Fun and Reliable

I have had this car for 10 months now, and I have 7400 miles on it. I really like the styling and since 2 members of my family owned a Mazda and were very pleased, I decided to get a Protege instead of a Civic or Corolla. My wife has a Ford Focus so another one of those was NOT an option! I also received a $2000 rebate which made the car even more attractive! I have the ESSA with pretty much all the options. The sticker was $19,000, but the dealer came down to $17,800 and with the rebate it was only $15,800. The car handles like a dream and it is great for parking in tight spots. The quality of the car is excellent! I have not had one defect that has sent me back to the dealer, which is really impressive. My mileage on the highway can be close to 30mpg and about 25mpg in mixed driving. A 5 speed automatic would help because the motor does run at about 2800rpm at 70mph. I love just about everything about this car except for a few minor annoyances: 1) a little wind noise on the highway 2)VERY SENSITIVE panic button on key fob-I'm always setting off the alarm 3)wipers are intermittent, not variable speed intermittent 4)no trunk release on key fob 5)small battery-it has been around 5 or 10 degrees lately, and the car turns over pretty slow-I'll get a bigger group size battery when I replace the original. If you are considering a small sedan, give the Protege a good look because it is a fun and reliable and quality built car!