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Comments
Another thing going for the Millenia is that there are just too many Accords on the road, and I also think there is a little more prestige with the Millenia. I am sure that is open to debate, but it is just my opinion.
Meade
I've been following the Pro board for quite a while now and I'd like to thank everyone for their insightful comments and observations about the Pro.
Currently I'm bumming around in a '98 Cavalier (I know, I know....I'm ashamed to admit it but in all honesty, it has been a decent car for me) but most likely my next car puchase will be a Protege. After following the action here and renting one for myself I feel that the Pro is definately the best small-car value out there.
Another factor in my decision is that my fiance is currently driving a '90 Pro LX and I find myself trying to drive her car more than my own! Even though it's over 10 years old it has less rattles and squeaks than my 3 year-old car. Granted, it was her grandma's before she got it and granny wasn't exactly Mario Andretti but I'm so impressed with the build quality of the Pro verus my Cav that I feel much more confident in the long term reliability of the Protege.
Thanks again for the great input (and occasional off topic tangents) and helping to make my next car buying decision that much easier!
Eastside
Jason
2002 Protegé5
Jason ... Odd man out? Believe me, from having met the group, each of us has oddities to say the least! Oh ... and if you're saying you're the "odd man out" because of the fact that you have a Protege5 and the rest of us (so far) have Proteges, please please PLEASE don't let that be the reason you don't come! I've been dying to get an up-close, nitty-gritty-detailed look at a P5, and hear first-hand accounts about it! Your presence would be MUCHO cool!
Background? OK, I'm 36, male, and a big guy -- 6-foot-1 and 275 pounds. (Yet I find my Protege comfortable!) Other than raving about my car and washing it more often than my wife thinks is necessary (and she may have a point there), my other hobbies include amateur ("ham") radio and astronomy. I have a VHF ham transceiver mounted in the lower dash and an antenna mounted on the trunk of the Protege. I am employed as Public Relations Manager of the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, the state agency that operates Richmond's minor-league ballpark, several downtown parking decks, and the toll roads in the Richmond area. (Yes, your tolls pay my salary ... so come and visit Richmond!!!)
I hope you'll consider the journey to MAPP II ... The Sequel. We'll have a blast!
BTW, I'm going to take that second attempt at the MAPP II info e-mail in just a few minutes ... let me know if you guys get it!
Meade
Meade (mdaffron)
Larry (protegextwo)
Paul (vocus)
James (fowler3)
Jason (krotine)
Chow-chi (mazdafun)
Steve (sfrat)
If anybody else is interested in coming, please e-mail me at:
mdaffron@the-rma.org
Wow Paul, quick reading! I see I just got a response from you. I'm off to read it ...
Meade
The only thing I need to work on now is to try to get my fiance to change her mind about her next car purchase. She's currently infatuated with getting a VW Golf...she thinks the backlighting on the instrument cluster is cool. ; ) Who knows, maybe I can bring her to the Pro side of the Force!
Eastside
Probably don't wash my Pro as often as it deserves due to the rain we've been getting weekly here.
My vehicle: a classic red '99 LX with upgraded speakers (Pioneers) and a trunk organization kit. Will upgrade the stock steel wheels & tires to alloy wheels and tires (AVID T4s, Bridgestone RE910s or Michelin X-Ones) before the REAL rainy season starts (the FR680s are terrible on wet roads). Also still own a classic red '89 323LX (MY first car) with upgraded speakers and wheels/tires.
Previous rides: '84 Olds Firenza hatchback(death trap that belonged to my father), '76 Chevy cargo van (another death trap that my father owned), '86 Ford Taurus LX sedan(pretty good, except the computer died and had to be replaced twice, inflatable lumbar support sprung a leak, headrests didn't stay up etc...then my brother trashed it). My father finally gave up on the domestic big three and got himself a Honda Civic 3-dr hatchback.
Meade
Meade
Meade
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Hey -- who knows? For all I know, Larry's an ax murderer and all of you will read the following in your Sunday papers:
NORTHERN VIRGINIA (AP) -- Seven people from three mid-Atlantic states were discovered dead in their cars at a local park early Saturday afternoon, State Police officials said.
All seven died of massive hemorrhaging caused by what appeared to be chainsaw wounds, police spokesman Barney Fife said. "Craziest thing I ever saw," Fife said. "All of these people were parked next to each other in the parking area. They all had the same kind of car -- some kind of Mazda -- but they were from different states, and their trunks were full of burgers and hot dogs. One guy even had a cooler full of lasagna."
One of the victims, a portly, middle-aged man from Richmond, was incorrectly identified as Drew Carey to local media before next of kin had been notified.
So far police are following one lead in the tragedy, Fife said. Bloody tire tracks from what appears to be yet another identical Mazda were found leading away from the scene, and a blood-stained Pennsylvania license plate was recovered near one of the vehicles.
Fife said no motive had been determined. "I don't know," he said. "All we found so far was a bunch of wadded-up e-mails from some guy named Edmund or something."
And one more thing, he said -- a mysterious message -- written by a bloody finger, across the back windshield of each car: "I think it was something like, 'ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM,' Fife said.
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Meade
Eastside
Meade
now both cars have at least one matching spot... how annoying.
I just don't know when I'm going to get to the trim on the house or repainting the front porch, when there are more important things to do like wash and vacuum the Protege every weekend!
Meade
Meade
My damn Pro. It's nothing but trouble. It's been so good on gas that I don't have to go to the gas station all the time.
When I go around corners tightly my stupid tires don't squeal and I don't feel like the car is gonna spin out of control.
The damn A/C cools me off too fast. It always blows cold air! What's up with that?
The darn engine makes me drive too fast. I'm always able to pass people and never have a problem going up hills! What a crappy little engine!
And the brakes...oh don't get me started. I've already avoided a few accidents because of these poor brakes. With other brakes I could probably have a new car with the insurance money that I would have gotten from the wreckage.
Never will I buy another Mazda product. I should have known better...My dad's '91 MPV that has over 350k KM on it is still going strong.
Stupid Protege...Too fun to drive. Sigh, guess I'll have to live with it.
Regards,
Protege_fan
New owner, obviously.
Don Gillespie
Meade
Let's stop being so paranoid!
Meade
-Larry "the chopper"
Good to hear from you Larry. (OOOOHHH! I shouldn't have said that. Now THEY know we're friends.)
Meadeball
Jason
I typically get 28-29mpg. With a heavy foot, I can get this down to 24-26mpg. On the freeway, at a loping pace (about 3000rpm), using cruise on flat sections, I've easily achieve 38mpg. On the freeway at higher speed (circa 3400rpm), hills, passing, not caring about economy etc, I get 31-32mpg.
I'm so nosy, in fact, that sometimes I'll ask where phone solicitors are calling me from -- that is, if I decide to engage them in a conversation, which ain't often. Sometimes the answer is surprising! A few weeks ago, we got a call from a billing agent for the hospital where my wife had our baby here in Richmond -- but the person, who identified herself as a hospital employee, was calling from Louisville, Kentucky! On another occasion I got called by a young lady doing a phone survey about music. When I told her I hoped she had a nice evening, she said she would try -- if the snow ever let up. Well, it was November here and 60 degrees, so I had to ask where she was calling from.
Calgary!
The worst (or best) reason to make sure you know where people are is this -- maybe you can all benefit from a lesson I learned. Back in my younger, stupider days (er, five years ago), I saw an ad in our local paper's classifieds offering to pay something like $10 an hour to print computer labels at home from a list provided by a certain company. To find out more you had to call a long-distance number with area code 809. Well, I figured it would only be a couple of minutes and it was state-to-state calling, so what the heck?
Turns out I was placed on eternal hold by an automated machine that kept coming back every two or three minutes and saying I was next in line, would be helped shortly, etc. -- all the time playing enticing stories about making lots of money while I was on hold. After about 15 minutes of getting nowhere, I pulled out my phone book (still on hold) and found, to my horror, that I was calling THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC!
I hung up and called the operator, only to find that my short call already had rung up to more than $30. I explained what happened and the operator actually removed the charge from my account -- very nice, thanks Ma Bell -- and I then called the paper and warned them about the scam, and they removed the ad the next day.
You'd have thunk that since it looked like a normal U.S. area code, it was in the U.S. -- not out in the Caribbean! Oh well, live and learn -- you never know!
Meade
26-28 mpg city
30-34 mpg highway
Keep in mind that the 5-speed is geared for faster RPMs than the automatic. At 70 mph, I'm right at 3500 rpm -- while my buddy Tom, who has the identical car except with an automatic, is at about 3,000 rpm. I tend to like the higher revs -- gives me better passing power and makes the car feel quicker, since the shortcut tube in the intake manifold kicks in at 3,500 rpm -- but I get poorer gas mileage than he does. He frequently calls me up to brag about getting nearly 40 mpg on the highway. I've never done better than 34.
FWIW --
Meade
By the way, are you a fan of the movie "Hunt for Red October?" I am, and one of the lines in your post echoed Sean Connery's (er, Marco Rameus') line, "A little revolution, every now and then, is a good thing, dontchathink?"
Meade
protegenic..The Millenia is a nice car for $24,000. I just have to get that remaining Honda loyalty out of my blood.
LMAO @ that news headline.
mdaffron: I am getting about 30 MPG average with my '01 ES 5-speed. I don't really do alot of stop and go so I haven't really gotten any lower than that.
Pro_fan
Sephia vs. Protege? I'm gonna keep my mouth shut.
Regards,
Pro_fan
Respectfully,
"Chopper"
Saw an accident the other day going home... A Red Protege (99 or 00 LX) that was hit by a Daewoo Lanos. Didn't see any damage on the Protege, but the Daewoo had the hood bent abit and the bumper pushed abit down...
thought it was cute considering all the safety wars we had... and this was in slow moving traffic...
I hear alot about the MAPP II, any additional word about the CAPP (Chicago Area Pro Picnic)? Or any midwest get together?
Mike
I don't mind the speakers....I'm not an "audiophile" so as long as there's sound coming out it's good by me.
Anyway, congrats again.
Regards,
Pro_fan
If you think about it, two cars colliding would imply identical forces exerted on each car. So if the car takes the impact and parts are crushed, less force is transferred to the occupants in the passenger area. Now I don't know if lower speeds would affect this analysis, but at higher speeds, the Daewoo actually sounds like it would be safer.
Guess I should read up a bit more about crashes, impacts and car design!
Thanks for replies.
Jace
-Larry
You asked if the Proteges have been that good; here comes my personal history, and I feel I probably have the most experience with Proteges on this topic:
Protege No. 1: 1992 LX automatic. Top-of-the-line back then; there were no ES models. I had every option except the sunroof. No problems at all. Unfortunately, the car only lasted 28,000 miles because of the crappy Bridgestone Potenza tires it had on it. I hydroplaned during an August thunderstorm and struck a Volvo 245 DL station wagon in the rear at a traffic light. I was still going 40-45 mph. The car was totaled, but despite the fact that the Protege only had those motorized "passive restraint" belts and no air bags in 1992, I walked out of it. The front end crumpled precisely as designed -- there was no buckling of the windshield area or doorsills. The engine dived downward instead of toward the passenger compartment. A "textbook total," you might say. I was so impressed with how the car saved my life, I took my insurance check and purchased:
Protege No. 2: 1992 LX 5-speed. Yeah, this time I decided to have more fun and bought a 5-speed. And this one was decked out with everything including the sunroof. I was in my first job out of college then and not making a whole lot of money, so this car and I moonlighted at night driving pizzas for Pizza Hut. That's rough service for a car! In only 2-1/2 years, I had 83,000 miles on the car. I never had one problem with it, but I regretted the sunroof purchase because I'm a big guy and I could've used the extra two inches of headroom that the sunroof takes away. I made a big mistake and traded this car for a 1994 Mazda B2300 pickup in December 1994. The Mazda pickups are built by Ford (they're Ranger clones) and I started having recurring engine problems at 8,000 miles. That truck was the worst piece of junk I've ever experienced. I was upside-down credit-wise, though, so I had to keep it until it was paid off. It would spend a week, sometimes two weeks at a time at the dealership while they took the engine apart trying to discover why it always ran too lean or too rich. Man, they replaced every sensor, the intake and exhaust manifolds, remachined the head, reworked the entire cooling system, and replaced parts I'd never heard of before. They even replaced the truck's computer at their expense -- TWICE! My dealership really tried, but we all decided it was just a lemon -- but too late for my state's lemon law. Anyway -- sorry to get off-subject -- as soon as I could, in May 2000, I traded the truck from hell for ...
Protege No. 3: 2000 ES 5-speed. This time I had some money and could get what I wanted. I could've bought a more expensive car, but I knew what I liked. So this Protege had everything EXCEPT the sunroof. (Side air bags only came with the sunroof package, but after my 1992 experience with no air bags at all, I figured my chances were pretty good.) In 24,500 miles I have had only two minor problems, both of which I caused: the plastic clip that holds the trunk springs up under the rear parcel shelf broke when I slammed a too-tall box into it, and the CD player had to be replaced when I put a CD with a label in it and it jammed. (The manual says not to put a labeled CD in the CD player!) Despite the fact that I damaged these things, my dealership replaced them under warranty.
There. You have the history of my problems with Proteges. Probably a lot more than you wanted to read, but hey! I love talking about my Protege almost as much as driving it!
Meade
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My 1997 Cavalier with 53k miles has not given me a lot of trouble and has proven to be reliable SO FAR. Problems were wiper motor that took 3 tries to fix, 2 recalls, replacing the tiny front brakes every 2 years along with a set of rotors, coolant temp sensor, and the usual American made squeaks and rattles. Overall, I won't complain as I bought her for a little under $14000 new well equipped.I do have the 2.4 and 4 speed auto which, as far as i'm concerned, is a different car than the 2.2 and 3 speed auto. I also think the 2.4 is a more reliable engine. When I went to the dealer for the last recall which was a cover for the PCM (Powertrain Control Module) I was told that there are several upgrade patches to the PCM memory. One of which is for cold engine stalling and stuttering which I am experiencing. The dealer wanted me to pay for the upgrades. I figured why should I pay for GMs programming mistakes. I contacted GM Customer Service and got nothing but excuses, surprise! The programming upgrades to the PCM seems to be a well kept secret. I wonder how many of the driveability problems people are experiencing are related to this simple reprogramming of the PCM.
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Not bad for an American car with 53,000 miles, huh? My wife's Cavalier has 52,000 miles on it and it's on its third head gasket! Glad I've got a Protege!
Meade
Don
Nashville, TN
Protege 2 (the 2001) has been in the shop 2 times. Once for alignment problems (off when I bought it) and a TSB to fix the steering wheel's off-centeredness, and another time for a repair problem with the radio that also was believed to cause the car not to start. These problems are the most serious from either Protege, but like I said they are just small teething problems.
Protege is also rated highly by several publications, including Consumer Reports, and are known for their durability and reliability.