Faults:
Since my mom has purchased this car, she has had all the scheduled maintenance on the car and it's runs great to this day.
We just recently found out that the A/C could have been working for the years that we have been driving it without it because of some belt. I'm not sure of all the details, but when it first broke we took it to a mechanic and he told us it would be 1k+ to replace the whole thing when we only needed that one belt changed.
Never had anything serious go wrong with the car.
Only thing that kind of bothered me is that the horn one day started to go off on its own, so we unhooked it and took off the sensor pad underneath the centerpiece in the steering column and re-soldered it. It works perfect now.
General Comments:
This is my first car and I love it, This car has some punch to it, it's a kicker and fun to drive compared to the newer models and has a surprisingly good steering radius. (better than a Toyota Matrix).
The speaker wiring could use some TLC and a new paint job would be nice, but overall I love this car.
From what I have seen, I have the nicest 94 or around that year Protege. Others that I see have dents and broken lights, so I don't know how other people take car of this car.
And this car gets VERY good gas mileage (20+ mpg) for its age.
If you love this car, it will love you back!
24th Jun 2009, 21:11
Sorry for you misfortunes. My 1996 Protege never got less than 37 MPG - but I had a manual transmission (I also wrote the review "Bland Box of Chocolates"). I never had issues with the air or horn. The only cosmetic thing wrong with it was the fact that the paint on the wheels was chipping and peeling. But that's understandable - the human has peeling skin, does he not? My Protege was a sweetheart - its deathblow was a clutch that went out at 124,000 miles - and a price that at that time I couldn't justify. Looking back, I wish I had replaced it.