[Aka]

So I think I've decided on a car.

2001 Mazda Protege ES GT

It's more than I started out trying to spend, but I started to look at things differently today. I started to look for the lightest car I could buy, that was usable, ie not a Suzuki Swift, and that's sorta what I came up with. The Civic is less weight IIRC, but I don't want one.

As far as I have been informed, it's the same motor in the Mazda Protege ES GT as the Focus, if it's not, it has surprisingly the same stats.

The insurance is a bit more than I expected, but then every car I looked at, save a 1990 Corolla (it was $2200/yr), was $3000/yr.

So yeah, as far as I could look up the Protege weighs some 2400 lbs, which is fairly light, produces the same hp as the focus, so should be a bit zippier (than the ZX5 I was driving), and the insurance is a lot less than if I were to own a ZX3.

I really wanted to buy the 1990 Toyota Supra Turbo I kept looking at, but the more i looked at it the more it looked like a bad idea. Good for a second car, but not for your only car. So today I thought, how about getting a car with the same power to weight ratio as that. The Supra works out to 15.5:1, the Protege is like 18.5:1. I figure I need to get 155-160 hp, somewhere around there to have a similar ratio. And since the Protege is tons lighter, like 1200 lbs lighter, it'd handle better.

Have I got the idea right here? does this sound like a good idea?

The two people I've asked so far think it's a much better idea than that Supra. My Dad thinks it's good because its' newer and reliable. My friend thinks it's good cuz he owns a Protege5, but perhaps he's biased ;).


I think that's that.