Introduction: The Mazda Protégé is a new name given to one of Mazda's oldest line of small cars. In Japan these cars have always been called the Familia and the Protégé being reviewed is the 9th generation of this vehicle. The Familia dates all the way back to 1964 making it technically an older name than the commonly known Toyota Corolla. For North America Mazda introduced the Familia as the 1200(2nd generation), the 3rd gen was called the Mizer and the 4th gen was called the GLC. It was from the 4th gen that the 323 name was given and most Mazda Familia's would use the 323 name others changing to Protégé name like the US did. The early cars were RWD, while the 5th generation cars from 1980 and beyond were FWD. The name Protégé was used mostly in advertising to promote the car's more sporty driving experience to Mazda's more famous MX-5/Miata. Eventually Mazda replaced the Familia line with the new Mazda 3/Axela in 2004 which had significantly better success finally putting the Mazda name as a top seller in some countries.
Now as I mentioned this was my driver's ed car. I really didn't know a whole lot about cars back then and therefore didn't really take much notice of the Protégé. I did know about Mazda's aggressive zoom zoom advertisements though. So in my mind, was this car really worth saying zoom zoom?
Performance: When driving this car I was thinking zoom zoom was about power, I was kind of disappointed with the Protégé in that respect. In hindsight its actually not so bad now that I've driven much slower cars. That said, the engine in question is a 2.0L 4-cylinder engine that produces 130 hp and 135 lb.ft of torque, this is actually good numbers back then. The acceleration numbers from 0-100 km/h is about 9.4 seconds, as a result it doesn't seem nearly that quick and part of why I thought it was slow. If that's a bit of a downer, on the positive side I heard the manual was much quicker than the automatic.
My Score: 6/10 - Not very zoom zoom with an automatic, getting a manual is much preferred.
Handling: This was the surprise of this car, clearly billing the Protégé as the Miata's student was not false advertising after all. This car was always pretty sharp and took corners pretty well, due to not having access to a Protégé anymore...I'm not sure how to compare it with 2 generations of Mazda3 which I have driven recently and have very favourable views of. Despite that, I still remember that there was that charm which made me enjoy both versions of the 3 and that without this car they might not have that feel that makes these seemingly normal cars that bit more special.
My Score: 10/10 - Its clear Mazda recognized their future to winning small car buyers was in handling, this is the Protégé's best point.
Interior: The Protégé had a pretty generic interior not only for its time but even now. The interior definitely took a bit of a back seat compared to the development of how the car would drive meaning its got everything you expect a normal car would have and everything a normal car wouldn't have. There wasn't much styling put into the interior. Build quality did not suffer fortunately and these cars were made in both Hiroshima and Hofu plants in Japan.
My Score: 6/10 - Generic interior, built well though
Styling: Much of Mazda's lineup back in the 90s were really generic looking. Their most interesting looking vehicles were only from the MX line like the MX-3, the MX-5 and the MX-6. The Japanese got the treat of having the 323F body style which had pop-up headlights. The rest of the cars however were pretty dull and typical of Japanese cars back then. The early Protégé started out this way, since I'm reviewing the face-lifted version they struck a chord. With cleaver mild changes the later Protégés actually looked very good while still retaining a pretty generic demeanor. This clearly set Mazda to its styling objectives after the Protégé with the new 3 and the 6 using styling cues from earlier models but modernizing them.
My Score: 8/10 - Very modern touches turns a boring looking car into something nice without putting a lot of attention towards it.
Value for money: The Protégé was never a tremendous sales success but it showed Mazda that it was on the right track. The inclusion of the Protégé5 meant it was the only car in the class back then offering a hatchback model. The Corolla Wagon no longer existed and the Civic hatchbacks were offered only for Europe. The poor name recognition also meant you could get a good deal on these cars for much less than other Japanese cars. The Protégé also existed in a time when Korean cars were terrible meaning it was a great choice. Even today, not too many Protégés experience much issues except some rust problems.
My Score: 10/10 - It was better than what Korea offered, cheaper than what anybody else offered and it was the only choice if you wanted a good hatchback.
Overall: 40/50 - A very good car that paved the way for Mazda's success.
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