Mazda Protege owners have reported a total of 766 problems for their cars built in the 8 model years listed in the chart below. The chart shows the number of problems reported across all service years for each given model year of the Mazda Protege. The 2000 Mazda Protege cars have the most problems reported (125 problems).
| Model Year | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| 2003 Protege | |
| 2002 Protege | |
| 2001 Protege | |
| 2000 Protege | |
| 1999 Protege | |
| 1998 Protege | |
| 1997 Protege | |
| 1996 Protege |
The following chart shows the 24 most common problems for Mazda Protege cars. The number one most common problem is related to the vehicle's power train (123 problems). The second most common problem is related to the vehicle's air bags (118 problems).
It would not be fair to compare the Mazda Protege of an older model year to newer model years since older vehicles have been in service longer and thus are expected to have more problems. In order to compare the reliability across Protege model years, we use the PPMY index which is defined as the problems reported per thousand vehicles per Year. A smaller PPMY index indicates greater reliability of the given model year cars.
PPMY = P / S / Y * 1000,
where P = total problems reported during the life of a Mazda Protege model year; S = total units sold of the model year; Y = years since the debut of the model year (the age of the vehicle).
The results are shown in Table 3.
Another way to measure the reliability across the model years of the Mazda Protege is to use the total number of problems reported during the vehicle's first year in service, as shown in the Table 4.
| Model Year | Problems Reported |
|---|---|
| 2003 Protege | |
| 2002 Protege | |
| 2001 Protege | |
| 2000 Protege | |
| 1999 Protege | |
| 1998 Protege | |
| 1997 Protege | |
| 1996 Protege |
| ✿ Fuel Economy of Protege Vehicles |
| ☘ Protege Service Bulletins |
| ⚑ Protege Safety Recalls |
| ☤ Protege Defect Investigations |
| Compare Reliability: |