Looking for a used car? If you're considering a 1992 Mazda Protégé, as a previous owner for 8 years, I can shed some light on possible problem areas to be aware of when shopping for one.

I bought my Mazda Protégé new in 1992. My first and previous car was a '71 yellow VW Bug, and as cute as it was, it needed constant tweaking. My main goal for my next car was for it to be very reliable, and of course, have as many features as I could afford. My budget restricted me to spending $10K max. I probably could have done well by buying a used car, but honestly, I didn't know better! Plus, nothing is more exciting than having your 1st new car!

I did a little research, and in '92, the Protégé received decent ratings from Consumer Reports. If I remember correctly, the Honda Civic and the Acura Integra scored higher, but they were definitely over my $10K max. So, I checked out the Protégé, and sure enough, it looked great to me. $10K poorer but very happy, I left the Mazda dealership in my first new car.

My Car

Since I had to stick with my budget, I purchased a fairly basic model. I had the DX trim with a standard transmission (1.8L 103 hp), and some convenience add-ons like cupholders (back in the days when that was an extra!), tilt steering, air conditioning (AC), tachometer, and a radio with a cassette player.

Mazda Aesthetics

To me, my Mazda was a luxury mobile. Remember, my previous car was a VW bug from the early 70's! My Mazda had a radio with cassette that worked, and it actually sounded pretty good, especially considering I had a "budget" vehicle. (My VW had this strange radio that plugged into the 8-track player slot, but the radio was horrible, and the 8-track capability was not so useful to me since most of "my music" was never distributed on 8-tracks.) My Mazda also had AC! If you live in the Deep South, you know what a godsend that is, and even on the near 100°F days, it allowed me to drive in complete comfort. The dash and controls all had a functional, yet attractive, no-nonsense look to them. I did take a several long trips in my Mazda (including my cross-country sojourn to CA), and I found the driver's seat to be very comfortable. Two average-sized adults fit comfortably in the backseat (3 not-so-comfortably unless they're skinny; the middle seat only has a lap belt), and there is respectable legroom for a small sedan. The Protégé offers decent trunk space, and the opening to the trunk is roomy enough to allow a large cooler or large suitcase in with no problem. I can't say the same for a Honda Civic trunk (my husband & I currently own a '97 Civic); we have a cooler that won't fit in it!

Safety Features

The Mazda Protégé has motorized seatbelts. Although some people like them, most people don't. My passengers would often get their heads tangled & pushed by the seatbelts. Anti-lock brakes and airbags were not standard on the Mazda, and I don't even think they were available as an option. If you're looking for such modern safety features, you won't find them here.

Mazda-round town

I loved driving my Mazda. Again, I was used to a VW Bug, so the small engine was not a shocker for me. With an automatic, I may not have felt so satisfied with the engine power, but the manual tranny allowed me to have plenty of zip when accelerating from a complete stop (wanna race?). Speaking of the transmission, it shifted smoothly, although I do believe the synchronization of our '97 Civic is a little better. My Mazda must have preferred moving forward, as it did not like to be shifted to reverse, and I would have to lift up on the clutch a little to get it in reverse [a common problem]. I frequently drove on the highway at speeds of 80 mph with no obvious shimmying or shaking, and it handled well in most traffic situations. The Mazda managed hills and power-hungry situations a little better than our Honda Civic does, so I think highly of its power abilities for the type of car that it is. I usually got around 30 mpg around town (combo of city/highway), and up to 33-34 mpg on highway trips. I think this was even higher than it was rated on the sticker! However, once I moved to CA my gas mileage decreased to 26-27 mpg around town and 30 mpg on the highway, probably due to the less efficient gas (i.e. the MTBE additive).

The Repair History of my Mazda

Overall, my Mazda treated me well for the 100,000+ miles that I drove it. Mostly, repair work consisted of routine maintenance (oil changes, 30K & 60K checks, etc.). I had no problems whatsoever with the engine and transmission. When I moved to CA, the emissions on my car passed the smog test with flying colors. Alas, my Mazda did not have a perfectly clean record.

Interior

The carpeting and upholstery held up very well, and the plastic parts of the dash looked almost as good as new when my Mazda and I parted company about 4-5 months ago. No wobbly AC vents found here! However, the knuckle-guard of the seatbelt (the plastic part that keeps the lap belt from disappearing downward into seatbelt neverland) broke on both the driver's and passenger's side. This was a minor nuisance issue, but with this piece broken, you had to fish out the lap belt. I have read of other reports of knuckle-guard breakage, so it seems like this must be due to poor design.

Exterior

After owning my Mazda for only a few months, the fuel door would no longer open. The remote door release no longer worked, and without that it was stuck! I promptly had this repaired while it was still under warranty, but a few years later, it broke again (out of warranty). My cheap fix was to find an object that would hold the remote lever in the "up" position (I used an empty plastic 35mm film container), and then the fuel door could be easily pushed open. I have read of other reports of this problem, and even if it has been repaired, it is likely to break again, but as long as you can deal with the fix (or pay to get the real repair), it isn't a major issue.

Another problem I had was that the original hubcaps would not stay on! At first, I thought it was something with me - was I a maniacal driver going over dips and potholes as if there were no tomorrow? No, it turns out the Protégé just couldn't hang on to it's hubcaps. I know personally 3 other '92 Protégé owners who shared this annoying problem with me. My hubcap woes ended when I replaced them with a completely different style.

I have heard of some people having problems with the paint, but I only had a few small blemishes in the paint on my Mazda. I consider that to be pretty normal after 8 years of wear, and the spots were either along the edges of the trunk door, or where I know my car was the recipient of lots of bird droppings.

Under the Hood and the Underbelly

Here, the Mazda fared well in some areas and not so well in other areas. I was due for some radiator work on my Mazda, but I suspect my radiator's life was prematurely shortened. On the way home from a long trip, I noticed that the car was starting to overheat. It turns out that a fan belt broke, and without the fan, well, the car will overheat. Fortunately I saw the temperature gauge and stopped before I really did fry my car, but the radiator was never quite the same after that. I think I must have came close to destroying it...

Although my clutch was still working fine, our last mechanic (who seemed reputable), told me that it was starting to go, but it would've most likely worked fine for some time (it certainly wasn't slipping yet). At the end, my Mazda also had developed an oil leak. It was a very small leak (the oil level did not drop noticeably), so this is more of an annoyance issue than a serious mechanical problem.

Fairly early on (around a year or so), my brake light came on. I went to the dealer, and they said I needed new pads & so I replaced them, and I assumed the problem was fixed because the brake light was no longer on. In retrospect, I bet whatever was wrong should've been part of my warranty work. One year is awfully fast to wear out brakes, especially since I don't ride my brakes and am not a high mileage driver. Perhaps the dealer was dishonest, or perhaps not; I've seen online comments from other Protégé owners complaining about brakes. Not being a brake expert myself, it's hard for me to say whether this really is an issue of the Mazda wearing through brakes overly fast, or if this is an issue of dishonest brake mechanics. As a buyer, I'd just be aware that this could be a potential problem/expense.

I replaced the CV boots & shocks at 60,000 and again at around 100,000. From what little I know this is not uncommon (I read that CV boots should last a minimum of 40K). My Mazda struts gave me and my passengers a smooth ride until at least 90,000 miles or so - and then I started to get a little bit of a bounce over bumps. By that point, I knew the Mazda only had a limited time with me, and I elected to skimp on the $800 repair. After I was told I needed new struts, I did a little research online about them, and I probably needed to have them replaced earlier (oops!), but clearly the factory struts on my Mazda held up very well.

Electrical issues & that blasted seatbelt beep

So far, the Mazda has sounded pretty good, huh? So why am I somewhat hesitant in recommending it? Well, perhaps if you're looking at a used '92 model, these problems have already been repaired, but if not, I'd count on some electrical problems. At about 60,000 miles, the radio no longer lit up properly, making it very difficult to see what station you had it on. Not too long after that, the seatbelt light on the dash would remain lit. Then, the real annoyance began. The seatbelt alarm beep would go off intermittently - even though I was securely strapped in and driving. It seemed to be triggered by any slight movement on my part.

Imagine as you drive along, already fighting off road rage because you were just cut off by another driver, hearing beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. I had to emphasize the beeps to try to share how annoying it was, and that's not even a fraction of how insane you'd be hearing that all the time. I am surprised that I was not institutionalized do to my traumatic driving experience.

This beeping is a very common issue. It plagued the other '92 Protégé owners that I knew. When picking out my related links for this epinion, I found a board where some people posted that their Mazda dealer fixed this problem free of charge. That was not the case with me! When my seatbelt started to become a frustration, I was told it was not covered under the seatbelt lifetime warranty, and since it was the electrical system that was fried, it would cost me big bucks. At the time, I was living solely on my graduate student stipend, and the repair cost was prohibitive. Eventually, a nice mechanic disabled the seatbelt motor (he felt sorry for me), which stopped the beeping, but then it made some clicking noises instead, and I had to duck under the seatbelt to get strapped in. At least I didn't have to hear beep beep forever.

I had one other interesting electrical experience with my Mazda. One morning, not too long before I gave it up my Mazda, I woke up at about 3:30 AM to a loud, blaring noise. Cursing my neighbors (who can be a bit noisy and have car alarms going off all the time), I tried to ignore the noise hoping it would go away. As my husband and I became more awake, we realized the sound was awfully close. We got up & realized the horrible noise was coming from our garage! The Mazda was tooting its horn non-stop, and although I had never thought of my Mazda horn as particularly powerful, it was blaring full-force and continuously. Loud, unpleasant noises can make you just as insane as constant beeps, especially at 3:30 AM in the morning. Finally, to shut it up, we disconnected the battery and tried to get a little more sleep. Later, we ended up disconnecting the horn so we could drive it. I don't specifically know what the problem was (we bought a new vehicle a week later), but I suspect it was some more fried wiring.

My Recommendations

I will assume that if you are considering a '92 Mazda Protégé, you need a reliable budget car. If you can be sure that the electrical system is OK, the Mazda may be a decent choice if you can live with some quirks. When you're poor, there's nothing worse than being saddled with a large repair bill after you've just purchased a car, so I'd also carefully inspect (or have a mechanic do this) the car for some of the possible "weaknesses" that I mention, as well as the normal checklist a mechanic might go thru to certify a used car (and don't overlook checking out the struts - they're so expensive!).

Related Links

This Carpoint site gives some details on repairs that I fortunately did not have to deal with:
http://carpoint.msn.com/Vip/UsedSingleYear/Mazda/Protege/1992.asp

The Edmunds site can help you determine appropriate pricing, and there are also some message boards where you can read about Protégé problems:
http://www.edmunds.com/used/1992/mazda/protege/4drdxsedan/overview.html

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Roadiem was a very esteemed member of Epinions, and he wrote many very useful reviews of cars from a certified steering and suspension technician viewpoint. Although I personally did not know him, I respected his reviews. He knew what he was talking about. The Epinions' community will miss him. The proceeds generated from this review will go to his family. Please check out these other members participating in this write-off to help a worthy cause:

bjcuevas, naphtalia, seether166, sherrylee, mattjoe, viper1963, gollygumdrops, noniabidnis, nightshade_01, obnox, hawkseafan, yyvonne, diverpam, t-hall, mtuairau, jennifa, pperky1954, hnnygrlca, rcknrbn3, midoyle, charlenep, lattechick, garfield12, bgoodday, chrisceb, alwaysstubborn, nwinston, hirohito99, sweetcece, theworm, ginahill, jpmcgurk, tiffer0220, juliette, elorraine, imames, pipet, sparkospunky, disartain, linda1527, lisa_j, lgcurcio, kristinafh, tgreenway, pambo, friskycelery, tjarnold, i_culookn, todd, teddiec, darbywalters, wolfman309, emeleel, joubert, technologyrep, gamblinfamily, smithswoodside, daturawest, angelmommy, liberator76, hadassahchana, lark729_89, missy32, blonbabydawn, bryrrose, merlot, ladyvamp, & skygirl


Amount Paid (US$): 10,000
Condition: New
Model Year: 1992
Model and Options: DX Manual