1994 Mazda Protege review from North America

When I first purchased this car there wasn't a thing wrong with it. I soon found out why the dealer only carried a 3 month warranty.

First thing that went wrong was the boot busted on the front passenger side. Fortunately this was still during the warranty period so I wasn't charged to have it fixed.

The second thing that happened was the seal on the radiator sprung a leak. This problem was repaired by replacing the entire radiator. This was also under the warranty time limit.

Then the air conditioning went out, this happened at about 75000mi. Fortunately I had moved to Michigan from Mississippi so air conditioning wasn't that big of an issue. Have yet to experience warm enough weather to warrant having it checked out. Also, warranty has lapsed by now.

The next thing to go wrong was the cv joints. Fortunately they only went bad on one side. Parts were $100 and I found a shop to do the repair for $50 so I got off pretty easy for this. Plus there was a $40 core charge that I got back. To have the work done at a standard shop with parts and labor would have cost close to $300.

Third thing to go was the heat. Thus far I have had a complete tune-up, including replacing the plugs, plug wires, distributor cap, rotor and thermostat. None of this corrected the problem.

My newest problem at 85000mi is the brakes have almost completely gone out and the head gasket is cracked. The funny thing about this car is, the parts to completely replace breaks and rotors on both sides of the front and the head gasket only cost $90. The labor however is going to cost about $500.

I have to say that while this is a rather pretty car and carries a great name, being foreign makes the parts unbelievably high and hard to come by.

Also, most shops won't touch it simply because it's a Mazda, so therefore you have to find foreign shops which often charge higher prices simply because its a specialty shop.

So all in all I would have to say, based on my experience and the fact that my sister recently sold her '95 Mazda protege because the transmission went out along with numerous other problems, it's a pretty car and a pretty name, but it also comes with a pretty price.