1999 Mazda Protege LX review from North America
"It's a good little car, but has a problem with the gas pedal"
What things have gone wrong with the car?
Check engine light 2 times.
Gas pedal stuck when cold start?
Electrical connections burnt, dirty.
Rocker panels starts to get rusty.
A/C not working.
General comments?
Cheap to own.
Handles good.
Starts everyday.
Roomy for its size
We use the car everyday, for shopping and the commute to work. This past summer, we loaded her up and went camping. It works if you know how to pack. It's a LX, but it has 1.8 engine, touring package. We drove over 600 km one way this summer and it works fine, but it's not comfortable on long runs. It was never built for that.
The only problems is check engine light that comes on. We had it checked and they said it was fixed, but 3 weeks later it came back on.
The other problem is that the gas gets stuck when starting with cold engine; I guess it's the cold start, once the engine is warm and the idle is about 800-900 rpm, it's good. You can push the pedal and it comes loose before that. If anybody has an idea about this, please let me know.
The car got a lot of mileage on it, but it runs fine. We like its good handling now when it's winter. I would recommend this car; it's good as a second car or as your very first.
Recommended reviews
| Low price, low quality, low reliability, poor excuse for competition with the Honda Civic |
|
| A good responsive car overall. |
| Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? | Yes |
| Model year | 1999 |
| Year of manufacture | 1999 |
| First year of ownership | 2007 |
| Most recent year of ownership | 2007 |
| Engine and transmission | 1.8 Automatic |
| Performance marks | 4 / 10 |
| Reliability marks | 5 / 10 |
| Comfort marks | 3 / 10 |
| Dealer Service marks | |
| Running Costs (higher is cheaper) | 6 / 10 |
| Overall marks (average of all marks) | |
| Distance when acquired | 242000 kilometres |
| Most recent distance | 245000 kilometres |
| Date of Entry | 11th December, 2007 |