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Dale: LoL, but I think you've scared everybody away...you'd think it was time to go home or something...
Now the 240 SX is a beautiful car, especially classy since it was discontinued. It just doesn't seem right to let them rot in the front yard, however. Protegefan, thanks for the sales pitch on the Protege. I hope that it will sell itself on its own merits but I am realistic in knowing that 62,000 miles is a hard sell for a
2000 model.
The original Beetles' weather stripping around the doors made the car water-tight. They were also tightly built with thicker steel sheet metal and there were no holes in the steel platform for water to get in. The shifter cables and wiring passed through a welded steel tube that was the car's backbone.
Here's another bit of trivia, the engine was reliable enough to be used as a powerplant in light aircraft (in Europe) without having two spark plugs in each cylinder, as required in American light aircraft engines. The reason for two plugs per cylinder is safety, if one electrical wiring system fails the pilot has the second one. Which brings up another interesting point -- with both plugs firing an light aircraft engine has more power. When running on one plug per cylinder it seems to cut power by 50%. So why don't car manufacturers use the two plug system instead of turbos?
fowler3
http://www.autointell.com/european_companies/volkswagen/vw_marke/volkswagen-1-liter/volkswagen-1-literauto-02.htm
How many of you remember the immediate postWW2 Messerschmidt three-wheel car (?) with tandem seating and motorcycle engine. I drove one in LA about 1955 and it was scary!
Two plugs may get more complete combustion, but I doubt it would be a 100% improvement today. Perhaps when engines used to be really inefficient and exhausted about as much gas as they combusted. But there might be some.
Good luck with your decision.
I think everyone here, for the most part and 99 percent of the time, has the best intentions. But it's our different senses of humor and our different personalities -- the very thing that makes this topic interesting -- that cause us to have misunderstandings every now and then. I'm guilty of it, I know -- and I apologize now for my insensitivities in the past and the ones I have yet to commit. I know I will; it's my personality. (If you REALLY want to get a sense of my personality, you'll have to come over to the Yahoo group!!!)
Anyway, enough of Psychology 101 from your resident non-psychology major. Everybody have a good day.
Group hug time, Dale.
Meade
ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM!!!!
Meade
(BTW, now we have 20 Proteges and about 30 people coming to MAPP III! And yes, Sean will be there too!)
talking of tight turns, does anybody have a better idea to fix the child seat so that it does not sway when I take the tight turns?
my '99 ES does not have the hooks on the rear panel.
I put the child seat in the centre of the rear bench and lock it up using one seat belt.
any better ideas?
Bungee cords to the assist handles?
Slow down?
Leave the kid @ home?
Sorry, just one of those days where serious is not in my vocab.
Service tech calls up and informs me that 2/32" is required and u have 3/32 left on ur front brakes. So he recommends replacing the brake pads and avoid any more worries for the next couple of years.
cost: $189.99
at
mileage: 39,500 miles
Maybe you can get a tether retrofit kit that lets you install a tether anchor on your parcel shelf? Maybe Mazda has some magic way of doing it; maybe (and this is probably just wishful thinking) they can perform this mod of bringing your car up to current child safety requirements for free or for very little cash? I suggest calling your dealership's service manager and asking if it can be done and for how much before you start drilling holes in your parcel shelf.
Those tether anchors are great. Now, in my wife's 2002 Protege5, she has the new "latch" system, and we were able to install a seat for Sean in her back seat without using ANY seat belts! Man, that sucker's in there like it's part of the car!
(Of course, both of these installations will be present and available for inspection at MAPP III, if anyone's interested in seeing how a Protege accommodates the next generation of zoom-zoomers ...)
Meade
That's what they call "highway robbery," my friend!
It's not hard to do yourself for about 1/4 the price ... but if you just don't want to do it, take it to Meineke if you have one around. As I said a few thousand posts back (last week, was it? ;-) ), Meineke put lifetime brakes on my truck and my wife's car a couple of years ago -- they were just as good as the factory brakes -- and the price was MUCH less than what your dealer's quoting you, and this was for ALL FOUR WHEELS. (Plus you get the lifetime replacement guarantee.)
Shop around. Don't get that done at the dealership unless you've got money to burn!
Meade
BTW, my daughter's booster seat also flops over when placed in the center. I place the bottom in one of the seat "wells" on either side position and it stays snugly in place. Of course, your child seat may differ, but try it.
Also, I'd like to know if anyone has found mud flaps for the Protege5, and where if you did.
Thanks... Gary
Couldn't have said it better myself
--Dale
That reminds me about the time when I was sitting in the lobby at my dealership when the service manager was explaining to this elderly lady that she needed new wipers and it would cost about $40...of course she said alright. I was like...oh my God...
Nonetheless, I tried to be very candid about my reason for selling the car when I referred to my wife's health--maybe I should have saved this information for Dear Abby instead of Edmund's.
I do appreciate the best wishes for my better half--she has been quite a trooper in life and amazingly, she continues to work full time. She asked me way back in 1999 to buy the automatic Protege but I was too proud to give up the last bastion of masculinity (the shifter). Marriage is funny, we guys give up the remote control within a few weeks and exchange it for a vacuum cleaner handle.
Anyway, thanks for the input on the advertisement, Vocus. I got a pretty good offer for the car here in my home town so I chose to pull the car from EBAY since nobody had placed a bid yet--I did notice that it did have 150 or hits while it was out on the web. This is not bad coverage for $ 40.00. Had somebody placed a bid, I would have left it on Ebay. It was a thrill while it lasted.
http://www.fasterfords.com/mazda/mazda6.htm
Jamh: Sorry I don't know anything about demo cars. My car had just over 4 miles on it when I got it.
How far away was the other dealer? To get that many miles, they would have to be more than an hour away.
In terms of it being driven hard by "demo-ers" I don't think too much damage can be done in 200 miles. Check it out thoroughly for any kind of damage.
This from IHS' website:
"The ISOFIX or LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren) system:
"Effective September 1, 2002, this new standardized child safety seat system will simplify child safety seat installation and enhance child safety. This system is known as the LATCH system, an acronym for Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children. The LATCH system calls for vehicles to be equipped with one upper (tether) and two lower anchorage points. The upper (tether) anchorage will be a ring-like object permanently attached to the vehicle. Depending on the vehicle, the anchorage (a rigid, round rod) may be located on the shelf or back of the seat, on the floor, or on the ceiling. Child seats will attach to the vehicle seat via these anchorages instead of being held by the vehicle's seat belts."
The ISOFIX/LATCH system is a better-working REPLACEMENT for using the seat belts to secure a child seat. You do not use it in combination with the seat belts. In fact, there was a warning notice in our child seat's manual to NOT use the belts when you're using the LATCH system -- they can interfere with each other.
We have the LATCH seat installed in the Protege5, and a seat belt-mounted seat in my 2000 ES (which doesn't have LATCH). Both will be at MAPP III, and I'll show them to you. Even with the seat in my car snugged down with the seat belts, it still moves a little when you push on it. The LATCH-mounted seat in my wife's P5 is rock-solid and feels like part of the car.
Here's some more info and some pics of the LATCH system:
http://www.djgusa.com/coscocat/carseats/A01latch.html
Meade
About MAPP, I don't know about coming now. My friend's 30th surprise birthday party is the same day, so I will have to maybe come then leave early. I will let you know though.
but then which dealer service is not?
Meade...u mentioned meineke..and i don't know but in my head i had meineke in the same class as jiffy lube...and i don't want anything going wrong with my brakes....happened to me once in India with my suzuki..after change of brake pads, the very next day the brakes failed right in lane merge....very scary....
So "even if I burn my money", i would like a good job done and over the years, I have really learned to trust my dealers service(not for price...but quality of service)....
anyway brake pads were $83 and labor $85 for the change....
and thanks meade and maltb.....I called the 800 number and YES...they have a FREE kit which will put those ISO latches onto my car....the CR from mazda will be calling up my dealer and set up an appointment for the fitment.
thanks again!
meineke...no way...
Chikoo: I had the brake pads replaced on my 1999 Protege DX at Goodyear, and never had problems at all. I put about 10K on them, before I traded the car for my 2001 ES. The tuner-up was a different story (they messed it up and made the car idle roughly), but the brakes were fine.
I was the one talking about brakes...not ashu..
anyway, grease monkeys or not, the fact is that it is finally checked by the QC guy and I trust him for his knowledge about Mazda cars.