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Comments
1. Floormats, custom cut to fit the P5 and ready to ship.
2. Mudflaps
3. That magnetic hood/nose cover. Saw a picture of one for sale but can't find it again.
Thanks for the help!
K
Q: is the oil filter still way behind the block, under the fuel injection? Is was that way on my Escort GT, which shared an engine with the Protege. Now that I think about it, they changed engines to a 2.0l shared with the 626, didn't they?
I use a piece of hard wood between my hydraulic jack and my cars, and usually get two wheels up at a time (for tire rotations).
Try Roebuck Mazda (they have a new name now) for mail order parts:
http://www.trussvillemazda.com/
-juice
Barely accessible from above in the 1.6L. Accessible only from underneath in the 1.8L (probably the same for the 2.0L).
It'd be nice if Mazda found a more convenient location for us DIYers.
I guess I will have to wait to see how the P5 does in a real saskatchewan winter, with snow up to your eyeballs....
P.S. haven't got a chance to look into winter tire options in that great of detail. Anyone with any feedback on possible makes and models for some good, reasonably inexpensive winter tires would be much appreciated.
Sorry, don't ask me - a texan driver - any recommendation for a snow tire for the P5.
Be careful there, and try making your ABS working as less as possible!
Bruno
So I'm not worried about traction. What worries ME is ground clearance.
Then I'll probably throw a big trash bag over the stack.
Storing tires is not such a big concern. It's actually better to remove them rather than leave them on a car you don't drive because with weight on them they could flat-spot. Sporin gave good advice.
-juice
Rich
The only long-term road test of the Protege that I know is made by auto123. The car year model is 2000. If you can read french, click on:
http://www.auto123.com/fr/info/roadtests/view.spy?make=madza&artid=461
To make the story short, they love the car after driving it in one year and 12500 miles. No big surprise on the positive side: excellent build quality, reliability (no rattle), good interior finish, classy and distinctive styling, rigidity of the chassis, excellent and sporty handling, good comfort, precise and smooth steering. On the negative side, they mentioned: the interior could be a little more exotic, average car tires (what original tires is equipped the car for european market?), noisy at acceleration, average performance of the 1.6l engine, clutch is not smooth enough, and a so-so defrosting. In conclusion, they said: small flaw but huge quality. And that's already for the previous model of Protege!
Bruno
Any ideas on this? has anyone modified or replaced their fog lights. I dont want to blind anyone, but in their current setup, they feel like they are more for looks than for real world use.
Thanks
Thanks
thanks
whew.. 3 in a row.. im on a roll.
Revka
Host
Hatchbacks / Station Wagons / Women's Auto Center Boards
It sounds like your clutch is not correctly adjusted. Mine works great (I'm learning the heel-and-toe shifting with it right now). I would bring the car to the dealer and ask for losing a bit of clutch, it shouldn't cost you that much.
As for the belt, may be its height is not properly adjusted? Then again, mine never twisted.
Regards,
Bruno
-juice
To those concerned: let's please be careful about making "humorous" remarks and generalizations about other cultures. Even though you may not mean to offend, it may be interpreted as an insult to the party on the receiving end. And now back to the subject of the Mazda Protege5. Thanks. ;-)
Revka
Host
Hatchbacks / Station Wagons / Women's Auto Center Boards
Bruno
The info part of the post was about
http://babelfish.altavista.com
which is useful to those that want to translate web pages to/from english.
Try it with the auto123.com post above to read an acceptable, if humorous, translation of the long term P5 test.
ve preferred the feel of my (and newer) Proteges' steering feel to that in any Honda Civic, VW jetta, Toyota Corolla or Nissan Sentra I've driven.
More intuitive in different situations, and RPM-sensitive seems to make more sense!
zoomin
I picked up an extra keyless remote on ebay. Anyone know how to program them?
result, they work awesome now. They now light up 10-20ft distance infront of the car. Plus I can see 45 degrees of extra light on either side of the car allowing me to see dark corners and curbs.
head lights just have one bolt, adjusted that and now i can see down the full length of road. Maybe too far down the road, but I notice they are not as bright as the fogs. Ill have to see how many people flash me during the week, or if they flip the rear mirror. But after 1hr driving last night, no flashes or flips.
Now I just need to figure out that clutch adjustment.
or do I have to bend the metal shield like you did? I think it would be better if the shield was not bent because it might blind others.
On a side note, I can't seem to stay away from here even though I can't buy for a few months now. I just get jealous listening to how much everyone loves their car, but I still like to keep up with whats going on....the day will come.
Anyways, enough of the pleasantries. My wife and I are looking to "downgrade" from our Outback wagon into a P5. The mileage on the OB has been disappointing to say the least. The window sticker said 21-28, but we're lucky to get 20. Our Subaru dealership also happens to be a Mazda dealership, so we'd be able to deal with the same place, which is a bonus. Our payoff is just about the same as the trade-in value so that too is a bonus.
I should say, that we have yet to drive a P5. We have a 5 month old daughter and in order to test drive the vehicle we'd need to install the car seat, which can be a big PITA. We did have a 2000 Miata before our daughter came along so we're familiar with Mazda's driving character, etc; and, of course, we won't get the car without a test drive. So far, however, it's just been research and looking. We loved the Miata, and in turn have come to really like Mazdas generally. (I've actually liked them since the 80s when they had the schweet 626 5-door hatchback). Anyways, our salesman, however, mentioned one thing about the wagon that has us troubled. He said that the rear end is kind of heavy, and has a tendency to slip out in a turn, resulting in oversteer. He said this happened to him a couple times when he went down to Cincinnati to test drive all of Mazda's cars on an SCCA course. Has anyone else heard of/experienced this problem? Also, how does the acceleration feel? Is 130 enough to get the car going at a decent rate? We're not looking to race a Mustang, mind you, but decent acceleration is always a plus. Of course, the OB is somewhat lacking in that department, so we are used to it.
Sorry for babbling on. Hopefully I will have gotten something across in this message. Thanks in advance for the help.
P5's 130HP is more than enough for our daily commute in LA freeways; it could use more low end punch but overall, it's pretty quick. About the heavy rear end that your salesman mentioned, I sure didn't feel it. It handles very well even at high speed. I'm not a racer and never took the car to a race track, so I don't know the truth to his take.
BTW, hondaacessory, You can take the remote control to a Mazda dealership and they will program it for $35, I think.
Also, today we delivered a Sofabed from my house to my brother's house with the P5. The sofabed is almost 5" long and thick; it fits the P5 barely, but it fits. My wife and I was shocked that it fits with the truck close too. We're pretty sure that it won't fit and that we have to leave the trunk open/tied. We were so happy about this accomplishment :-). We saved about $50 from renting a U-Haul.
My only warning: installing a car seat in the P5 using the seat belts is indeed a PITA - just like trying to do it in the Miata. The P5 comes with the new LATCH attachment system, though, so once I got the retrofit belts to strap our Century booster seat into the P5 using the LATCH system it was far easier. You'll have to find out if those retrofit straps ($30 for ours at Babies R Us) will work with your car seat.
Beware a test drive in a P5...you'll be hooked! Good luck!
Don Allen was pretty decent. My salesman was Katz, and he was very informed and drives the pro5 himself. the only glitch was at the end during finance when it seemed they tried to sneak a different price on me. originally i was promised strict sticker and so I ordered my car end of june. now, the car came and we went in and it was a bit rushed thru the financial part, and i was almost about to sign, when i took another second to look over things and the well, the price seemed higher than what i had expected. so upon questioning and a little bit of hassle, they went and got the sticker price and i was right. they had not taken off the $400 graduate rebate plus the price was a thousand some over. in all, close to 2k over the original promised price. once it was cleared up, they changed it without question, the excuse being that because it was an ordered car, they made out the paperwork on an estimated price without seeing the actual sticker when the car came in. who knows.. just check everything. besides that tho, i feel very confident in my salesman and customer service.
boo
ps: if you're interested...they have a referral service so if you end up buying or leasing from don allen and my salesman with my referral, i get a hundred bucks which i'll split with ya :-)
I've never noticed any tail-happyness. Even under hard turns, it is very planted and neutral.
I think that the P5's bad-rap as "underpowered" is grossely overstated. Sure, when you compare it's magazine test numbers to other cars, it is about a second slower to 60, but on the road, you really don't notice it, unless you are coming from a much more powerful car.
Your Outback is a 2.5 right? I'd bet the acceleration wil be about the same, given that the P5 is a good 700lbs. lighter.
One big difference, besides the lack of AWD, is the low ground clearance of the P5. So if you bought your Outback because you *needed* the AWD and increased ground clearance, the P5 will not meet your needs.
I've got a set of 195/55QR-15 Michelin Arctic-Alpin's on steel wheels for winter, but with the amount of snow we get up here in VT, the low clearance worries me.
When I'm just tooling around town, I shift at around 3500rpms. When I really want some juice, I let her rev to 5500 or so. It pulls strongly and smoothly and I have NEVER felt like I *needed* more power.
But HP is like pizza and RAM... you can never have "too much." :-)
Even with some hard charging and lots of around-town driving, I average 29-31MPG over a tank of 87 octane (which is what Mazda recommends).
I took a long trip on Sunday of about 2.5 hours each way... all highway. I had no problem keeping up with crazy southern NH traffic (75+mph average). I expect that the long trip will jack my MPG up there too. I'll post that next time I fill the tank.
It seems the more and more people that I see and talk to about my car talk about getting one. Even my grandparents are now considering down grading from the traditional old person car (huge boat and getting something smaller). My Grandfather is now in love with my car and wants to go for a ride every time I see him.
I can't believe the response I get from people when they see my car. Everyone asks me "So how do you like it," and I always respond, I love it!
I want one so bad. (sigh) Anyone want to buy a 97 Saturn SC2? It's got leather!
Also on another note. I highly recommend that you all paint your brake calipers. I did mine two weeks ago with a $3 bright red hi-temp (500F) spray paint that matches the strut brace and they look fantastic and wont rust.
-Finn
Silver P5
p.s. anyone know where to place a hydraulic jack so that both front wheels can be raised off the ground at the same time?
I was reading your message on the 15 rims and 195/55QR-15 Michelin Arctic-Alpin's. Did you get them from Tire Rack. Do you like the tires? I assume that they fit over the calipers on the P5. I am interested in putting on winters on my P5.
I took a long trip this weekend, just put my first 1000 miles on my P5, picked it up Tuesday and with the car loaded with my wife and 2 kids and a full back, I did 31-32 MPG. Great highway car.
This is usually not noticeable to the driver, except in close-to-the-limit cornering or sharp turns when the sensation transmitted is similar to understeer and that of the back end 'losing-it'
Interestingly enough, the trapezoidal suspension is one of Audi's much-touted 'all-new' features in its 2002 A4s, to 'improve handling characteristics' :-) And even my 95 Protege has a toned down version of this! Go Mazda!
Of course, I'm not trying to imply that you cannot break the rear end free if you try hard enough, just that the initial feeling of that happening is not really what it seems to be at all!
One caveat - the P5 may be a bit small if it's going to be the primary family car. If you are coming from an Outback, with a 5 month old, you may want to wait for the new Mazda 6 wagon, or look at a Tribute or MPV. Of course if you want fuel efficiency, the Mazda 6 with a 4 cylinder would be the choice.
I get 25mpg in my Forester, 27mpg in my Miata. That's an acceptable trade off for AWD and about ten times as much space! :-)
-juice
Bruno
Bruno
PS: do you often cruising 40mph at 5th? That seems a little low rpm to me.
IMHO, 130hp engine is powerful enough, at least when coupled the manual transmission. I don't have opinion about the automatic.
Bruno
Break-in period: I usually shift at 3500-4000rpm. Don't accelerate hard, varying the cruising speed on the Hwy, (in consequense don't use the cruise control). If you shift up at 3500rpm, the tac will drop to 1950, 2489, 2592, 2724rpm for 2-5th gear respectively. In consequense, when you decelerate and shift back, the right moment is when the tac drops about 2000-2500rmp, so that the engine will never have to rev faster than 3500 rpm when you release the clutch. If the engine is warm enough, you could push the rpm to 4500 for a brief period of time, but do it smoothly. Smooth driving is a keyword for break-in period.
2) after the break-in period: 3500-4500rpm, depending on the trafic, road condition, engine temperature, etc... Better wait until the engine warm up correcly before pushing hard the accelerator.
3) for the best fuel economy, shifting is one thing, but having a light right foot is also important. Accelerate as smooth as you can, and shift around 3000rpm. Also anticipate stopping. If you see a red light ahead, no need to keep the car at high speed and break at the last moment. Modern car don't need to be warm up, just drive right the way when you start it, however treat it gently for the first few miles.
4) Best acceleration: I usualy do not spend a lot of time on the first gear on the flat road. For others gears, I shift the gear at 5500-6000rpm.
Bruno
I don't think the downsize in cargo room is an issue because we've found that the OB has been unnecessarily large for us. My family lives all of 5 minutes from us, and my wife's family lives in Edmonton, about 2500, so we really don't take long road trips in the car. We're a bit worried as to how my daughter's seat will fit into the P5. She's just moved into a new Britax Roundabout and it seems quite large (at least in comparison with the Graco infant carrier we had before). Of course, we'll take the time to actually try to install this if we get that far down the road. Also, we have no need for the available clearance of the P5, since we rarely get snow here in Columbus, Ohio. So lowering the clearance isn't really an issue either.
Thanks to everyone for the information on the potential oversteer issue. I spoke with my salesman again and he did admit he was pushing it hard on the SCCA course and so not to take his experience to seriously.
With respect to price, he said that the P5s have been going for sticker. Is this really the case? According to good ol' Edmunds, the TMV of the P5 in my area is about $400-$500 under MSRP, but there are only two Mazda dealers here in town and I'm really trying to avoid one of them.
TIA.
-Seth