Good little car, just stay away from hills

We needed a new car. Simple as that. My husband works nights and I stay at home with the kids and in case of an emergency we needed another vehicle. We searched the internet for every car rating you can possibly think of, and few did better than the Mazda, particularly in terms of reliability and safety.

We bought our 1996 Mazda Protege last year. It's metallic blue with brown stripes down the sides, four door and, unfortunately, an automatic. We paid for it outright, no financing, and got a remarkably good deal on it. The car had about 30,000 miles on it when we bought it and we got it for around $8500. We were quite pleased with ourselves and drove her home off the lot.

Now, we have driven that car to death since we bought it. It's still running quite nicely, and while it's not a luxury car or big in any way, it suits a family of four very well. The back doors have child locks to prevent the kids from just opening the car doors and window locks to keep them from opening and closing the windows constantly. The back windows only roll down so far, apparently to keep the kids from climbing out the windows. The standard safety features on the Protege are very good for the price. We have all the child locks, plus dual side airbags.

The inside of the car is fairly roomy, the back seat can fit three people comfortably, providing they're not extremely large. I can generally fit my 7-year old, my 3-year old plus her car seat and one adult in the back seat with no trouble. The Protege is a small car, so if you are six foot five, maybe this isn't the car for you. There's probably not going to be much head room for really tall people but the leg room up front isn't too bad. The trunk is absolutely huge for so small a car, and one side of the back seat folds down to allow for long packages you may need to carry.

We've been hit twice in our Protege. Neither time was our fault, but the car held up very nicely. No real damage, other than the paint being slightly scraped. The driver's side door that was hit just popped back out into place, and when you look at the vehicle, you can't really tell it was hit unless you look exceptionally close. Apparently, the Protege is equipped with steel reinforcement beams inside the doors. In short, it appears a little more durable than most cars of the same size.

The gas mileage with the Protege is pretty good, we are able to go a week, sometimes more, on a full tank of gas. And, as I said, we drive all over the place. The car handles well, and the brake system will stop on a dime if need be. The only problem it seems to have is that it doesn't like hills much. Hills cause the car to labor mightily, so I would advise going relatively slow.

The only feature I don't particularly care for is the overdrive button on the side of the gear shift. You have to turn it on when you start the car and turn it back off when going on the highway. I think it would be easier if the thing came on when you started the car, if that's the mode it's supposed to be in. I sometimes forget and I wonder if it plays havoc with the transmission.

In all honesty, for the money, it's not likely you'll find as good a car as the Mazda Protege. It's got an impeccable rating insofar as it's incredibly reliable (I know I haven't found a time when it wouldn't start), fairly loaded with safety features and for a small car, the Protege is very comfortable. The added feature of a stereo/cassette player is also very nice. I love my Mazda, and I treat her good. She gets regular oil changes every 3,000 miles and all her fluids checked weekly. If you treat a Protege right, you can't ask for a better vehicle.