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Mazda Protegé

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Comments

  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    I agree with pjd...I had about $1200 of front-end damage on my 2000 ES, and it took 10 days to be fixed. Four months seems excessive, but it's hard to say who's at fault...could be the body shop. Was this a body shop recommended by your insurance company? I'd be talking to them, too, as well as Mazda.
  • yooper53yooper53 Member Posts: 286
    Coming out of the store the other day I noticed my left fog lamp lens had been holed. Small hole, visible moisture inside, but lamp still serviceable. I'm afraid to ask what its going to cost to r&r the lens. Anyone have a ball park guess? Any problem with leaving it alone (if I don't mind possibly not having a serviceable lamp) til spring? The reason being that here in the Yoop in addition to salt they spread sand thus subjecting one's ride to having traffic throwing rocks at it all winter.
  • 2young2retire2young2retire Member Posts: 7
    Greetings. Really been wanting a new 2002 Protege' but I have a small problem. I presently have 2 Protege's, a '93 and a '96, both with over 120k miles on them and absolutely no problems. The problem is, how do you wear one of these darn things out? The way it is going I will be driving them for another seven or eight years. Maybe the 2008 ones will be real cool!!!!
  • newcar31newcar31 Member Posts: 3,711
    Let me have each one of em for 5 minutes. I'll wear them out.
  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    A thought just occurred to me...

    Do you think any other Chicago-area Pro owners might be at the Auto Show? Maybe if several folks plan to attend...

    It would be hard to find each other's cars in those giant parking lots around McCormick Place, but at least the owners would get to meet face-to-face.

    Something to think about?

    --Dale
  • the_big_hthe_big_h Member Posts: 1,583
    I know exactly how you feel. I had an accident 3 months after I bought my 00 ES, and it took the body shop (I admit, I was being stupid letting a FORD body shop do the work) 2 MONTHS for a job that should've been done in 2 weeks max. It sucks to have a brand new car in shop for so long.

    Is this body shop part of a Mazda dealer? I can see how an independent shop might have more trouble getting parts than the dealer. I read somewhere else (on P5 board I think) that there has been some parts shortage because they're using all the parts to build cars to meet market demand.

    What action would I suggest? Is this damage caused by the dealer? If it is you should be able to leverage with them to get some extended warranty, since they in a way sold you 'damaged goods.' If it is not the fault of the dealer I would suggest filing an official complaint to the BBB regarding the poor time management by the body shop.

    I hope you had insurance to cover the cost of repair, I didn't find out that my car wasn't covered under my insurance until it was too late, and had to pay the bill all out of my pocket. I was poor for 2 months because of that (sniff)...
  • fowler3fowler3 Member Posts: 1,919
    When I find a company making them I'll ask about having them printed so we don't have to flop them. So they will read correctly by the following cars.

    Currently, I have an American flag static film clinger on the back window, inside. Easy to remove anytime. And it beats those flags on posts attached to the rear sideglass which flap themselves to rags.

    fowler3
  • vidyaevidyae Member Posts: 2
    I think the reason for the 4 month repair time in my case is not the body shop's poor time management. It is Mazda that did not provide the parts in time. I have been bugging the body shop once every two weeks and they have been fixing things as and when the parts arrive. The body shop has even given me a temporary car to use (I have been using their car for the past two months) which I hear is unusual (?). And, btw, the body shop is affiliated with an Authorized Mazda dealer.

    I still think the Mazda parts supply chain is to blamed. Anyway, it looks like I was one of the unlucky few to experience this kind of trouble. My thanks to everyone who responded to my message.
  • speedyptspeedypt Member Posts: 200
    We should shoot for a set meeting time at the Mazda display on a given date. It would make for a neat story here on Edmunds. As it gets closer lets set some details...

    Great idea Dale!

    Okay all you Chicago Protege owners....let's hear from you on this one! No weather excuses. Who can join us at the Auto Show???

    Regards,

    Pete
  • the_big_hthe_big_h Member Posts: 1,583
    well at least the body shop/dealer is courteous enough to let you have a loaner car for 2 months...
  • vocusvocus Member Posts: 7,777
    3 weeks after I bought my 2001 Protege, it was hit in front of my house. The dealer body shop kept the car for a week, and it looked better than new when I finally got it back. My insurance company paid for a mid-size car, saying it was comparable to my Protege. I was happy. :)
  • dinu01dinu01 Member Posts: 2,586
    Check your email. I made a logo that could also incorporate a web address (if we have one). If you could post it here for everyone to see that would be great! I have to go now: classes starting soon. I'll check back with everyone this evening.

    Dale: What a great idea! Sometimes I wish I lived in Chicago :)

    NOTE: I just found a new site: www.protegeclub.com

    Dinu
  • jeffyunjeffyun Member Posts: 2
    I had almost 60k on my 95 Protege and need to replace timing belt and 30k maint. The local dealer charge time belt replacement from $300-$550 and 30K maint from $390-450. I also own 2000 Toyota 4 Runner and Toyota dealer send me price for 30k maint from just $124. Is anyone know why Mazda charge so high for those maint ? The to-do lists are pretty much same. Thanks
  • vocusvocus Member Posts: 7,777
    Most car dealers are a rip-off. You will do better by going to a private mechanic, and it will not void the warranty either. Just keep all your papers.
  • dinu01dinu01 Member Posts: 2,586
    I up loaded the logo to this temporary site. Maybe I'll even create a Pro site after all. It's very simple to use with their software and the upload and page creation are a breeze.


    What do you think?


    http://dinu.htmlplanet.com/index.html


    James: Now where do we go from here?

  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    Dinu: Nice logo!

    Dinu and Jim: So I went to protegeclub.com and a thought occurred to me (I know, I've been thinking too much lately).

    Exactly how many Protege clubs should exist? I read some of the posts of IL owners at club.com, and they were trying to hook up for a meet (doesn't look like they did it, but I could be wrong).

    Should we think about trying to join an existing group instead of forming our own? I know we have a good thing going here with our merry bunch, but maybe we're working at cross-purposes by not networking with other groups.

    Again, just a thought.

    --Dale
  • maltbmaltb Member Posts: 3,572
    Every dealer has their own idea of what a 30,60 or 90k service includes. When getting it done or asking for a price, ask the dealer what it costs to get only the service reccomended in the owners manual.

    Things are not always as they seem.
  • maltbmaltb Member Posts: 3,572
    will there even be one for 2002?

    did they tell you that rich or was it implied that you'd see it this year?
  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    I'm not trying to be negative, or discount the hard work you guys are doing to organize us. Maybe I should stop thinking now :)
  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    How hard was it to remove the pinstripe?
  • vocusvocus Member Posts: 7,777
    It's not that hard, because I removed mine. Most of it peeled off by hand. And I used Goo-Gone and wiped it over the area to remove the sticky stuff. Also, I washed the car right after. I removed my dealer logo the same way.
  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    Do you think it will make any difference that the pinstripe has been on there a year already? Will I have "tan lines" if I take the stripe off now?
  • vocusvocus Member Posts: 7,777
    I don't think it would have. You might just wanna pull off a little piece and see though.
  • dsm6dsm6 Member Posts: 813
    For what it is worth - I recently removed a dealer sticker (I hate those things!) that had been on the car for seven years. No tan lines. The car had been properly waxed all those years, which no doubt helped.
  • the_big_hthe_big_h Member Posts: 1,583
    if it's only a year old, i pulled mine off also after a year, no tan lines, well not anymore at least...
  • audia8qaudia8q Member Posts: 3,138
    It is expected sometime later this year. I'm not sure if they will call it a 2002 or 03.
    they have bigger launches on their plate and are a little vague on the MazdaSpeed 3...

    Rich
  • fowler3fowler3 Member Posts: 1,919
    Dinu: The logo looks great! I couldn't open your emailed copy though.

    Note: I, and mdaffron (Meade), seem to be the only Mac users here. When sending a .jpg doc attached to email: uncheck Compressed, click BinHex, and send. JPEG docs are already compressed.

    Dale: I'll check out the protegeclub.com site. Maybe we can get them to join us, if not right away, at least at a later date. In the meantime, why not continue on with what we are doing?

    We may yet have a temp chat room on Talk City. The manager of chat rooms there is going to get back to me on it. And I also wrote to Jonah Brown with an alternate idea. More on that later.

    Chicago Pro owners attending the Auto Show, how about taking a camera along and snapping a few pictures of yourselves? A digital camera, or film if you have a scanner. Save the 72dpi JPEG format and reduce the image size to about 5" X 7" for smaller and faster uploading to the Gallery on Edmunds.

    fowler3
  • meinradmeinrad Member Posts: 820
    I'd say go for it on Talk City. Easy to use and not very expensive to own and control.
  • dinu01dinu01 Member Posts: 2,586
    Dale and Jim: Glad you both liked my design. I can make changes to it of course (colour, font, shape, etc...) if needed. Size is however more difficult, but if we actually make stickers, then I will size it as per instructions.

    Now for protegeclub.com>>> Just by looking in the forums, it's not too exciting (for me at least). I only saw people bashing each other or other car makes, without any points being made. All the talk was about putting more speakers and stickers on your car as to rival the car's weight :) (Meade knows what I'm talking about). On the good side, there were dedicated forums for your local area (US and Canada). Those might be helpful when arranging other versions of MAPP. But the thing that bugged me the most were...the people. We have a good group here at Edmunds, something I can't say about the other place.

    Dinu
  • the_big_hthe_big_h Member Posts: 1,583
    so what is the official name of this special edition Protege? is it "Mazda Protege Mazdaspeed 3," or simply "Mazdaspeed 3"?

    I also read on the Miata board they're bringing out a turbo Miata also, 225hp or something like that?

    glad they brought back the "Mazdaspeed" designation.

    good times to be a Mazda owner/fan :)
  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    Dinu: I agree that I wasn't overwhelmed by positive vibes at protegeclub.com. Maybe just takes a while to get to know them.

    Jim: Thus, I agree that we should just go ahead with your plan to get ourselves together...we'll probably attract more like-minded owners as we get more organized. And yes, if there is a Chicago Pro gathering at the Auto Show, we will definitely take pics.

    Vocus, H, dsm: Thanks for your quick replies regarding the pin-stripe issue. Certainly gives me something to think about.
  • mdaffronmdaffron Member Posts: 4,421
    Hi everybody, I hope you all had a nice long weekend (at least those of you who were off!) Well, as promised, Tammy and I went car shopping over the weekend. We looked at nearly everything out there in the $15K-$20K price range, and guess what my wonderful wife decided upon?

    A white (Paul, you've got company in color, at least) 2002 Protege5!!!

    We're going to be picking it up on Saturday. My dealer already knocked slightly more than a kilobuck off the MSRP (hey, I'm a preferred customer -- 5 cars in 11 years -- all new Mazdas -- from this dealer). And we'll be financing it through Mazda at 4.9 percent for 60 months.

    Now, as for the color -- I guess I can get used to it.

    Larry, you've got company! Another two-Protege family is on the way!!! Anybody got a site I can post some pics on after Saturday? I gotta get a shot of our driveway once we get this baby home ...

    Meade
  • vocusvocus Member Posts: 7,777
    Oh, come on. Now was there any doubt it was going to be a Protege5? :) I told you she would come around. So does that mean she is going to join you all at the MAPP 3 now? :)
  • meinradmeinrad Member Posts: 820
    I might not quite be a regular here, but I knew you'd end up with a P5. I hope to join you soon, I'm calling dealers this afternoon to see whats in inventory. The only things left to decide is sunroof/no sunroof, want to check headroom and if my infant seat will fit well enough.If that works out ok then I'll be buying soon.
    Congrats on the new purchase.
    White is not all that bad. My white sunfire ragtop hardly ever needs washed in the summer, the dirt just doesn't show.
  • mdaffronmdaffron Member Posts: 4,421
    ... no roof. The roof cuts almost an inch of front headroom. Ours will have all the standard features, including alloy (but not chrome) wheels. The only options are floor mats, automatic transmission and cassette player to complement the AM/FM/CD player. Everything else (fogs, a/c, power everything) is ES-level standard. We'll probably opt for the 7-year, 100K-mile extended warranty like I have on my 2000 Protege ES.

    Meade
  • mazdafunmazdafun Member Posts: 2,329
    For the field the Protege/P5 plays in, it's tops (IMHO). Try not to borrow it from your wife too often. ;)

    Now, if I could get my wife to get a P5... :) Oh well, she wants a hybrid; gotta get those mpgs. Of course, she spends more time sitting at RR crossings in a week than I do in a year, so I can see her POV.

    Fowler & Meade, I use a Mac too. Of course, at work, they force me to use wintel. I have 3 active Macs at home. One is mostly dormant, one is inactive (old Performa 450). My wife and daughter find them much easier to use than the wintel boxes, and I find them much easier to maintain (which was also the case when I did IT in addition to mechanical engineering at a start-up firm several years back...if we'd had wintel boxes, that would've been a F/T job by itself, especially since about half the employees had never used a computer before).

    I have to say the new iMac is one piece of impressive engineering (and tempting too, from a specifications viewpoint). The industrial design is OK. I'm not overawed by it.
  • audia8qaudia8q Member Posts: 3,138
    It appears that Mazda Speed3 will be the name. They didnt want to release toooo much info...us dealers are always the last to know. haha

    Mazda came to us 2 years ago and took 2 Miata's from us and shipped them down to calloway's. Which is located here in connecticut. that was the first clue a turbo was in the plans. They have not given us an actual timeline for the US version. I believe in Australia they have the turbo this year (I'm not 100% on this)

    Rich
  • the_big_hthe_big_h Member Posts: 1,583
    boy Mazda is really pushing this using number as car name thing, i.e. Mazda 6.

    nontheless, I think the name's kinda cool, sounds like the TVR Speed 12 supercar I play on Gran Turismo :P

    dinu & chicagopro re: protegeclub - Their demographic is different from here, majority of the posters there are mid-teens (yes 16 year olds) to mid-late 20's. So instead of having extended discussions about snow tires and child safety seats, they talk about cold air intake, cat-back exhausts, and lowering springs/struts. I lurk and post both here and there because I can get totally different types of relevant information for my Protege. You can never get too much information on anything, no?
  • maltbmaltb Member Posts: 3,572
    Meade,
    Glad to hear that your wife woke up from her nightmare...hehehe.

    So does she get the big Zoom-Zoom sticker or the standard issue?

    h
    It will be called Mazdaspeed 3, no spaces, dashes or foreign characters. Same with the Miata version. It will be Mazdaspeed 5.
  • silentguiltsilentguilt Member Posts: 35
    My 1.6L (2000, 28k) doesn't seem to want to start when cold. It takes a good three cranks to get it going, I bought it used so can't really tell if it is normal or there is something wrong. Otherwise, the car runs fine and will be probably purchasing 2 more!!! in the coming months.
  • mazdafunmazdafun Member Posts: 2,329
    I just keep the key in "ignition" until it starts or 3 seconds have passed, whichever comes first. So far, it's always started first. I also have the 1.6L engine. Mine's a '99, but has just about 24k miles on it.

    I actually have more difficulty starting when the engine bay is hot. Perhaps a fuel line is in a warm zone and vaporizes some gasoline?
  • mazdafunmazdafun Member Posts: 2,329
    Detailing your Pro at 57F. Now that's love. :)
  • pjd58pjd58 Member Posts: 366
    I see your a Buckeye also. I'm up in Columbus. I purchased my Pro from King's Mazda in Cincy. They had to get it from Alton Blakely Mazda in southern KY. No Mazda dealer in Central Ohio could find my trim level and color choice. I called King's and they found one on their locator within an hour. They were great to deal with, no gimmicks or games. I faxed my offer and they accepted.

    Pjd58
  • dinu01dinu01 Member Posts: 2,586
    Congrats! I'm more than glad she didn't chose the Focus. The P5is indeed a VERY fine choice.happy Zoom-Zooming!

    Big-H: I agree with you about the different info we can get from both sites. I enjoyed some of the discussions on the protegeclub.com board now that I've beenlurking there a little more. Gotta give'em a chance. But I still prefer this one, although I wish not everyone lived in VA,PA,etc... Where are the Canadians on this?

    Dinu
  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    pjd: I hope that no one took my comment the wrong way...I was strictly referring to car colors!

    H: thanks for explaining the demographic breakdown between mazdaclub.com and here...thought they seemed like a bunch of gearheads (not that there's anything WRONG with being a gearhead, of course :)

    New Mazda names: Mazdaspeed 3 and Mazdaspeed 5...pretty darn goofy, IMO.
  • the_big_hthe_big_h Member Posts: 1,583
    I can see a future conversation at a Mazda dealer lot:

    "say, what's the name of that car?"

    "oh, it's the '3', and right next to it is the '5'."

    Still cool names nontheless...

    I think I'll start calling my car 'The 3' from now on...
  • pjd58pjd58 Member Posts: 366
    I knew what you were referring to, since you have a White Protege ES. I hope no one took my comment wrong, as I was referring to your White Pro.

    Pjd58
  • pjd58pjd58 Member Posts: 366
    and btw, When is the 6 coming to the dealer?......hehehehe.

    Pjd58
  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    We're probably both being hyper-politically correct; regardless, I deleted my original post just to be safe.
  • chicagoprochicagopro Member Posts: 1,009
    Congratulations again on the new addition to your Protege family!

    Hope you and your wife enjoy many happy years of zooming!
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