@cUr@-TL

I'm looking to buy a new winter beater, and i've narrowed my choices down to two cars, Mazda Protege (99-00) and Honda Civic 4dr (98-00), both 5MT.

Can anyone here share her/his experience with one of those cars? What broke down and had to be fixed during the years of ownership, how much did it cost to maintain, how was the overall reliability, etc... basically all i need to know before going out and buying either of those cars...

Im looking for a good winter beater/summer daily driver that wont break down every 1000 miles... i've had enough of that already!

Thanks in advance!

SodaLuvr

Probably Honda...after all both of these cars are MT, so I don't think the transmission will be a problem.

cM3go

Civic for sure, no question

dallison

civic

rezurex

no brainer, civic.

samkws

i would go for civic, but that generation the civic is soo good that the used price is kinda high, compare with the protege they worth shit

civic and corolla are one of the lowest cost car to drive around, good luck finding a cheap used one

Ken1997TL

Proteges are reliable as well.

DownUnder

Funny that people think that the Civic has much better reliability then the Protege. Both the Protege and Civic of the same years have about the same reliability record.

@cUr@-TL

what can you expect from a Honda (acura) message board


but yeah from what i read both cars have similar reliability records... however, the replacement parts for the Honda appear to be cheaper.

M TYPE X

Protege and 626 are decent cars, but nothing exciting or powerful.
Mazda had to move away from them if it wanted to survive.

DownUnder

But at least the Protege was more exciting then the Civic sedan in the same years, it was quicker and handled much better. And it usually beat the Civic in comparison tests.

samkws

01-05 civic is not good, but the 96-00 one is pretty good, esp the Civic Si, good looking and quick with the B16 motor

off the topic, but i just drove the 06 Civic and it's sooo good, it's like 10 times better than the 2005 one

bl^5

I just bought a 00 Civc Sedan MT. 55K miles for $7800. Pretty good deal and I am expecting it will be pretty damn reliable. Most importantly the gas mileage won't have me depressed this summer.

M TYPE X

Before I got my Integra, I test drove a Ford Focus [at family's behest, ugh] and a Mazda Protege. I would have driven a Civic EX, if the deal on the Integra didn't happen quickly.

DownUnder

Yea, but he was looking at the Civic sedan, which is a reliable appliance on wheels. The '99/’00 Civic SI is in a class above the regular Civic sedan. I wish they made an SI sedan too back then it would've helped the Civic sedan’s image.