2000 Mazda Protege DX 1.6L from North America
Summary:
Good for starters
Faults:
I didn't have many problems with the car.
Replaced struts and tires, radio at 48K miles.
Brakes were replaced at 42K miles.
General Comments:
It's a nice little car for starters. It was my first car, I bought it used at 48K miles. I needed to replace the tires and struts when I first bought it. I owned it for about 7 months without any problems, just did the oil changes.
It lacks power, but good enough to drive mostly in the city. In the highway, it was noisy to drive over 55-60 mph, especially the wind noise was high. Manual transmission was nice. Very good gas mileage, 26/33mpg in city/highway.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 7th November, 2006
18th Mar 2006, 20:15
To help you out with the belt squeal problem you have to replace the alternator belt with the OE Mazda belt. All after-market belts are made a little different from the original and do not grip the pulley properly, thus causing squealing noise from slippage. I have discovered this after a lot of research and have shared it with many repair shops. I do not work for Mazda, quite the opposite I work for a company that makes after-market belts for cars.
Good luck!