how did you get your p5

[hyperboarder]

To prelude this, my high school chem teacher had one, an 02 right when they came out, and he loved it. He put about 3k into the stereo, and was definitely one of the first guys to mod a P5, especially in Idaho. I always liked it, and it sort of stuck in my head.

Now, fast forward, I started looking last summer, needed a car for college. I found a 99 A4 in good condition for 10k, but it needed a clutch, and that's 1600 bucks I didn't have. Then I was about a grand short of a Wolfsburg Jetta. Then I drove an ES, but it was priced real high. These were all private party, I didn't want to deal with a dealer.

On a whim, I stopped at a dealership to look at a Lancer, and the P5 was hiding in the back of a row. It had a nice dent in the hood and a messed up bumper, but after talking with the dealer, they agreed to fix it all before selling it. 48k on the ticker, 02.5, other than the body work, nice condition, plus I liked the leather. And the price in the window was 8995, which was hard to believe. After a thorough look through, carfax, all that, I was convinced, and I bought it. A day later, after realizing he'd have to order a new hood instead of trying to fix the old one, the dealer tried to buy it back from me, but I held strong, waited 2 weeks for the body work, and rolled it off the lot almost exactly a year ago.

Now, about 8k worth of upgrades later, I couldn't be happier, no problems, just a great car.

 

[MyZmZm]

Wow, talk about some great stories. I hope I'm not too long-winded

I had been driving a Saturn SL2 for about a year and a half, and while I did like the car, I was getting the itch for something newer, better looking, etc. Plus, my saturn had nearly 400K km on it (bought it from the original owner with 360K km; he was a sales rep and it was a company car with 90% highway km) and I knew the big things would start happening soon and I didn't want to be there when they did.

Started shopping around, comparing various cars. I knew I wanted a new car with a warranty. I loved the WRX, but it was way out of my price range, so I looked at a new Saturn, the PT, Vibe, Matrix, and Protege5. Honda was out due to the higher prices and the fact that they are like locusts, simply everywhere and unavoidable. Ford was out of the running immediately as I hated the Focus, they never should have gotten rid of the Escort (yes, I'm biased; we had a '86 diesel escort, great car). But I digress.

The local auto show was coming up in a couple weeks, so it was the perfect opportunity to compare - essentially side by side - all the vehicles I was interested in. Took my time, sitting in them, getting info from the dealers, comparing pricing, etc. While I liked the styling of the Vibe and Matrix, I was almost immediately turned off the cars when I opened the hatch door. WTF? A plastic floor???? That just cheapened the whole car for me, plus the pricing with what I really wanted for options nearly set me choking. Moved on to the Saturn (what can I say, I liked mine) and liked it; pricing seemed to be decent as well. Moved on to the Cruiser... Same deal as the Matrix and Vibe. Way too much money for what I wanted. Another turnoff for the Vibe, Matrix and Cruiser was that they were all brand-new vehicles, and as everyone knows every new model has it's share of issues, minor and major. Strolled past the WRB WRX wagon, drooling... And came to the Mazda section.

I'd seen a few Protege5's around town, but hadn't really looked into them all that much and knew next to nothing about them. I did like the fact that it was essentially a variation in body styling for the Protege that had been around for years (read, reliability and no 'new-car' potential problems), and I really liked the way they looked. Sat in the car... hmmm, this is comfy. Good view out all windows, the shifter is where it's supposed to be and not halfway up the dash, good room in the car, it has a carpeted hatch and the floor of the hatch is actually a couple inches lower than the bumper - perfect for the extra room that would occasionally be required. Got info from the salesman on the car - wow, this car has a LOT of stuff included that is normally an option, and the price is pretty good. Went the next day to one of the local dealers and took the car for a spin. And like everyone else, I fell in love with it. The look, the feel, the handling, the feedback while driving, a perfect driver's car yet practical.

Sold my saturn that week to a co-worker for what I paid for it 1.5 yrs earlier (yay!) and signed the paperwork on my brand new Mid-Blue Auto (yes, you read that right) P5 with a/c and moonroof (for those that aren't aware, abs and cruise were standard in Canada). Loved the car... until I started getting some unusual sounds from the tranny a few months later, but only at highway speeds. Very intermittent and quiet at first, but steadily got louder and louder and more annoying. About 15 months later, the dealer went to bat for me and replaced the entire tranny (the source of the problem they said).... Which did squat. Sick and tired of the problem, but loving the car, I regretfully looked into selling/trading it and getting something older and cheaper for the time being. Ended up going to the dealer I got the car from to check on possible trade-in prices, and the sales mgr mentioned that he'd just taken exactly my car in as a lease-back - but a 5spd - and going home that evening I could not get that out of my head. I'd always been sorry I hadn't gotten a 5spd. So I went back a couple days later to find out more on that car, and ended up trading straight across with no money changing hands.

My new mid-blue P5 had about 15K km more than my auto, and as part of the deal they swapped over the few minor mods I'd done to my car already - 03 headlights (ie, black housing - traded with a local guy with an '03 laser blue that wanted the chrome ), AEM SRI, and a couple other minor items. The only thing that couldn't be swapped was my starter/alarm as it worked on autotragics only. No matter. I still had my car, I had a 5spd now, and best of all NO tranny issues.

nearly 60K km later, been lovin' my baby ever since, with the modding bug fully infecting my system. I don't plan on ever getting rid of her; in fact, I'm looking for a winter car (yes, a Mazda) so that I can keep her looking good as long as possible and keep the miles down.

And as the good Captain said, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Zoom-Zoom for life (drive2)

 

[trick_19]

Well I had been searching everywhere for a first car, something in my price range, good on gas, reliable and sporty. So anyways after a couple months of finding nothing that really caught my eye (and a few uppings of my price range) I decided to drop by the local mazda dealer one day just to look around. A bright yellow protege 5 caught my eye so I took it for a test drive. Needless to say it was awesome and I bought it that day.

Not to exciting... but whatever.

 

[Worbit]

well, it started with me when i was driving my 2003 chevy s10. I had dropped the truck, put an intake on it, custome 18' rims, the works. Then i got promoted to store manager at a location that was about 30 minutes away from my house. The truck had a 4.6L V6 in it and sucked gas like there was no tomorrow. I was dumping nearly $120 every week just in gas. After about 6 months of doing that i finally say "no, no more" and started shopping around. I really wanted the new mazda3 hatchbacks, but i couldnt get one due to being too upside down on the truck. (i owed like $13,600+ and it was worth about $10,500) So i gave up and waited for my tax return.....got it, and started looking again. I gave up on the mazda3s again since i couldnt find one in my price range. While i was at a local dealer, they tried to get me into a pro5 and i wasnt feeling it since it was auto. I ended up giving up for about a week or two more until i saw a local "mom and pop" dealer that had a pro5 sitting out front. I said "why the hell not" and stopped in on my day off and took it for a test drive. I fell in love with her instantly. The get-up-and-go was nice, something i felt i was lacking with the chevy. I loved the fact that it had a sunroof (one of the selling points for me lol). After about 15 minutes of driving on some back roads, i went back to the dealer and said ill take it. Within two hours i signed the paper work and drove off the lot with my 2002 midnight blue pro5. Ever since then ive been really happy and ive spend about $40 a week in gas......

 

[altspace]

I stole mine...








from the dealer. Great price.

 

[CTt3P5]

I stole mine...








from the dealer. Great price.

Damn good price. Why didn't you buy 2?! (peep)

 

[mzdp5fan]

I already have a thread about my car, but I had fun reading this one so I thought I'd just contribute. I originally had (still have for the time being) a 94 Lexus SC300. I've pretty much been looking for a manual ever since I got my license, and after getting a full time job that didn't require driving, I figure the time had come to do the switch.

Originally, I really wanted the Mazda 3. I had a seen a lot on the road, and the car really grew on me. I checked out the forums, and checked out a few dealerships. Financially, it didn't make sense to put myself into debt straight out of college so I decided to look for a slightly older car to pay in cash. Then, two weekends ago, a dealer who had been following up with me told me they had a P5 in stock and asked if I'd liked to see it. I did the research and instantly liked the car on paper (wasn't sure about the 130 hp compared to the SC's 225 but I figured the gas mileage would be nice).

I found a P5 that was in manual, black and relatively close by on autotrader and went to the dealer. There were no service records but the car looked and drove great. I didn't buy that day, but they called the next day and made a better offer along with an agreement to do some maintenance on the car, and I took it.

I've had the car less than a week so far, but everything's been great. It's considerably louder than the Lexus, but it's very nimble. The steering, both the actual steering wheel and the steering feel, is absolutely awesome. The lexus may have the automatic tilt/telescoping steering wheel, which is pretty nice, but it doesn't beat a car in handling that's about 800 lbs lighter than it.

 

[Shinsen774]

I was looking at a Miata for my daughter, then 15, at the Mazda dealer. Told the salesman I really would rather get her a P-5 but didn't think I could afford it. He had one on the lot, a trade in that he had sold new, had a few cosmetic flaws, but he made the price work for me. Always thought I got a super deal now more than 2 years later.

 

[bucksatan]

My 1995 altima was wearing out, I'd had it for 2 years, my mom had it for the 9 before that. The altima needed a break job and the check engine light would come on from time to time, no error codes were logged though. I would do the check engine thing with a screwdriver every week or 2 to clear the codes (ahh, 1995, before you needed a code reader). I narrowed my choice to a p5 or a matrix. Went with the p5 because you can actually find them with ABS and I like the way it drove better. Been loving he car since.

 

[gus5]

I bought mine about a month ago at a Nissan Dealer. It's a 2003.5, black with black leather, auto, polished wheels, moonroof and had 33,000 miles when I bought. I had a 92 Accord DX with 230,000 miles on it. It was leaking oil, needed a new clutch and was soon to need a new timing belt. I had just gotten a new job and was about to start commuting to Dallas, so I thought it was a good time to upgrade. I either wanted a P5 or a WRX. I didn't feel like paying for the higher octane gas and thought the P5 looked nicer. I also wanted an automatic for the commute. I also didn't really want to get involved with a used turboed car that who knew what kind of a beating it had endured. Anyway, saw this one listed on Autotrader at the Nissan dealer. I went to look at it with no real intention to buy it. I loved it and got them to sell it to me for what I could afford.

I love my P5. The way it drives makes up for only having 130 HP.

 

[GreyMan]

I bought mine about a month ago at a Nissan Dealer. It's a 2003.5, black with black leather, auto, polished wheels, moonroof and had 33,000 miles when I bought. I had a 92 Accord DX with 230,000 miles on it. It was leaking oil, needed a new clutch and was soon to need a new timing belt. I had just gotten a new job and was about to start commuting to Dallas, so I thought it was a good time to upgrade. I either wanted a P5 or a WRX. I didn't feel like paying for the higher octane gas and thought the P5 looked nicer. I also wanted an automatic for the commute. I also didn't really want to get involved with a used turboed car that who knew what kind of a beating it had endured. Anyway, saw this one listed on Autotrader at the Nissan dealer. I went to look at it with no real intention to buy it. I loved it and got them to sell it to me for what I could afford.

I love my P5. The way it drives makes up for only having 130 HP.

werd(first)

 

[iLisa]

I went looking at Mazda Tributes.. salesguy wanted to "show me the p5".. I test drove and loved it! funny thing is that I didn't buy the one that I test drove.. it was red and leather.. and I bought from a different dealer..

 

[smo0f]

Totaled my MX-3, needed something brand new, inexpensive, and functional... I work for Mazduh so (shrug) thats how it happened..

traitor

 

[evilmonkeyMSP]

Needed a second car for the work commute & to hault the extreme mileage I was putting on my MSP way to quick.

 

[smo0f]

huh? how? my mx was a mazda.. I stayed in teh family...

you work for the enemy

 

[pappaf2]

I was driving through the Target parking lot and saw it. My girlfriend pointed it out and said, " I like that car." I mentioned how I had always liked those cars and the color. She agreed. We did our shopping at target came out and drove past it again. I decided to turn around and check it out, price, condition, etc. I took the number down, the next day I test drove it and was hooked. Now I have a lazer blue MP5.