Pos

[plymouthprotege]

i dont know if anyone else has had these problems that i have been having but my general opinion on proteges has gone down. Let me tell you the story about my pro. I turned 16 and my parents went out and got the car on the condition that i would pay them half my paychecks. that was fine with me until about a year into having the car, parked it at school then at the end of the day when i was leaving after class, the radio display was completely screwed and didnt work. long story short dealership fixed it and aside from the inconvenience it was alright. A few months later same problem except the CD player also didnt work. same solution. About 6 months later driving home from our cottage about 4 hours away take a turn and then the radio complately stops producing any sound. Take the car to the dealership and they tell me that they wont cover the radio that time because they didnt think that it was thier fault. so reluctantly i pay them and after about 3 weeks the car has a radio again. Winter comes and goes and at the beggining of the third summer of owning it and after 60,000 miles the transmission goes. ITs an auto so its not like i tore up the clutch and screwed it up, i just drove it. Replace the trans and about a month later which is now, the battery continues dying and the car will shut off in motion or after sitting for a few minutes. I dont know if anyone else has had this type of experience with their pro but i personally wont ever buy one again and wouldnt ever recomend them to any of my friends.

[Kelly]

Blah Blah Blah, Ju Got A Lemon Dude, It Happens. 16 Year Olds Drive Like Assholes, Thats Prolly What Tore It Up.

[sLoPrO2k]

sorry to hear about your car... but I would have to rate mine about a 10. Aside from the expected routine maintenance... the Pro has been nothing but good to me... has not left me stranded... and that's what is most important to me.

[plymouthprotege]

yeah im not saying they are all ****ty and ill admit there are things that i did to the car that arent the best for it but at the same time i didnt do anything to bad for it. i agree that i did get a lemon but at the same time if i got a lemon with a pro ill try something different and maybe go back to mazda later. but for now i think im going to get either a dodge magnum or a chevy colorado.

[sLoPrO2k]

u trading it in?

[95ProLeila]

magnums look like ****, they're fast, but they look like ****. Is the colorado their new 5 cyl? Personally out of those two I'd go for the truck

[Kelly]

dont break the magnum or colorado(this one is nice), parts for those are sure to be more expensive than the protege.

[Chad]

the magnums are Okay but i wouldnt get one.. i think ill stick with mazda

[Breiland]

Um...if you're 17, how do you have the money to get a Colorado or a Magnum. Aren't both of those well over $20,000? I'm 23, and I can barely afford my Protege that I paid $13,000 for. I don't mean to sound rude...I'm just surprised since nobody I know can afford a Magnum or a Colorado. (I'd recommend the Colorado though. The Magnum, although it's nice on the inside and it's fast, it's butt ugly. Oh, and BTW, has anyone noticed that the dash in the Colorado looks just like the Protege's dash? Of course, there are some minor differences, but it's almost identical.)

[jnorion]

Parents pay your bills?

[Mark 02dx]

Don't ever buy a first-year model from ANY American car company, unless you're made of money and don't mind going back to the dealer all the time. Wait a couple years for them to iron out the bugs. Even then, I'll bet you'll look back fondly on your Protege... but you'll have to learn that for yourself.

[robisconfusedd]

sorry to hear about your problems... i must say the stock headunit sucks in my opinion, mine skips when i go over even the tiniest bumps, and it seems like the laser lens might have gone retarded or something cuz it will randomly skip back to track 1 in the middle of a song... and i do live in texas where its insanely hot every day so i expect the display to not work for a while after being in a parking lot.

[.Zero]

if your having problems with your used protege and have the money for something that costs 20+ grand then I would get a new 02-03 protege for half the cost and prolly have the insurance. I have a 99 and nothing like that has gone wrong or anything. I'm on my second transmission, clutch and a few other but thats becuase I drove it like a race car on the track. try the protege again... just get a new one that wont have those problems. hard to get a lemon when you buy it new. not impossible but it's hard to do.

when you get a car loan you have to realize it's for the long hual. your get a truck or something with bad gas milage.. imagin, your parents aren't going to be paying for your stuff forever. my friend got a 3rd gen rx-7 when he lived at home (lucky bastard) and now he drives it around like his old civic and every three days he has to fill it up (40 some odd dollars here). if your going to get something else at least get a car.. buy a beat up truck if you need to hual stuff around. but from the sounds of it it seems like your just cruising around and doing normal stuff.

[davens]

This will involve a little work so I expect you to blow it off since you're only 17.

Go to the library. Get the Consumer Reports magazine most recent annual car issue.

One of the features of this issue is an evaluation, by year, make and model of each car's reliability. It breaks down each major system and rates it from poor to excellent on a scale of 1-5.
But the best part is their data is collected from actual owners during an annual survey, not the dealership, manufacturer etc. So if a bunch of owners are pissed about having to replace the transmission, it shows.

It's very cool...with a glance, you can see a 03 Ford Focus had problems with their clutch, or a 98 VW GTI had horrible electrical problems, or the 99 Protege was known to have audio problems.

And you'll see, while domestics have improved they still fall behind most Japanese manufacturers in reliability.

[jnorion]

^^^ and you'll also see that the Protege was rated as one of the most reliable best built cars on the market today