Articles > Newspapers > U.S. Newspapers, Major Markets > The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI) news wires > February 1997

Article: It's bland, and it's homely, but the Protege has a bit of zip Economy car seems designed to be boring, but looks can deceive

Article from:
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, WI)
Article date:
February 25, 1997
Author:
Copyright

The 1997 Mazda Protege ES is motorized tofu. It's bland, but excellent in satisfying basic needs. And depending on your imagination, it can be turned into anything, just as tofu can be rendered into a reasonable facsimile of chocolate ice cream.

Wave a mental wand. Voila! Your Protege econocar is now a racer. Zip, zip, varrrooommm!

Well, not exactly "varrrooommm." Not even with its upgraded, 16-valve, 1.8-liter, four-cylinder engine can the Protege make a noise close to "varrrooommm." At higher rotations per minute, the engine sounds like a laser printer gone loco sort of a wheeezzzah, wheeezzzah. That's OK, because the Protege moves nimbly through traffic, especially in urban areas, ...

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