(originally posted to carreview.com on 2002.02.06)<\/p>\n
Overall Rating
\n5 of 5 <\/p>\n
Value Rating
\n5 of 5 <\/p>\n
Price Paid: $17000 at Jeff Haas Mazda <\/p>\n
Summary:
\nSomewhere on here, I have a review of my wife’s 1999 Protege LX, which I always really liked for what it was. However, the car has no balls and doesn’t have the hauling capacity of even a simple hatch. I was resigned to having to fork out a ton more cash for a Passat wagon, all the while wishing that Mazda would just make a wagon version of my wife’s car, but faster. Then BAM, they did it. Kudos to Mazda. Exactly the right car at exactly the right price. <\/p>\n
Strengths:
\n* Handling. Man, I do love the handling.
\n* Versatility. I can carry five, or stuff, or five and some stuff with the roof rack. Excellent.
\n* Comfort. Great seats, enough room in back for rear-facing baby seat.
\n* Styling. I’ve never owned a car that got this much attention before.
\n* I like the leather-wrapped steering wheel and white dials.
\n* Good ergonomics on the stereo.
\n* I never thought I’d have any use for a moonroof, but I love it!
\n* Handling. It’s just so sweet around the corners.
\n* Excellent brakes, especially with EBD.
\n* Mileage is decent, particularly for how fun it is to drive.
\n* Doesn’t suck up the whole garage, amazing considering how much interior space there is.
\n* Good ergonomics on the cruise control.
\n* Reliability. Not a single problem so far, good chance that’ll continue.
\n* Friendly torque curve, especially with the stick.
\n* Did I mention the handling? <\/p>\n
Weaknesses:
\n* Cupholders suck.
\n* Center console\/armrest is too small for both of those tasks.
\n* Only one intermittent wiper setting.
\n* Door lock sticks up into arm when you rest it on the door.
\n* Speakers and speaker placement leave a lot to be desired.
\n* Rear defroster should be on a timer.
\n* Car should be 4″ longer to give a smidge more room in cargo area.
\n* Gas fill on the wrong side. <\/p>\n
Similar Products Used:
\nI also liked the Subie Impreza TS wagon, but the backseat is too small and I didn’t want to pay the extra bucks for AWD, which I don’t need in SE Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(originally posted to carreview.com on 2002.02.06) Overall Rating 5 of 5 Value Rating 5 of 5 Price Paid: $17000 at Jeff Haas Mazda Summary: Somewhere on here, I have a review of my wife’s 1999 Protege LX, which I always really liked for what it was. However, the car has no balls and doesn’t have … Continue reading Review: 2002 Mazda Protege5<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}