Sun

Sunburn's Protegé5 page

In summer 2001, I bought a 2002 Mazda Protegé5, and here's a page devoted to the car. The sections are:


Pictures

Here are some photos of my Protege5. Click on a thumbnail to get the larger image.

After

As in, after the tint job and moonroof deflector were put on.

front front right top left front
left side rear deflector zoom zoom

Now with the bumper guard:

bumper guard close-up bumper guard

 

I had to take one picture of our pair of Proteges, both freshly washed and waxed. My wife's LX had around 40K miles on it and my P5 had around 9K miles on it when this was taken:

Before

As in, before the tint and deflector
Front right Right side rear Left side
Rear view Straight-on front Straight-on front #2

Specifications and Modifications

The main specs on the car can be found at MazdaUSA's Web site. I got it with the following factory options:

  • "Sunlight" Silver metallic paint
  • ABS (which includes EBD)
  • Side air bags
  • Moonroof

Modifications, so far not too much:

  • JBL GTO605c component speakers up front
  • JBL GTO635 speakers in the rear doors
  • JBL P80.4 amplifier (see the pic—this is with the front seat all the way forward)
  • Window tint, done by the dealer
  • Moonroof wind deflector, also by the dealer
  • Rear bumper guard (see pics above)
  • K&N drop-in air filter

I did the speaker installation myself, you can read all about that, including pictures.

I'm keeping the stock head unit because I like the color matching with the other dash lighting, because the ergonomics are good, and because there's nothing interesting for thieves to see. So far, the aftermarket speakers and amp sound great. I don't plan to add a big subwoofer because one of the reasons I got the car was for the utility of the hatch, and that's rather defeated by putting something big in the trunk. Right now I'm considering a Kenwood wOOx or a Clarion SRV303 mini-sub to give the low end just a little more oomph.

Several folks have asked about the tint job. The tint is not the same % all around. Other than the windshield in the P5, there are five relevant windows:

  • Side front (35%)
  • Side rear (35%)
  • Side rear triangular (30%)
  • Side cargo area (25%)
  • Rear windshield (20%)

This makes all the transitions from one window to the next no larger than 5% so it looks smooth as your eye goes from front to back.

Make sure you get a good metal-based tint--mine is the high-end titanium-based stuff. Expensive, but it looks great.


Reviews

I've been collecting reviews on the Web. If you've seen a review for the Mazda Protegé5 that isn't on this list, please let me know!

It's also worth pointing out that Car and Driver has a small-wagon shootout in the June 2002 issue. It included the Protegé5, the Ford Focus ZX5, the Toyota Matrix XRS, the Pontiac Vibe, the Dodge PT Cruiser, and the Suzuki Aero. They proclaimed the Protege5 the winner.

To be fair, Consumer Reports did a review in their recent issue (against the Vibe, Matrix, ZX5, Subaru Impreza Outback Sport, and VW Jetta Wagon) and they didn't like the Pro so much.

Robert Bowden (thecarplace.com) Ann Job (Associated Press, via Brainerd Dispatch)
Warren Brown (Washington Post, via Maine Today) Bob Plunkett (CarTrackers.com)
Edmunds.com (LA Auto show) Edmunds.com "first drive"
Paul Eisenstein (Kelley Blue Book) Anita Lienert (Detroit News)
Tim Spell (Houston Chronicle) Frank Markus (Car and Driver "short take")
James Flammang (Tirekicking Today) Bob Storck (womanmotorist.com)
Sam Moses (NCTD.com) Tom Keane (Motor Matters)
Mark Drouillard (motorway.com) Jim Grodnik (insidebayarea.com)
Joe Wiesenfelder (cars.com) Michael Frank (forbes.com)
Beth Stein (beststuff.com) Marc Stengel (thecarconnection.com)
Lawrence Ulrich (auto.com) David Wallens (grmotorsports.com)
Joseph Mavilia (autolove.com)  

And a few entries from our neighbors to the north (that's Canada for those of you missing your elmentary school geography). Note that prices and base feature sets will be somewhat different for the Canadians, eh.

Grant Yoxon (canadiandriver.com) Greg Wilson (canadiandriver.com)
Glen Woodcock (autonet.ca)  

Now, after reading all those reviews (and I didn't select only the good ones, these are all the reviews I could find, no matter what they said), you want to know more, right? So go test drive one already!


Mini-FAQ

OK, so a few questions keep getting asked on various Protegé boards and I haven't seen them in other FAQs, so I'm starting a small one here for questions that I wanted answers to.

What are the stock speaker sizes?
The front doors have 5x7/6x8 speakers, mouting depth 2.5". The rear doors take 6.5" speakers, mounting depth is 2.0" according to Mazda, but people have reported more like 2.2".

Numerous people (including myself) have successfully installed 6.5" speakers in the front with an adapter they've fabricated out of plywood or MDF. I used a retail adapter that cost like six bucks to do it.

How do I get the door panels off to install speakers?
I've done this, and you can read all about it in my Install Notes.

There are three other excellent Web pages which document this process, or at least pieces of it:

What's up with the wind noise?
There is a fair bit of wind noise, much of which is created by the roof rack. Having a moon roof makes this much more noticeable. In fact, on all my test drives, I tested cars without moon roofs and I never heard this, even at 70mph. However, when I picked up my car (with moon roof), I noticed it immediately.

The good news here is that the addition of the moon roof deflector takes care of most of it quite nicely.


Last modified 2002.07.04, Copyright ©2001-2 Mike Byrne