my protege replacement

greenman

Member
yup, i traded her in,

I posted pics of her here from time to time. She was a sunlight silver 2002.5 ES loaded (sport tranny, etc.) and i put on a CAI and catback to get her a little zoomier.... but,, alas, living in the mountains/dirt roads.... she just didn't seem feasible anymore. I took off all the aftermarket stuff put back all the stock stuff and traded her in (i called her the Mazdarati) with just under 80,000 miles on it. Got a "pretty" good deal on her b/c i didn't need to put any mony down for the new one, and still had enough left for a $2500 down payment. When i bought her, i had the 0% interest deal through mazda, so she was worth about twice what i owed on her.

Here's my new one,,, i just call her KIA... A pre owned 2006 sorento LX. So far we are in love with it. I installed some 8000k HID's in her, and got her all polished up for her photo shoot. She had 12,500 miles on her when i got her. Used to be a district reps car,,, so practically brand new, i'm still peeling plastic covers off of things here and there and under the seats etc. etc... some of that plastic is DAMN HARD to get off too (you know, the film cover kind of stuff). I am VERY IMPRESSED with the leaps KIA has made concerning quality, fit/finish, and engineering. THIS CAR IS ROCK SOLID and very tight. Faster than the old pro was too, heh heh.

It also has a sport shift tranny, but is 5 speed whereas the pro was 4, so that's cool, just took a while to get used to pushing the opposite direction for a shift (many a downshift at the wrong time so far).

tell me what you think... She's warrantied bumper to bumper for 10 years/120,000 miles. So, even after i pay her off, there will be some warranty left... pretty cool.

anyone out there looking for a car, please consider KIA, i think you may be surprised, i sure was... I was going to get a grand cherokee, but after what i've heard about those, i wouldn't touch em with a 10 foot pole (bad tranny,,,, etc. etc.)..
 

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sorry to see you kinda leave the mazda scene bro, but hey, if you need something more satisfying, heh, why not eh? Yea seems like Kia jumped the bar in the past few years and they do have good quality cars now.

Good luck with everything and keep in touch (thumb)
 
DiS said:
sorry to see you kinda leave the mazda scene bro, but hey, if you need something more satisfying, heh, why not eh? Yea seems like Kia jumped the bar in the past few years and they do have good quality cars now.

Good luck with everything and keep in touch (thumb)

yeah, as soon as Hyundai bailed them out, the quality has really gone up.
 
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