Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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Anyway, I'm considering a protege. I have a few quick questions - does the es come with the strut tower brace found in the pro5 (for 2001? 2002?)? Are any of the appearance upgrades on the MP3 available after market from Racing Beat? On the 2.0 turbo kit mentioned above, who's building it? I've test driven the pro5 and enjoyed the driving dynamics. I'm assuming the es drives pretty much the same (?). I think both a very good looking, but prefer the looks of the pro5 somewhat. The es can be had for a bit less money, though. Any thoughts on what else you might percieve as distinguishing the two?
Thanks for any comments.
Steve
13 PROTEGES
coming to MAPP II !!! Woo-hooooo !!!!!
That's almost THREE TIMES the number of cars we had last year!!!
Darren ... Too bad you don't live on the East Coast! You'd have a great time discussing the car with us next Saturday! And welcome. While I can't answer your questions about the 2002s, I can tell you that I'm on my third Protege. Now, would I keep buying these cars if I didn't love 'em?
ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM!!!
Meade, a 36-year-old new daddy who feels like a kid again in his 2000 ES 5-speed
(yeah zoomzoomzoom)
Jeremy thomas put his old motor on ebay. Vocus (i think....maybe someone else, but i'm pretty sure it was you) emailed him asking about it and telling him to check out the edmunds board. Jeremy then referrs me and Jeremy DeHart to the board. we all see this MAPP thing, and want to go which referrs all the other local protege people.
Word of mouth......gets around
And yes, I deserve all the credit. I am the one who told Jeremy about the Edmund's board. I will take monetary contributions from those who would like to give.
Remember, tonight is the Mazda Protegé Owners chat at 6pm PT, 7PM MT, 8PM CT, 9PM ET. Zoom on in and chat with us, everyone is welcome!
fowler3
PS: Sorry I can't make it to MAPP, I'd love to be there but my P5 and I are currently in southern New Mexico, way too far from the DC area
fowler3
As a side note we looked at the new Altimas and the new Camry and I can say that I wouldn't pick either over my Protege. The Altima is very nice on the outside but the interior feels like it's made out of Happy Meal toy plastic and has a ungainly looking manual shifter. The Camry is vastly improved but the interior has no substance although it's nicely put together. The new 4 cylinder seems like it would be quite nice with a stick.
fowler3
Too many "new" cars turn out to be the old car with new sheet metal.
fowler3
fowler3
elec3--actually, the cheapest and easiest way to make more power would be a nitrous kit, unfortunately, nitrous can run out. Either way, all of those thing will make your warranty go bye-bye.
vocus--I would shell out the cash and get the borla. I had a borla exhaust system on my Integra and it was awesome. Not too loud, not too quiet. They are made entirely out of stainless steel, not that aluminized crap, they will last FOREVER.
fowler3---what bright headlights? The HID lights found on spendy cars? Or the lookalike HID lights found mostly on economy cars (Civics)? They can't ban the real HID lights; I seriously doubt Audi, BMW, MB, Lexus, Acura, etc. are going to send special versions of their cars to North Carolina without HID lights.
ALL OF YOU: Go check out the Sedans vs. Sedans board and post on the topic: Sentra SE vs. Protege ES.
Meade
FIFTEEN PROTEGES!!!
I'm so excited I think I'm gonna soil myself ...
Meadie
PF
unfortunately, i work WAY in the south east (industrial area) so every time i get off work, there's a thin film of dust on my car...pisses me off! but even when it's dirty, the car still looks nice (well...sorta!)
did they fix all those scratches on your hood? how'd it turn out? i was thinking of getting custom pedals too...know where i can get some?
thanx
'duh'
do all the Protege ES owners have this exhaust resonance sound at 1500-2000 RPM when accelerating from a dead stop or is it only me?
2.
Is it only me who experiences this extremely stiff rides when the temp falls below 70F or is it everybody?
fowler3
fowler3
She would like the car to a body shop to fix it. Do you have any recommendation? How about Apollo body shop? Can anybody estimate grossly how much it will cost us?
Thanks,
Bruno
There will be quite a surprise waiting for all MAPP II attendees. A surprise you can take home with you.
Ah, I love keeping people in suspense! Moo hoo ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
Meade the Suspenseful
From personal experience with other cars, if it's just the bumper cover that's damaged, it'll only be a few hundred bucks. (Covers come unpainted, so you have to pay for them to paint it too.) If the framework under the bumper cover was damaged, you're talking a whole new bumper which will probably run right around a kilobuck. But this guy has insurance and he'll only have to pay a deductible, right?
Meade the Curious
Also, my Pro is going in this Monday to get the scratches out of the hood. I have to leave it there all day, but hopefully they do a good job.
I still love zoom zooming around!!
PF
Damn am I pissed. I truly HATE photo radar. I see no merit in it.
Funny thing is, I got my ticket on the way to a ride-along with the City Police!! How ironic.
PF
Meade the Confused
But how about a serious answer by you and all?
I find this ride in winter extremely harsh and if it's only me, i'd like to talk to the dealer.
Please advise.
Meade the Enlightened
Now, as for it being so tight that it's uncomfortable ... nah, I wouldn't say that about mine.
Meade the Comfortable
If it's a noise that bothers you, I would strongly suggest you take your car to the dealer and have them check the tightness (or looseness) of any heat shields in the exhaust system.
My 1994 B2300 pickup exhibited a buzzing noise at certain RPMs when it was about 10,000 miles old. I slid under the truck (a little harder to do under a Protege) and found that a C-shaped metal shield over my catalytic converter -- a heat shield so your feetees didn't get too hot inside -- was barely touching the cat at one spot. I waited for the exhaust system to cool (very, very important thing to do!) and then bent the metal shield away from the cat about a quarter-inch with my fingers. Problem solved.
Meade the Mechanic
Fowler, I simply can't see how North Carolina could do that. What are you supposed to do if you currently own a car with HID lights (for which there is no federal law banning them)? Are you supposed to change them over to halogens? Will the state of North Carolina pay for people to do that? I'm sorry, but my suspisions appear to be true. North Carolina really is 20 years behind. Geez.
Meade the Unnerved (and partially blinded)
Meade the MAPP Maker
Ok, the package tray on the 2000 and 2001 are different due to the tether anchors. the 2001 with a spoiler is even different than the ones without it due to the brake light cavity(bigger in my book than a hole). about all you could do is fashion a plate out of some thin wood or other material and paint it to match.
Out of options Malt
I've had the car for almost 17 months; the dummy light housing back there doesn't really bother me. In fact, for a few months I reconnected the brake light just to see what it looked like ... then I got scared, thinking I was putting too much of a load on that part of the electrical system using two instead of one.
So PERSONALLY, the dummy light doesn't bother me. The problem occurred the last time I took my car in for its annual Virginia state inspection and they slapped a "rejected" sticker in my windshield, claiming I had a rear brake light out. When I asked what they meant, they said the one in the rear window was out. I explained that I had the spoiler with the brake light, which took the place of the one in the window, and their response was (and I'm paraphrasing), "Son, in Virginia, if you have one in the window, it has to work. We don't care where else you have one. If one is there, it has to operate."
So now what do I do? Reconnect the damned light every time I get my car inspected? Or demand that Mazda design a retrofit kit to cover up the cavity in my package shelf when I remove it? In hindsight, it seems pretty cheesy to replace a piece of equipment at the factory and leave the part it replaced attached to the car, inoperable. Kinda like putting an automatic transmission in a car and leaving the clutch pedal there, eh?
Meade
I notice my Protege's engine is noisier and seems a little slower when cold. Guess it's not adjusted to the temp. change from 80 to 50 or so as it has changed here in the last week or so.
Can't wait to get to the MAPP and see what the surprise is. Now, let's just hope it doesn't rain that day. That would truly SUCK butt!
Maybe I'll pull off my package-shelf brake light housing and install a halogen driving light in it to get back at those tailgating high-beam users ... boy will they back off when I tap the brakes!
Meade the Vindicator
Mike
I dont think that a turbo is the way to with the Protege 2.0. I think that a superchager would be better for the following reasons:
1) It would fit. There is room under the hood.
2) Its cheaper.
3) Its easier to fiddle with boost.
4) Its WAY WAY easier to install.
Looking in my crystal ball, I bet that 6psi would squeeze out 160hp and 160ft/lb without any other mods AND still run 91 pump gas. I'm talking about reliable hp here. Once could make more but I'm not sure the internals are up to it over the long haul.
I'm not going to try but I sure hope that other people will take a crack at it.