A great great car!

I bought this car in the fall of 1997 at the age of 17. It was my first car. It's now 2002 and I'm 21 and still have it and I never plan on getting rid of it.

The car had 85,775 miles on it when I bought it. As I am writing this, she has 132,600 miles on her. I have had no problems really at all. Most everything that has happened has been maintenance or something that eventually has to be done to almost every car. Here is a list of what has been done to her.

* Front axle replaced (CV joints went bad, happens in almost all cars)
* Replaced battery at 95,000
* Replaced alternator at 105,000
* Replaced exhaust at 125,000 (short spurts kill an exhaust system because the condensation does not have time to dry out. I made many short 2-3 mile trips from home to work, school, etc.)
* Replaced radiator tanks at 95,000 miles. At 132,000 replaced entire radiator because tanks cracked again)
* Regular maintenance such as timing belt, plugs and wires, fuel filter, air filter, transmission filter, distributor cap


*PROS*
As you can see from the above list, the only real thing that happened bad to her was her radiator. And really, that happens to a lot of cars. She rides very smoothly. I have the LX model so she is loaded and has the 1.8L DOHC engine with 125 HP. That is more than enough for this little car. You can floor her and she will go. She gets excellent mileage. Around 26 in town and about 34 or so on highway. She is just now starting to shift rough and her transmission will probably go out in about 20K. But at 150,000 miles then, I won't mind rebuilding the transmission.

Her exterior is in great shape. She just now has a small rust spot over one of the wheel wells. If you take care of the paint, she will keep shining and shining.


*CONS*
There are some cons to her however. This being a small car, the engine compartment is very cramped. This makes it very hard to work on and replace belts and what not. It can be done, but you will end up with a few scratches on your hands. There also is a problem with the trunk leaking slightly. This can be fixed however by adjusting the lock on the lid and making it close tighter. Her door sills have also cracked, but I am working on replacing those now. Another con is that the oil filter is hard to get to, and the transmission filter is an absolute pain to change. Luckily you don't have to change it like you do oil. Another con of course is that since this is a foreign car, parts can be expensive. But the parts last a long long time.

*CONCLUSION*
To end this, I think this is an excellent car. I would not hesitate to buy another one just like it at all. If you take care of it, she will take care of you as well. I would recommend it to anyone. Also, if you are interested or want more info, check out www.protegeclub.com or www.protegetech.com. They are some great places to talk to other owners about problems and whatnot. They have been a big help to me.