 I bought the Protege after driving most 
of the competition (Corolla, Civic, 
Sentra).  The Mazda felt tighter, 
handled better and had better brakes.  
It has been reliable to a fault.  I now 
have almost 40k on the car and it is 
still running good. I had to put new 
pads front and back recently and 
replaced the tires.  The 16" Dunlops 
are next to impossible to find, so I 
upgraded one size to 205/55/16 
Fulda's.  The car rides a bit better on 
these tires.
The only faults are that with the wide 
16" wheels, it can be a terror to drive 
in the snow and the gas mileage could 
be better (25 to 28 typical with 
automatic) 
