The steering effort is rather high, and the on-center feel is wide rather than sharp. The new car has anti-roll bars front and rear and tightly limited roll angles, which add a sporty feel to the handling. The suspension is similar to that of the previous car, although the parts are different, and we found road grip to be identical to that of the last ES we tested, at 0.80 g on the skidpad. If your budget will stretch to the ES, we think the engine alone is worth the extra cost. The redline is down 500 rpm from before to 6500, and torque is much enhanced. It cuts nearly half a second off the 0-to-60 time of the previous-generation ES model-down to 8.4 seconds with the five-speed now-and top-gear acceleration improves even more. The ES engine is a newly derived version of the 2.0-liter four that's standard in the larger 626 sedan.Īfter driving the small-engine models, the ES feels like a muscle car. Both are twin-cam, 16-valve fours but are based on fundamentally different designs. The top-of-the-line Protegé, the ES, comes with a larger engine than the lower-level DX and LX models: 1840 cc and 122 horsepower for the ES 1598 cc and 105 horsepower for the others (those sold in states adhering to California LEV standards have two less horsepower). Trunk space has shrunk, too, by 0.2 cubic foot, but the new shape is so uncontorted-it's a big box!-and the lift-over is so low, that we think it's more useful than ever. Yet the total weight of the car is down 16 pounds on our scale, due to clever engineering in the bolt-ons.Īs is typical when crash improvements are made, interior dimensions are fractionally smaller in almost every case, but it doesn't hurt the capacity and comfort of this car in any noticeable way. It has more steel, which works to provide the silence just mentioned, and crash protection. Mazda says the new body is about 50 pounds heavier than the old one. Kneeroom seems unexpectedly generous back there, too, as is the door-opening space for entry and exit. The inner track is mounted on the side of the tunnel, and the outer one attaches to the side of the sill, leaving a remarkably wide floor space for rear-passenger feet. Mazda did a clever thing with the front-seat tracks. The driver's seat slides rearward too far for six-footers, and they have ample headroom even with the sunroof. It seems to have all its room in useful places. The Protegé is one of the rare cars that didn't rub us wrong in any way. You can forget for a while, but then you notice, and it's annoying again. The longer you drive, the more irritating it gets. In most cars, larger ones, too, something about the console, or the underdash, or the door, rubs on your knee, or your shin, exactly on the part where there's hardly any meat to pad the bone.
1996 mazda protege repair manual drivers#
But our relatively normal-size drivers report something unexpected, maybe even unprecedented-the Protegé doesn't hurt them anywhere. Anatomies vary, and we can't foresee the complaints of every human settling into the driving position of a small car.
1996 mazda protege repair manual driver#
The Protegé does something else exceptionally well, something perhaps even more valuable: It fits the driver like a custom suit. The grille has an in-your-face chrome accent, too, a rich touch you'd expect on a Lincoln Continental or a Mercedes, but which seems utterly extravagant on a budgeteer. The rather formal profile of this four-door-only body is softened by a smoothly arched roofline and then given character with big taillights and boldly sculptured wheel-opening flares. Rather, it did the hard thing in creating an econobox that actually looks classy. That's a perishable condition (though you wouldn't know it from the Neon's still-spunky shape), and now it's a crowded corner of the market populated by the roly-poly New Beetle. Now Mazda has an all-new Protegé-new body, new engines, new automatic gearbox-and this one has a shot at celebrity. And we've always liked the Protegé because, well, it just seemed to get all the basics right. The Neon remains a cutie and a lusty performer besides. Still, a few econoboxes manage to stand out from the blur. They shop price and they keep shopping across brands until something fits the budget. Price, quality, and dependability are the important issues for Protegé buyers, Mazda says.
The only shoppers who care about this class now walk straight to the price sticker.
And in these cheap-gas days, big numbers on the EPA mileage label no longer draw a crowd (remember when they did?). Nobody dreams of winning the Powerball lottery so they can show off a Chevy Cavalier in their driveway, or a Ford Escort or a Nissan Sentra. There's a certain who-cares anonymity to the cars in this econobox class. From the November 1998 issue of Car and Driver.
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