![]() ![]() It’s actually slightly smaller inside to provide added side impact protection, and I can deal with that. Protegé has 92.6 cubic feet of interior room and 12.9 cubic feet of trunk space, good numbers for the class. The styling results in a spacious interior that didn’t give me the cramped feeling I get in some compacts. The car was styled with input from all four of Mazda’s R&D centers - Irvine, California, Frankfurt, Germany, and Yokohama and Hiroshima, Japan. Mazda is hot on the styling of the 1999 Protegé. It has power rack-and-pinion steering that is responsive. The Protegé had good straight-line handling and didn’t want to wander off the straight line. We took the car on some of my favorite twisty roads and enjoyed the ride.īehavior on the highway was good as well. In addition, the front roll center was lowered by 24 mm and the rear raised by 21 mm for improved feel and linear steering response. In the rear is Mazda’s patented Twin-Trapezoidal Link suspension. Up front is a MacPherson strut independent suspension. Handling of the Protegé is small-car decent. This is more than enough for the car and would probably be enough even if it had an automatic transmission. The ES gets a 1.8-liter engine that’s rated at 122 horsepower. EPA ratings are somewhat higher, and I’m not sure why we were so low. In addition, we averaged more than 25 mpg. An automatic would have strangled the engine and cut back on whatever performance was available. #PROTEGE CAR CAR MANUAL#This isn’t a big engine, and 105 aren’t a lot of horses, but thankfully they were connected to a manual gearbox. Acceleration was decent and on-highway performance capable. Thanks to the five-speed gearbox, I was able to extract the best performance out of it. It is the first vehicle in its class to achieve this level.īut the engine is more than just economical and clean. This engine uses a special swirl control valve on the intake manifold that helps it achieve Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV) status in California. It drives the front wheels through a five-speed manual transmission. Protegé is powered by a 1.6-liter DOHC inline four that develops 105 horsepower. I would have liked it more if it was slightly bigger, but that could be my fault and not the car’s. It’s been around for a couple of years as the replacement for the 323. The Protégé isn’t a new car in the Mazda lineup. When it was time for the company to expand rapidly, it didn’t. It’s just that with the overabundance of quality Japanese compact sedans, Mazda somehow got lost in the shuffle. Engineering has always been inventive, from the first RX7 with the Wankel rotary engine, to the Millenia with its Miller cycle engine. Stability is the one thing the company did need. Ford increased its share of Mazda stock to 30 percent and gave the company some stability. We’ve all heard about the problems Mazda has undergone in recent years and how the company was at the verge of bankruptcy. ![]() As always, it’s a pretty good Japanese compact sedan. The redesigned 1999 Mazda Protegé, while it has crisp "European" styling, isn’t going to fool anyone. Power mirrors, cruise control, air conditioner,ĪM-FM stereo radio with in-dash CD player, INSTRUMENTS: Speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge,ĮQUIPMENT: Power windows, power door locks, LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT: 174.0 x 67.1 x 55.5 in ![]() HORSEPOWER/TORQUE: 105 hp rpm/107 ft-lbs 4000 rpmįUEL ECONOMY: 29 mpg city, 34 mpg highway, 25.3 mpg test New Car/Review Mazda Protegé LX by John Heilig SPECIFICATIONS ![]()
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