1999 Mazda Protege ES 1.8 litre

Summary:

Reliable, comfortable, affordable, fun to drive

Faults:

At 80k miles my timing belt went, this is my fault as it recommends replacing it at 60k. Everything else with this car was routine maintenance based on it's age. The stereo had some interesting problems involving whether it would come on or not and the front passenger side speaker went, all would have been fixed under warranty if I'd bothered to get the car in there. It was all solved when my son replaced my stereo with a better one (right before the car was totaled, of course!)

General Comments:

I loved my Mazda. I loved it enough to replace it with a 2000 Mazda ES when I was rear-ended and the car was totaled. It was reliable, comfortable, and fun to drive. The small things that bothered me were not that important - except - if they could fix one of them it would be that the window did not defrost unless I turned the air on - the heat option just does not do the trick - so in the winter that could be a bit chilly.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 8th April, 2006

14th May 2007, 21:12

Actually, you shouldn't blame yourself for the timing belt going at 80K miles.. though most manufacturers recommend replacing it every 60K miles, Mazda's 1999 Protege owner's manual states the first replacement should happen between 90K-105K miles (?!?). I bought mine used with 75K miles, and after reading that decided that mine must still have the original belt.. so I replaced it immediately!

1999 Mazda Protege DX

Summary:

Would not buy another one, but will love driving this till it dies!

General Comments:

My wife and I bought this car in 01 and it had 50,000 miles on it. The only problem we’ve had on this is the “Check Engine Light”. To tell you the truth it hasn’t effected anything on the car. It now has 210,000 Miles on it. With a few cross country trips (4) we’ve been regular with our oil changes and brake pads and other normal fixes. Above all I have done nothing about the “Check Engine Light” for the past year and a half, still no problems.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 18th March, 2006

1999 Mazda Protege LX DOHC 1.8L

Summary:

Great Little Econo-Sedan

Faults:

3 Check engine lights for problems below.

Fuel Pressure Regulator - 45000km 5 yrs

3rd or 4th set of Brakes

EGR Valve went @ 61,000km 6 yrs causing multiple stalls, replaced by Mazda for $300.00.

2 Batteries 35,000 & 63,000km 4/6 yrs

Rough Idle.

4AT transmission runs rough in cold.

Fuel Economy is poor for a 1.8L.

General Comments:

Great little car, looks good in silver.

Could use more than 120hp, but is fairly good for everyday use.

No major repairs, but very little KMs.

Fully loaded interior.

This is my wife's car, and I prefer if she had a Civic... but so far seems to be a great little car.

Handles great in snow and dry pavement.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 20th February, 2006

26th Oct 2006, 08:33

Update.

Now have 76500kms.

- Replaced Brake pads & rotors (caliper pins wore out and caused a horrible banging noise) $320

- Timing belt - $317

- Flushed fluids per manual

- Auto Transmission continues to rev high in first gear, but other gears are smooth especially on the highway.

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1999 Mazda Protege ES 1.8L

Summary:

A wonderful transportation car

Faults:

My current Protege ES is my second Protege as my first one was a '92 DX manual transmission and a jewel of a car. It was going strong at 200,000 miles on the odometer when I sold it.

I am experiencing my first problem with my ES at 110,000 miles. The CHECK ENGINE LIGHT came on recently with a DTC P0420 (catalyst efficiency below threshold-bank 1). I reset the indicator and the CEL has not come on again, but the engine now, randomly, will "stumble" (my descriptor) at moderate speeds, that is, it will abruptly jerk with a down-shift from 4th to 3rd gear and back to 4th. I have no way of knowing if the engine causes the shifts or the transmission is acting on its own. "7th Apr 2005" also owns an ES and appears to have my exact problem.

Has any Protege owner experiencing this problem resolved it? I'd love to hear that somebody has a fix for it.

General Comments:

Generally, my ES has been another superb transportation car from Mazda. It handles well, gives good gas mileage (30 mpg average) and has been trouble-free until my current problem.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 31st October, 2005

3rd Nov 2005, 10:34

This should be considered an addendum to my review of Nov. 1,2005 which was, for some reason, listed as a 1998 ES vice the correct 1999 ES.

It appears that I have resolved my '99 Mazda Protege's problem of improper shifts. A bit of reading indicated that modern a transmissions can be "adaptive" automatic transmissions, that is, the transmission "learns" and adapts to operating requirements. i.e. the transmission is closely controlled by computer parameters stored by itself.

It seemed logical to assume that this stored info. could become corrupted (as any computerphile can attest to) and cause some strange happenings.

Assuming that my car had this feature, too, I found that if I disconnected my car's battery ground terminal for 10 minutes it "cleared" the stored transmission data. You will have no doubt when this happens as the next time that you drive the car it will make inappropriate shifts galore. In fact, I questioned whether or not I had gone from the frying pan to the fire!

But, then the sun shines! After driving about 100 miles that day, the next day when I drove the car it was magic! The transmission was silky smooth. It appears that I do have the adaptive transmission and that after clearing the transmission memory it takes a while before the adaptive feature takes over again.

This is my experience and use it for what it's worth to you.