Last week's Sunday piece featured a unusually clean Mazdaspeed Protege. In the comments, it was bemoaned that Mazda never saw fit to give the Mazdaspeed treatment to the Protege 5 wagon. Nearly all car enthusiasts (DT readers included) share a common love of the station wagon. An enthusiastic Protege fan took it upon himself to create a more practical alternative to the MS Protege sedan. The seller is active on a Mazda forum and lists more information about the car than most any normal person will care to read about. Find this 2003 Mazda Protege 5 for sale in Manchester, CT for $4,200 via craigslist.
The 2003 Mazdaspeed Protege was the first offering from the Mazdaspeed name plate. It was to be Mazda's hot rod shop ala Mercedes AMG, BMW M-series, Ford's SVT, etc. The Mazdaspeed was spawned from the righteous handling 2001-2 Protege MP3 model. The MP3 name was derived from the audio MP3 file (think Napster) which was new at the time and the car was outfitted with a wacky Kenwood headunit that would do somersaults every time the car was turned on. Well known tuner Callaway Cars was brought in to turbo charge the MP3 140 hp 2.0 engine. The boosted engine was good for 170 hp, but developed a horrible reputation for throwing rods if you upped the boost past 10 psi. Find this 2003 Mazdaspeed Protege for sale in Waterbury, CT for $2,900 via craigslist.
