Even if those numbers don't exactly represent stop-press headlines, they are at least the equal of the best Civic's and clearly superior to any Corolla's. Eventually, it will settle into a 120-mph top speed. After 16.5 seconds, the car is a quarter-mile down the road, traveling 85 mph. Snap the low-effort gear lever through redline upshifts and 60 mph comes and goes in 8.8 seconds. From a standing start, the light clutch engages positively and the tach needle then winds right around to the big numeral "7" with no obvious peaks or valleys in the torque trace. Though a bit clattery on start up, the 1840-cc four pulls the Protegé into motion with smooth, seamless urge. "Light-duty" is definitely not a term to describe Mazda's zesty 125-hp twin-cam engine. They are also covered with a cloth material that feels a little light-duty. And we must also note that the seats, although generally well shaped and correctly padded, have upper bolsters that create pressure points against some torsos. We wish we could read the digital-clock and radio-frequency readouts by feel, however, because broad daylight makes them all but invisible (the sole failures of legibility in the Protegé's otherwise excellent instrument layout). How many wheels have we gripped whose spokes have been hopelessly mislocated, just so we could see switches whose operation we're going to learn by feel almost immediately anyway? Mazda has also done the right thing with steering-wheel spokes and control stalks, allowing the former to hide the latter. The Escort's high windowsills seem unduly constrictive by comparison.īecause we're talking about a modern Japanese car from a major manufacturer, it almost goes without saying that the controls and switches are properly placed and satisfying to operate. Seeing the body contours from the driver's seat also emphasizes an opportunity that the Ford guys apparently missed with the Escort: the Protegé's lower cowl and beltline give it a much lighter, more contemporary feel. The molded plastic is all very good molded plastic, and the instrument panel's lines and shapes, again, recall a 190- or 300-series Mercedes, in the angular hood over round dials and the horizontal band filled with rectangular vent outlets. So does Mazda's plea that the "323" designation-and its econohatch connotations-not be used in connection with the sedan.Ĭlimb into the Protegé and the impression of richness persists: except for a lack of polished-wood highlights (and, once under way, the lightness of the controls), you could almost be sitting in some scaled-down Stuttgarter. Viewed that way, the fact that the Protegé suggests a compact Mercedes (note the C-pillar area, including the back door, side glass, roofline, and fender contour) makes perfect sense. Obviously, Mazda is looking for an expensive-car feel to help distinguish its small sedan from the hordes of fine competitors crowding this market segment-a tactic that gives substance to Mazda's stated intent to move its whole image a bit upmarket, thus staying in touch with the population's baby-boom bubble as it moves into its peak-earning years. A four-inch wheelbase extension (to 98.4) makes it markedly roomier than before and places it in the upper reaches of the class for sheer spaciousness. Its lines are clearly more elegant than the previous 323 sedan's, and the finish is of a higher quality.
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