Here’s my advice on some of the issues mentioned here and elsewhere about the P5. For long trips we now have–what else?–a bigger wagon. Looking back, I don’t know what I was thinking. In years past I’ve had my entire five-person family in the car for a 700-mile trip. NVH couldn’t have been much of a consideration when it was engineered. Wind noise, road noise, engine noise, transmission noise-the entire dyssymphony is present. Compared to just about anything with four doors, though, the near-classic Mazda is rough and noisy. After driving a Lotus Elise, the Protege5 felt as high, quiet, and cushy as a Lincoln Navigator. In sharp contrast to a current batting-way-above-its-league Focus, the Protege5 ain’t got none. the Audis mentioned earlier, and BMW 5ers recently compared by C&D). The transition to electric power assisted steering (EPAS) for fuel economy reasons hasn’t helped, but even cars with hydraulic steering generally provide far less feedback (e.g. So, why does the auto industry no longer offer a car like this one in North America? Visibility was cast by the wayside due to styling trends. To thoroughly fix just the rear end a body shop will charge a couple grand, which can’t be rationally justified. I had more thorough rust repair performed once, a couple years ago. Each fall I remove what rust I can from the rear wheel openings and shock towers, slap on some rust converter, then paint. Where the roads are salted, small Mazdas predictably start to meld with atmosphere about six months after the five-year rust perforation warranty ends. Consider the Mazda Exhibit A in the case that it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. In subjective terms, the P5 feels so alive and is so much fun, even in daily driving, that it has made nearly every car I’ve reviewed over the past decade seem dull, even boring in comparison. Even without stability control (which was never offered), every ounce of potential can be extracted from this car safely and easily. Testing out the car’s handling early on in a snow-covered parking lot, I had to resort to pulling the hand brake to get it to spin. (The thick, heavily padded steering wheels favored by many people and consequently common on performance-oriented cars block feedback.) A MINI or a 500 should feel as agile and provide communication as plentiful and nuanced, but doesn’t.īy lifting off the Protege5’s throttle as you enter a turn you can coax the rear end out a bit, but in general the car’s chassis is extremely stable. Though the low-effort steering can have an over-assisted, rubber-band feel at modest lock under light loads (a trait shared by the current Civic Si), both on-center and when you’re tossing the car precisely through a curve the rack and column seem to transmit EVERTYTHING through a relatively thin, minimally padded rim to your fingertips. First of all, despite a 2,800-pound curb weight, the car’s reactions to steering inputs are quicker than in any compact hatch I’ve driven since buying it. The Protege5 remains relevant for the same reasons I still own it. How does it possibly remain relevant today? So the P5 was designed and engineered back in the mid-nineties. I got a great deal ($18,900 MSRP, paid $13,400) because the new Mazda3 was in transit. When I bought my Protege5 back in November 2003, it was already at the end of its run.
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