Spawning from the aging Mazda 323 line, Protege has become Mazda's best-selling model line, though the numbers remain small compared with other Japanese models such as the Civic. The old Protege was a stodgy looking sedan. The +95 model, however, looks as if it was sculpted in the wind tunnel. Although it's certainly a lot more handsome than before, it's still sort of generic. The redesigned Protege has the same sort of jelly-bean styling that seems to characterize almost everything coming out of Japan these days. The Protege will look good in your driveway but your neighbors may confuse it with a lot of other Asian automobiles. Of course, that may not be all bad. Some may mistake it for the hot new Mazda Millenia, a significantly more expensive and luxurious automobile. It would take an engineer to see some of the biggest changes in the Protege's new unibody structure. Mazda claims the car has been stiffened a great deal. That means less flexing on rough roads and translates into both better handling and improved isolation. To further reduce passenger compartment noise levels, Mazda has added sandwich sheet metal to areas like the engine compartment fire wall. Side by side, You'll find the new Protege to be noticeably larger than the car it replaces: more than 3 in. longer, to be precise, with extra inches in length, width and wheelbase. Thankfully, the new Protege is also lighter. So we got more kick from the hard-working 1.5-liter engine in the Protege LX we test drove.
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