Mazda Protege — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 2,058 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Air bags (restraint system)318 (15.5%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 1995.
• Powertrain (transmission & drivetrain)290 (14.1%)
• Engine188 (9.1%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 1995.
• Brakes166 (8.1%)Official recall records for this system: 2, covering model years 2000–2001.
• Seat belts160 (7.8%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 1995.
• Tires & wheels120 (5.8%)

Other / uncategorized: 44 classifications (2.1%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (1,610 records, model years 1995–2003) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), powertrain (transmission & drivetrain) and engine.
• Manufacturer communications (936 records, model years 1995–2003) are most frequently classified under: equipment & accessories, electrical system and powertrain (transmission & drivetrain).

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 546reports included a mileage
• 68,243average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 1995 231 records for 1995 231
2. 1996 120 records for 1996 120
3. 1997 151 records for 1997 151
4. 1998 128 records for 1998 128
5. 1999 188 records for 1999 188
6. 2000 203 records for 2000 203
7. 2001 154 records for 2001 154
8. 2002 201 records for 2002 201
9. 2003 220 records for 2003 220

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 324mention a crash
• 32mention a fire
• 336mention an injury
• 4mention a fatality

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 41
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 936
• Investigations NHTSA 4
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 16
• Owner complaints NHTSA 1,610

Explore the underlying evidence records

Diagnostic codes found in evidence for this vehicle

These codes appear by explicit identifier in official records matched to this exact model and year.

• P0402 in 6 records · 1999–2001
• P0171 in 2 records · 2003–2003
• P0400 in 2 records · 1995–1996

A code appearing in a record means the code was named in that document. It is not a diagnosis of this vehicle, not a fault this vehicle has, and not an indication of urgency. Diagnosis requires reading live data from the vehicle.