Subcompact buyers sometimes say they want a cheap car, but what most of them really want is a smooth ride quality and responsive handling.The Protege rides as smoothly as many top-notch midsize sedans. It's extremely stable at speeds over 75 mph, a benefit of its stiff chassis. It also offers sporty handling, making it a lot of fun to drive. The steering is precise and transient response is crisp, a benefit in lane-change maneuvers or on winding backroads. In this regard, the Protege compares very favorably to the Civic, Corolla and Sentra. These are benefits of the rigid chassis, 4-wheel independent suspension and rack-and-pinion power-assisted steering. The front suspension uses MacPherson struts with an anti-roll bar. The rear suspension employs Mazda's twin-trapezoidal link design; the ES model benefits further from a rear anti-roll bar, which reduces body lean in corners and sharpens transient response. Equipped with an automatic, our ES offered quick acceleration. Those with the standard 5-speed manual transmission accelerate even more rapidly, offer better fuel economy, and are capable of using the available power more efficiently.
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