protege 5 and the press

[mp5]

Anyone else notice that in the more main street articles about the "new wave" of small sporty wagons they never include the Protege 5? They always seem to mention the Matrix/Vibe, the WRX, the PT Crusier. the Focus 5 door, and even the Suzuki Aerio but seldom mention the Pro 5 even though in every article I've read with direct comparisions of the different vehicles, the Pro 5 comes out on top. Both the Protege sedan and the Pro 5 won their respective comparisions in Car and Driver but they include the Focus on their last ten best and don't even mention the Protege/Pro 5. I think a large perctage of the population that don't read enthusist mags, don't even know about the Pro 5. I've had my Pro 5 for 17 months, and I havn't even seen 17 different Pro5's on the road. What's up with that?

 

[GNsPR5]

I would rather have a car that few own, than have a car that everybody drives....(rockon)

Never the sheep, always the shepard...

 

[sonkinglo]

but you know what guys?
in toronto
you see 10 p5 when you drive on the road for only 15 mins
when i go to chinese mall..atleast 20 p5 in the parking lot
i got the car for one year now
for the first half year...many people look at me and said wow...p5..nice car..and people stop beside me will take a look..but now people's reaction is like nice p5 but too many on the road...don't feel special anymore :'(

 

[Rogue_Biker]

I just picked up the 2003/2004 Car Buying "Special Issue" from Motor Trend and they just did a comparo of the P5, the Toyota Matrix XRS, and the Subaru WRX Wagon.

The Toyota won in lieu of its handling, roominess, and power-at-high-revs engine. Though they didn't like having to rev the motor so much to get power because below 6k RPM the Matrix XRS isn't fast at all. In fact the test revealed it actually "lacks" power below 6k RPM so most of the time drivers were at 4k to 6k RPM during normal driving.

 

[Todd]

but you know what guys?
in toronto
you see 10 p5 when you drive on the road for only 15 mins
when i go to chinese mall..atleast 20 p5 in the parking lot
i got the car for one year now
for the first half year...many people look at me and said wow...p5..nice car..and people stop beside me will take a look..but now people's reaction is like nice p5 but too many on the road...don't feel special anymore :'(

I hear you. We do have a ton here in Toronto.

But it is true that we dont seem to get the same coverage on these cars in Import Magazines and car shows etc..... Its always some fugly matrix or Vibe or some s*** like that. I still think this car handles better then any of those cars and looks, my god this car is sooooo much better looking.

 

[sundevilMP5]

i'm kind of happy and no so happy about this...first i'm happy that our car doesn't get all the coverage because that means less people know about it and i like being one of the select few p5s on the road...however less attention and coverage means less aftermarket...the only reason that the matrix gets so much attention is because of its engine (i hope it's not because of the design)...if the P5 had more power it would jump way up as far as popularity...

 

[zulu]

When I bought mine over a year ago(!!!), the dealer said he had already sold 8-10( it's been a year and my memory is fading....What was I talking about?? oh yeah.). However I had only seen 1 or 2 around town( lots of out of town sales) and I was THE GUY WITH THE P5. Now the dealer has 15 or 20 on the lot and I pass 3 of them on my way home every sunday( red, blue and silver in that order, every time). When I go to work in the mornings I see the same guy in a black one at the same Timmy's EVERYDAY.One of the guys I work with has one. On my way home from work I pass a red one and every other day a silver one.
There are only 35 000 people in my city and apparently there are 3 500 P5's( this is a wildly inaccurate guestimate). I miss being the coolest kid on the block.

 

[Red Baron]

In Quebec, the Civic used to rule, but the Proteg sedan was 2001's best seller, and you see a lot on the road. I bought my P5 last February and I would see maybe 1 or 2 per day, now it's like 10 to 20. Hope aftermarket guys noticed this. I WANT PERFORATED DISCS!

 

[Humvee]

I remember this conversation with my wife

"but honey, the civic is just WAY to popular, Let's get the P5 instead"....and now, within 3 blocks of my house I've seen 1/2 dozen P5s.

and guess what...that piece of the conversation gets thrown in my face every time we see one....but know what...I don't care cause I got my P5

 

[mp5]

I live in an area with an immediate population of about 100,000 and a sprawling population of about 350,000 with 8 different colleges and universities within 20 miles of each other and I might only see 2 different Pro 5's a month. They are so rare that even my wife gets excited when sees another one on the road and she could give a s*** about cars. I see matrix/vibe's and aerio's daily, wrx's a couple times a week and there are so many foci (plural for focus??) and pt crusiers, its like ants at a picnic. Maybe I just live in an area with really poor tastes in cars.

 

[20ESGUY]

Here the p5 sells so few that the dealer i bought my ES from doesn't even stock them now...they had five or six when they first came out and just sold the last one from the orginial group about 3 months ago. I see one every once in a blue mooon, even the sedan is few and far between, which is kind of nice in a way.

 

[Rogue_Biker]

I live in a city located in Southern California with about 75,000 people. There's also a Mazda dealer nearby and I always pass by and they have 1 or 2 P5's sitting on their front lot. They always change colors so my guess is they sell them easily. However, I've only seen two P5's on a regular basis, a Blue one and a Red one. The red one recently got aftermarket wheels. But that's it so far. I'm glad too because everywhere I go the P5 get's envious looks and stares. Everyone thinks I fixed it up and I have to explain to them that that's how it came from Mazda. Most of the people here drive Honda's, BMW's, Nissan's Fords & Lexus! The most common has to be the BMW 325i!

 

[Antoine]

If I see another 3-series BMW in So Cal I will (puke)

 

[GNsPR5]

Here in South Florida I see a handful and my drive to work only produces maybe 3 P5's. I love my car and I honestly think the other P5er's feel the same way. I have seen the Red P5 on the drive to work go from stock to a lowered kit, new rims, tint and a change in lights. I'm staying stock on the car and added Tint so i do not burst into flames when I get in the car in the day time (no, I am NOT a vampire!!!)

 

[Phoenix5]

Good point mp5,where I live Civics run rampant especially EX's.In late August when I got a 2000 Civic EX coupe,the guy at the dealership strongly recommmended a high tech alarm system for it since Civics are the #1 stolen car(I know...duh!!).But we eventually found out that the car was probably in an accident since it didn't have any blueprints of the engine on the bottom of the hood,it made a clicking noise whenever i made a right turn AND the steering wheel felt really heavy almost like I didn't have power steering but I did have pwer steering,so after stressing about it for two weeks,I just decided to get my Classis Red Protege5

So I agree w/ GN,I would rather drive a car that I won't have to worry about getting stolen and use my $$$ for mods than a car that I have to waste my $$$ keeping in possesion.