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Mazda Protege5
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Comments
Personally we are looking at the standard 3 compact hatches: P5, Elantra GT, Focus ZX5...trading in a '97 Explorer (big downsize, but gas prices are killing us!). Hoping to purchase something sometime in the next 4-6 months, so have been lurking on all boards, and researching so far.
I paid about $400 under sticker, but there were 10 other silver ones on the lot. If I had wanted the 1 blue or 1 red one they had, it would have been sticker.
Given that the difference between Invoice and MSPR is less than $1k, it's a pretty small mark-up IMO.
reitrof,
They won't go on until the end of the month, but plan to try out a front one just to make sure it fits well. (just in the driveway, not to drive with.) The only thing that I worry about is brake fit within the 15" steelie, but the TireRack people know thier stuff and this is their recommended setup.
The width and rolling diameter of the 195/55-15 Alpins is almost identical to the stock 195/50-16s.
My concern would be leg room for the child. If they can kick the back of your seat, you may find that annoying. So check for a reasonable amount of room in front of whatever seat you chose.
The Outback has great crash test scores, though, and you're not going to recover what you paid if you trade it in. You sure you want to trade it in just for a couple extra mpgs?
-juice
However, it fits just fine in my Pro5. The passenger seat is a little far forward for some passangers, but my wife is 5'2" so she doesn't mind. Putting it in the middle of the back seat would help with this, but then it's harder to get him in and out.
My wife drives a 1999 Protege LX, which has basically the same rear seat geometry, and the new Century seat (probably about the same size as your Britax, Seth) fits in there OK as well. It's a little tight, but not bad. When he hits 20 pounds (which will be soon), that one will be turned around to be front-facing, and then there'll be tons of room.
One more thing for Seth and Paul: if you get the Pro5, get the moonroof. My son loves looking out the moonroof.
Damn. I have mine since Aug.19 and i have over 5K on it. Is anybody here in south florida? Zoom Zoom
Still, I think the best thing would be to try your actual seat in the P5 before you test drive it.
-juice
1) Loosen lugnuts on tire you are going to remove.
2) Block opposite corner tire.
3) Jack car up so the wheel is off the ground. I use a hydraulic jack and then I use the standard jack as a backup in case the hydraulic one were to fail (I don't have jack stands).
4) Remove tire.
5) Lay out some cardboard or plastic underneath the car to catch any drips.
6) You can clean and sand the caliper if you want. Since the car was so new I just wiped the caliper down with damp paper towels and then dried it.
6) Put some masking tape in the holes in the caliper (kind of a pain) and a little underneath the caliper where the disc is.
7) Take a whole bunch of plastic bags (like the kind you get from the grocery store or trash bags) and tape them around the wheel well behind the caliper and just under the caliper (it should cover the whole disc). I put the bags all around the back of the caliper so they even covered the rubber portion on the rear of the caliper. Isolate that caliper as best as you can!
8) Get close and apply the paint. Use short strokes carefully spraying so as not to create a cloud that blows all over. Be sure to work in a well ventilated area. After applying a coat I positioned a fan to blow on it. After it dried (usually <30 minutes) I'd then apply another coat or two filling in the parts that the paint doesn't fill as best I can (there will be these small parts).
9) Once its dry and you are satisfied, Remove bags and tape and put the tire back on and repeat.
The first time you drive the car just be careful in case you got any overspray on the brake disc itself. You really shouldn't have if you masked it well but any that you did have will come right off the first time you brake (just like the rust always does).
I did two a night. The paint is easy to find and should be at most autostores. I don't remember the name right now but its in a silver can, is 500 degree resistant and comes in a wide range of colors. I think the red I just applied was Ford Red (ha!). It was a close match to the strut tower brace. I applied a more crimson like Universal Red to my 1991 Toyota Mr2 Turbo like 3 years ago and it still looks great to this day, even with infrequent autox'ing which heats the brakes up.
-Finn
Bruno
http://scorpius.spaceports.com/~protege/mapp2.htm
Bruno
Calipers: I just painted the front part of the caliper, and also around the inside of the rotor itself, near the wheel hub. It turned out a little sloppy, because I didn't realize that part moved with the wheel when I painted it.
Edmunds picks Protege5 as best small station wagon under $20,000. http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/mostwanted/2002/47583/article.html
Bruno
has anyone found mud flaps that work for the front tire?
adjustment of fog lights. ok, it appears that adjusting the fog lights using its own mounts is very effective with out having to bend the metal lense cap. i now have them adjusted in the center or you could say having the same gap on top and bottom from the bumper.
I adjusted them in the driveway which has a little hill allowing the front end to be high enough to fit my head under. you dont need to stick you whole head under the car to make the adjustment.
With prices and financing at the levels that they're at, I'm ready to get serious about buying a new car. This will be my first new car purchase.
From what I've read on the technical side and from reading what owners have to say, the P5 seems to be the real deal. I have eliminated the Focus ZX3/ZX5 and the Hyundai Elantra GT.
I have also looked at the Subaru Impreza 2.5 TS Sport Wagon. I have yet to drive either the Subaru or the P5, but both are in my price range (with the P5 being cheaper).
Did anyone check out the Subaru Impreza 2.5 TS Sport Wagon during their search for a new car?? Any thoughts??
I will be test driving and hopefully buying sometime this month. Your help and takes are appreciated.
http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/mostwanted/2002/47583/article.html
It's not really a comparison, but it shows which car they liked better.
Anyway, does anyone use overwatt bulbs in their P5? The stock bulbs are 55W H7s and I was thinking if it would be okay to use 100W ones (well, actually I bought a pair of 100W H7s by accident). I've heard that you might melt the lighting harness if it's made of plastic.
Don't worry about the Japanese, just look at the numbers and specs. 4WD and 180hp! That'll never make it here in the States! that's almost Impreza WRX wagon-fighter status!
Click around a bit more and you'll see some pics of this special edition Pro5.
http://babelfish.altavista.com
and plug in the above URL for the 4WD Familia S-Wagon, and choose Japanese to English translation.
You can drool some more :-)
"Active Matic" - perhaps a pseudo-manual shift mode?
Oh, and long as you're using babelfish, you can keep browsing and it'll translate the series of URLs you click through! Scroll to the bottom, click on 'Top', then click on 'Enter', then the first of four buttons on the bottom, for a four more pix, including a nice interior shot that shows the MD player, and the sport-matic-type transmission. At the bottom of the same page, the third button takes you to page with MANY more thumbnails that link to larger images.
Interesting to note that they have 15 and 17" wheel options. Although the no-choice 16" in North America is quite acceptable too! The exterior lights by the doors are a nice touch too!
If Mazda brings this car over to this side of the Pacific, people will line up to buy one (I would!).
Its fun browsing pages in a language you don't understand, you tend to explore more!
So 125kW = 168HP (kW/.75 = hp)
lots of conversion factors avaialable at
http://www.catalog.com.hk/tatming/select/5.html
and at
http://members.aol.com/mpgregor/private/metric.htm
or just plug it in to
http://www.minibearings.com.au/tools.htm
Don't you just love google.com?
Umm, are you entering the power (kW) rating or the torque rating (which is NM, newton Metres)?
This post was in reference to a since-deleted post ;-)
check this out:
Discharge headlight (low beam)
again run it through Babelfish, HID on a Pro5? now THAT's a great idea!
and here's that conversion site again:
http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/power
Has anyone been able to find a bike rack that directly mounts to the P5's factory rack??
Thanks.
I'd give the nod to the P5 in styling and price. The Subie would be more at home in the snow belt and for folks that don't like to rev the engine to redline to get the most power out of it (no replacement for displacement).
Both are nice and I don't think you'll go wrong with either. We have a Subie and two Mazdas in our driveway, in fact.
-juice
These are just clamps that interface between their bike carriers and the load bars (the cross-wise bars).
Found them on Yakima's website!! I knew they had to have something for factory racks; I must have overlooked them. Thanks for your help.
Ateixeira,
Thanks for the input. I'm leaning toward's the P5 but would still like to test drive the Subaru. There may be possibility I'll be moving to Colorado in the next year or two. How does the P5 handle in the snow (if you've driven it in the snow)??
I've only test driven the P5, and it was nice and sunny. Our 626 is not good in snow, because a powerful V6 with V-rated tires and an open front differential tends to spin the front wheels.
The P5 is probably a little better, but AWD wins in snow easily. I wish Mazda would offer traction and stability control on the P5. Don't laugh - the Focus offers it.
-juice
They are not dissimilar cars, really; I looked at both when I bought my P5. I went with the P5 in part because the back seat is bigger and because I have no need for AWD in Houston (perfectly flat and gets zero snow), but I think the Subaru is a fine choice as well. I think you'll be happy either way.
After you've driven both of 'em and decided, do let us know which one you bought and why! I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.
BTW, I see the term HID used often to describe ricer blue light bulbs. They are nothing near High Intensity Discharge lights which use high voltage and low wattage.
Anyway, yeah, that's why it's called HID "look" bulbs. Those bulbs really try to confuse people by saying things like 55w/80w... (i know it's b.s.) They try to say that they give out 80w watts of light with just 55w real watts... that's why i'm not sure when they say 100w, it's the real wattage or "perceived" wattage...
Even though I live in MN I'm going with a P5 and snow tires. I like the Sub but I'm very stuck on the handling of the P5. Tight and Clean. Plus they do a good job of clearing the roads around here.
Though I would recommend an Outback Sport for the 16" wheels, fog lights, two-tone paint, and other content, were you to choose a Subie.
Snow tires on a P5 are a good alternative, for sure. Make sure you get one with ABS. And while that requires a moonroof, I'd want a moonroof anyway, and the Subaru doesn't even offer it as an option.
-juice
The Outback Sport I drove was a black 5 speed. No moonroof, either, but it did have ABS (all Subies have ABS standard).
-juice
So sometimes I humor them and the result is either that I find out their car has no place on the road because I can keep up easily or else that they beat the crap out of me (duh!) because they've got 60 more horsepower than I do and a 5 speed. Somebody in a red Corvette Stingray wanted to race at a light the other day. And I'm thinking - hmm, he's only got what, 3 times more horses than I do? It's still fun but it's also funny because the looks of this car almost don't go with the performance. If someone were willing to drop the cash for a J-spec engine, a turbo, intake and exhaust, you'd have a stupidly fast car that would even be a sleeper if you didn't also do all the tint, neon, chrome, and other requisites for a ricer.
Oh yeah, and I had the hatch full of groceries while pretending to race around town last night
-juice