Seeking info on Protege reliability

got a 2000 protege with the zm-de 1.6L DOHC. much torquier and more peppy then my friends 96 civic with the d16 honda engine. at 300 000km (187000miles) the engine is running fine with black oil in it. dont know s*** about the cars history so it could be a rebuilt engine or whatever but this is definetly a good, underated engine. so far it is treating me well.

I see you're in Toronto. How bad is the rust? That's what kills these cars more than anything else, when the suspension mounting points fail.

We've updated our reliability stats for the Protege to include owner experiences through the end of 2015, about eight months ahead of other sources. In terms of repair trips per 100 cars per year--lower is better:

2003 Protege: 69, low
2002 Protege: 55, low

We'll have further updates in May and in August. The more owners participate, the more comprehensive and precise these will be.

For the repairs behind these stats, reliability information on other models, and to sign up to help improve this information:

Mazda Protege reliability ratings and comparisons