personal reference can help, since they may judge you partially on the company you keep. This likely doesn't apply to companies like Progressive that quotes over the phone and doesn't link you up with a specific agent. However, I've found their rates to usually be the closest when I do my annual check on insurance rates. State Farm's usually the most expensive (not counting the ones that specialize in insuring "higher-risk" drivers), in my experience.
And I have that blue! Na, Na, Na, Na, Na!
Pete -- funny you mentioned that. While we're not planning to expand the family past Sean, I've been looking at the MPV anyway. I like its looks and the utility it affords, and since we had to sell our pop-up camper when I got rid of my truck and I miss the camper dearly, I'd like to get something with a V-6 in the future that can pull a small camper so we can buy another one.
My next car choice is gonna be a difficult one, because I also drooled a little over the Tributes. Seems Ford is finally addressing the stalling problem, and according to my mechanic the mid-year 2002 Tributes have new PCMs and don't stall anymore. If there are still Tributes in 2005 or 2006, it may be a hard choice between a Mazda6, a Tribute and an MPV.
Meade
Pjd58
Meade
Anyway, I think Bridgestone struck a deal with the Devil to put these tires on so many cars! Mine are at 222350 km and they are starting to squeal pretty badly when I corner hard.
Paul, I think 105K miles is the interval in CA (and perhaps VA), because of different (more stringent) emissions regulations - and its still 60K for other states (for the Protege). With Paul, one never knows whether he's talking about the Jed-duh or the Protege! (Except of course when he talks about rattles and problems - then you KNOW "Its all about the VDubs Baby")