FUEL ECONOMY is what its about today. My 42MPG $550 Protege

It seems the rising fuel costs have driven up the price of used small cars. I used to own a Ford Festiva, but didn't like how it handled so I sold it for $600. Today, if I were to put it on ebay, it would have easily fetched over $1250 and likely more due to its condition and the fact it had Air Conditioning.


I own a Mazda MX-3 with a 2.5 liter engine swap. It gets reasonable fuel economy on premium (22city/27highway). But I wanted a car to drive that had more interior room for hauling packages I am constantly shipping & something that got great fuel economy.

So today I write about the forgotten Mazda. Probably the most looked over vehicle on the road today. The 90-94 1st generation Protege and 3rd generation 99+ Protege and Protege5 sold much better than the 2nd generation 95-98 model, and you won't find many internet sites with fans of the 2nd generation Protege, but I am now one of them.

The Basics

What do you get with a 2nd generation 1995-1998 Protege? Very basic transportation, but good transportation. The car is surprisingly refined, the interior is of higher quality than my fathers 2001 Corolla and the features list is quite high. I have a DX model which doesn't come with many options, but the LX model has pretty much ever option you could ever want.

Here is the run down:

DX:
1.5 liter engine (rated at 92hp and 96 torque)
disc/drum brakes (9.2" front vented disc & 7.9" rear drum)
Standard Features: intermittent wipers, 13" steel wheels w/covers, rear defroster, trunk light, remote fuel release (but no trunk release), power steering, optional A/C & ABS. No tachometer, no maplights, no power anything, no 60/40 fold down seat

LX;
1.5 liter engine (rated at 92hp and 96 torque)
Standard Features: all of the above, but has power windows, locks, mirrors, cruise control, a digital clock in the dashboard, the 95' model has 8-way adjustable drivers seat, 60/40 fold down seats, nicer cloth upholstery, domelight w/maplights, optional sunroof & a/c & ABS, and optional security w/keyless entry system

ES:
1.8 liter BP-ZE engine (rated at 122hp and 127 torque). Same engine used in 94+ Miata and 90-94 Protege LX
Standard Features: all of the above but has 14" wheels with optional 14" alloys, ABS standard, has 4-wheel disc brakes (10.2" front and 9.9" rear), sporty suspension tuning, 8-way adjustable drivers seat (all years)

What should you look for?
I like my DX model. It is a 5-speed which is a definite plus seeing how it has the small 1.5 liter engine. LX models are the most common, most of them are automatic. ES models are VERY RARE, so good luck finding one, you likely won't. The LX has a nice list of features indeed. I basically upgraded my car to LX specs by going to the junkyard, spending about $100 on a tachometer gauge cluster, maplight domelight, the front & rear seats including 8-way adjustable drivers seat, a remote trunk release cable & a digital clock for the dash. I still don't have the power options but I don't want them, they are just unnecessary weight in my eyes.

Performance

I have driven more than 5 different 2nd generation proteges, including both a 5-speed and automatic. I have driven a 5-speed ES but not an automatic. THe 1.5 liter engine depsite its low HP figure is NOT that bad. The stock 5-speed data is a 0-60 in 9.8 seconds and 1/4 mile of 17.7 seconds, not too bad. The automatic accelerates to 60 in about 11.4 seconds and does the 1/4 in 18.8 according to my Car & Driver and Cosumer Reports test data.

The brakes on the DX and LX are surprisingly decent. I don't have ABS and wouldn't want it (again, just more weight i don't need), and my car stops as well as my MX-3 which has performance brake pads. The suspension on the DX is a bit softer than the LX but it still rides very nicely while retaining its composure through corners, although the 13x5" wheels are a bit too narrow so I upgraded mine to 14x5.5" alloys from my old protege.

And for you comfort-freaks, the extra lateral support in the front seats pokes into your back. I honestly dislike it and have removed my stock seatback and put a MX-3 sportier seatback in my car, but most people will find the seats very comfortable, but I don't sit upright in my seat when driving and i'm also 6' 4".

As for other tidbits...the rear seat seats 2 comfortably, 3 for less-than-1-hour trips. In Consumer reports, this car scored highly for rear seat room. I have removed my rear seat for weight savings so that isn't relevant to me.

Trunk? Its big enough, about 13 cubic feet of room, similar to a BMW 3-series, neon and cavalier. I never use the trunk and have gutted it of the spare tire and floor board to save 40 lbs. (less weight = better fuel econ & acceleration/braking/handling).

Enough Rambling, what about Recommendations & Comparisons?

I've driven many super-cheapo economy cars enough to review them effectively. Including the 91-96 2nd Ford Escort/Mercury Tracer clones, 97+ Ford Escort/ZX2 and Tracer, 88-93 Ford Festiva, 94-97 Ford Aspire, 95+ Chevy Cavalier and 95+ Neon, Geo/Chevy Metro (both 3 and 4 cyl models) along with your civics and corollas.

You could divide the above mentioned cars into 3 classes:

-Super Small cars: Festiva, Aspire & Geo/Chevy Metro (and Suzuki Swift)
-Small Domestic cars: Dodge Neon, Chevy Cavalier, Ford Escort, Mercury Tracer
-Small Import cars: Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Mirage, Toyota Corolla, Nissan Sentra

Now to compare this car to each catergory (of course this car belongs to "small import cars"). When introduced in 1995, consumer reports tested an automatic ES model and scored it as the best model, beating it against the cavalier & neon (also in the same test) and the new 95 Sentra (again, also in the same test) and the existing 92-95 (5th generation) honda civic and 93-97 Corolla (which had already been tested in previous years)

I won't go into details but it did get better fuel economy and held up in their braking & emergency handling test better than any of the above mentioned cars. But it was an ES model compared with the top-of-the-line Neon, Cavalier & Sentra.

Since the majority of 2nd gen Protege's are LX models I'll voice my thoughts. Pretty much all of the above mentioned Domestic Imports will out-accelerate the DX/LX Protege, and handle similarly and brake similarly. The main difference boils down to fuel economy. The 2.2 liter in the cavalier, and 2.0 liter in the neon simply can't be as efficient with fuel as a 1.5 liter. Same goes for the 1.9 and 2.0 found in the Ford Escort. All of these engines will still fetch you low-30's on the highway and mid-upper 20's in the city.

The LX and DX protege (in 5spd form) WILL Get you low 40's on the highway and mid 30's in the city, the same fuel economy of all of the above mentioned Super SMall cars, with the exception of the 3-cylinder Geo Metro models which will get upwards of 50mpg (but are painfully slow).

The Sentra, Corolla and Civic are formitable competition. They all would make great second cars, but the main difference is price. Civics and COrollas retained their value VERY well, and the 91-94 Sentra is the only car that falls into the same budget as the 95-98 Protege. The 95-98 Sentra's do not, and cost more on ebay and elsewhere.

So Cliff's Notes for the lazy

Super Small cars:
Pro's: deliver the best fuel economy, very small & manuverable, inexpensive to maintain
Con's: recently their price has gone WAY up on ebay and autotrader due to rising fuel costs, generally lackluster braking & handling, small interior room, Won't stand up to any other car in an accident (in other words...less safe)

Small Domestic Cars:
Pro's: Cheap in price due to high depreciation. Best acceleration, lots of good features for the money, all of them handle very well & have decent interior space, parts are cheap and easy to find since they are domestic models, VERY easy to find for sale since a bazillion exist
Con's: bigger engines = the least fuel efficient, some have major reliability problems (neon head gasket failures, cavalier electrical problems) so could be more expensive to maintain.

Small Import Cars:
Pro's: Of high build quality, require less maintenance, Very fuel efficient yet peppy engines, retain their value more than domestic cars (good only if you own one)
Con's: retain their value more than any other car here (bad if you want to buy one), parts are a bit more expensive and hard to find since they are imports (but you won't need to fix it as often), in lower-trim models features are definitely scarce, higher price in general than any other catergory

So the 95-98 Protege falls into where?

As I mentioned before, the 2nd gen protege gets equally good fuel economy as the Ford Festiva, Aspire and 4-cylinder Geo Metro. It has as much interior space as any of the Domestic or Import small cars, is reliable and has no known common reliability problems, and has a decent feature set in LX trim.

So....it all boils down to price-per-MPG. You can get a 2nd gen Protege for $1000 or less one ebay. Can't say the same for a 96+ Civic, 95+ Sentra or 93+ Corolla, and its hard to find 95+ Escorts, Neons and Cavaliers for this price that are in decent shape.

The only other car I can think of that comes close is the Mitsubishi Mirage which can be had for under $1000 for similar years. The only real difference is those cars had more reliability issues and don't get quite as good fuel economy, but would still make a good choice as a second, daily-driver.