i was cruising around in a 1993 toyota tercel and getting close to graduating college. i was thinking about getting a new car, sort of to spoil ones self, and had been dead set on a Toyota. i have always been a celica fan and took a trip over to the toyota dealer to check one out as well as get some work done on the tercel. in the service drive was this shiny silver celica GTS fully loaded and mildly modified. i knew that was the car for me.
until the 80+ year old owner climbed in and drove away. call me fickle, but the experience just ruined it a little for me.
i put the celica on the backburner and then turned to the Matrix/Vibe GT concept (which for the time was a brand new car). while i was visiting home, i read an article just gushing with praise for the Vibe GT. i figured, hell, six speeds, the celica engine, plenty of space = can't go wrong. everything on my test drive did go wrong. the car just felt wrong in every respect. the engine felt like s*** until just shy of redline. it didn't help the salesman treated me like a third grader and smoked in the car while i was driving. i was told by GM that i would have to come back and buy a Sunfire with mommy and daddy's permission when the time was right.
i drove down to VW and test drove a GTI. i just don't see what the hard-on is for those cars, really. or for a VW at all. pieces of the interior came off in my hands as i drove it. not acceptable for a new car.
i went home at that point feeling pretty dejected overall and my dad gave me brochure on a car called a "protege5". i thumbed through it and told him the car was ugly and weird. he promptly reminded me i had looked at a Vibe and a Matrix. point taken.
on my way back to school i drove by the same dealership on the same road that i had done so hundreds of times before. only this time, something caught my eye. there was this bright yellow hatch back that just looked awesome. my girlfriend and i drove into the lot to check it out. i was in love, in heaven even. then i saw the badge - whats that say? this is a protege5? the brochure just did not do the little car any amount of justice. i knew i had to drive it, so i came back the following day when the dealer was open.
that night i poured over the internet looking for anything i could find on mazda proteges and stumbled across this forum, signed up. would i say that what i read here led me to buy one? perhaps. i went back to the dealer and tracked down a sales man who was eager to sell the car. we hopped in, turned the key - and nothing happened. the battery was dead, and the car had 2 miles on it! in short order we got the car jumped and proceeded to take a very vigorous test drive. by the time i got back, the odometer had 50 miles on it.
the sales man asked me if i wanted it and chuckled as he did so, knowing the answer. i was not even 21 at that point but smiled and told him what i wanted; college grad discount, no co-signers, a price way under sticker, a short list of accessories, no payments or interest for six months, yadda yadda yadda. i was ready to compromise mind you, but he was not - he gave me everything i wanted and a little more.
i sold the tercel to my girlfriend, turned right around and used it as a down payment for the protege5. i told myself the car was fast enough and that i'd never modify it.
four years later, that girlfriend is gone, she wrecked the tercel, i am a royal postwhore and in the midst of swapping the head on my protege that seems to have been through a long list of modifications. thats my story and i am sticking to it.
