The Hatchback’s Comeback
Take a Mazda Protege, the Japanese auto maker’s highly rated though somewhat bland entry-level sedan, square off the back end, add a few road-racer trim pieces, and wow!
That’s the well-deserved reaction the Protege5 gets--in parking lots, at stop signs and motoring down the road.
With the Protege’s 2.0-liter, 130-horsepower four-banger under the hood, the P5 won’t win many drag races, but it will outpoint a lot of competitors in a style contest. And at an estimated 25 miles per gallon in city driving and 31 mpg on the highway (30 with the optional automatic transmission), it won’t break you at the gas pump.
Part of the new class of sport wagon-hatchbacks, the P5 can go either way: Mazda originally was going to call it a five-door, then changed to sport wagon, then went back to the five-door designation after consumers in focus groups kept saying they didn’t see it as a wagon.
That’s because the back end, or cargo hold, is but a brief version of the long, long tails some of us still recall from those road-hogging cabin cruisers our parents piled us, our siblings and a few thousand pounds of camping gear into for our annual summer trips to the woods.
No Roadmaster, this. The P5 actually is 4.8 inches shorter than the sedan whose DNA it shares. (Sedan review, Highway 1, Jan. 10.) But it still hauls five people, and it is 2.5 inches taller, offering slightly more headroom and a lot more cargo space than its sedan sibling.
The extra height and the squared-off back end and tailgate add about 60 pounds. That argues for Mazda to please, please, provide a beefier engine for buyers--and we’ll bet there are a lot out there--who want the thing to go as fast as it looks.
This isn’t a road rocket or a sports car, but with the Protege’s nicely tuned suspension it does handle curvy roads with grace, if not with heart-pounding speed, and it won’t shake your fillings loose on 40 miles of bad road.
It doesn’t do badly in the price department, either.
The 2002 Protege5 comes in one trim level, with a base price of $16,335. When fully loaded, it barely breaks the $18,000 mark.
Standard features include dual front air bags, five-speed manual transmission, air conditioning, AM-FM stereo with CD player, power steering, power windows and door locks, cruise control, luggage rack, remote entry, carbon-fiber interior accents, white-faced gauges, rear spoiler, front and rear air dams, side skirts, a unique grille and front fascia, and 16-inch tires and alloy wheels.
Options include side air bags, anti-lock braking, four-speed automatic transmission and sunroof.
