Used 2002 Mazda Protege Consumer Reviews
Used Protege for sale
Fantastic Little Car
Landric, 04/25/2010
2002 Mazda Protege ES 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl 5M)
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
I bought my 02 Protege ES new. It was a fantastic car, fun to drive, excellent handling, good performance, comfortable, decent gas mileage, great safety features, and completely reliable. I had the dealer find me an ES that had the ABS/Side Airbags/Power Sunroof package. Gas mileage on the highway hovered around 32 mpg, low 20's in city driving. The transmission shifted smoothly and easily, the engine reved up quickly and offered decent power. The real treat with this car is the handling, its fantastic, and especially nice with the sleeper looks. Its feels a lot faster and sportier than it is. I replaced the front brakes at 70k, 2 sets of tires, and oil changes. No problems in 115K.
Reviewing the Protege
MackDadam, 06/04/2003
2002 Mazda Protege ES 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl 5M)
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
I love to drive it, looks great and feels great. Interior looks quality made, no cheap plastic here. But it lacks power, needs more than 130 hp but it still gets me places. If having to choose between reliability and speed I would choose reliability and that is why I chose the protege. Never gives me a problem (knock on wood...hope not) and people are attracted to it, saying they did not know mazda made a car like that. Overall, great car, needs boost though.
Great small car for short trips around town
W. Graham, 03/06/2017
2002 Mazda Protege ES 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl 5M)
8 of 9 people found this review helpful
I inherited this car as it was my mothers. When she passed (2008) it had a whopping 14,000 on the car. She literally only drove it to store and church. I am not joking. In 2008 the car was still like new and the paint clear coat was coming off. The paint is crap. The seats are fairly nice except they are not comfortable on trips. My husband is 6'2 and he has trouble with sufficient room driving it on trips. The fuel economy is excellent. When I worked and drove 22 miles a day to a job the car would run on a tank of gas for two weeks. It's a wonderful car if you are not around 6' tall. I still have the car today and the clear coat is almost gone. Mazda didn't do too good on the paint with this one. One last thing is the car has terrible road noise. If you are in the rear seat you can't hear anyone speaking to you from the front
- Safety
- Technology
- Performance
- Interior
- Comfort
- Reliability
- Value
Great Car!
Annie, 02/17/2010
2002 Mazda Protege LX 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl 5M)
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
I bought this car used with 25,000 miles on it and it now has 125,000 miles after 6 years. I have NEVER had a major mechanical issue with it (other than the AC about 6 months ago). It's the greatest car and i would recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap, fun, reliable car.
Fun car - needs more power
Dan Charlebois, 01/21/2004
2002 Mazda Protege ES 4dr Sedan (2.0L 4cyl 5M)
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
I bought my 2002 Protoge in October of 2002 and it now has 11500 miles on it. The handling of the car is more than I could have expected. The car has very precise steering (perhaps a bit of oversteer) and the suspension is tighter than most in its class. This makes cornering quite fun, especially with the 195/50 R16 Dunlap tires. Living in Syracuse I had to buy a set of Blizzak's to get anywhere. The Dunlap's were useless in snow. If I had a problem with the car it would be that it lacks power. The engine doesn't get into its power band until around 4000 rpm. I highly recommend the 5 speed to get full enjoyment of the engine.