As some of you already know, I'm still a big Honda person. I love my 2002.5 Protege5 though, and I'm also really excited that Mazda is moving in the right direction with their designs. The Mazda6 is so much better looking than the new Honda Accord. And of course, the P5 is just gorgeous.
When it comes to quality and worksmanship though, Mazda is still far behind. I've owned two Honda Accords before my P5 and couldn't help but compare the quality of Honda and Mazda when I'm in my P5. Almost everything in a Honda is so well placed and fits so well.
1. Take the Headliner for example: If you try pushing the headliner near the door and the A Pillar in your P5, it moves up quite a lot. If you do this hard enough, it might pop out. In the Honda, it's tight and rigid. It doesn't move out of place. Of course, we wouldn't just push the headliner for no reason whatsover, but that just shows attention to detail.
2. Pay attention to the gap between your dashboard and your front door. There's an unsightly gap between your door and the dash. Couldn't Mazda have made it connect better?
3. The plastic in front of the gauges also rattle. Try pushing it and you can see it bend and move quite a bit.
4. Our A/C turn knobs are also too tight. I don't know if anyone notices, but if you turn the temperature knob from hot to cold, it glides smoothly like it should. But if you turn the temperature knob from cold to hot, it takes a little more effort.
5. There's no indicator that tells you the hatch is ajar. In regular cars, and I'm assuming the Protege sedan too, when the trunk is ajar or open, there's an indicator. Not in the P5 though.
6. I've also noticed that the front windows, especially on the driver's side, rattle when it's rolled down less than a 1/4 of the way. It seems like the window channel does not hold the window in place tightly when it's not rolled down more than 1/4 of the way. Try it, go over a lane reflector and you'll know what I'm talking about.
7. The rear defroster doesn't automatically turn off, even after you turn off your car and turn it back on the next day. The rear defroster is still on.
8. There's no light in the glove box, yet there are three different lights in the middle of the car in your headliner. I'll trade for a light in the glove box and keep only one light on top anyday.
9. Our rear seats can fold down for a total of 20 cubic feet of cargo space. That's awesome, but why is there that stupid bump? It should be flat like, I'm sorry to say, the Matrix.
10. Gas mileage for a "compact" or "economy" car should be better than this. We have a 2.0 liter engine that gets a claimed 25 to 30 mpg in an automatic. That on paper is better than my 1990 Accord that got 21 to 29 mpg in an automatic. But in real mpg numbers, my 2.2 liter Accord that weighed 300 lbs more got 24 mpg. My P5 has never even hit 23 mpg on one tank. The best I've ever gotten was 22.6 mpg with no A/C, senior citizen accerelation, and 80% freeway driving. My friend's 2002 Civic EX Coupe gets 34 mpg almost all the time. How sad...
11. This one is probably my biggest annoyance in my P5. For all the manual P5's out there, ignore this, but for those with the Sport Automatic tranny, this might mean something. Along with VW, Audi, Nissan, and some other brands I don't remember right now, the manual mode is wrongly placed. It's farther away from you than the automatic mode. The main reason why you'd want a manual tranny is control. You change gears when you want, as much as you want. You control it. Since the Sport automatic has the automatic and manual mode, which mode would require more control? The manual mode of course. In automatic mode, you don't even need to touch the stick, unless you're just resting your hand on it. But in manual mode, you're in control of the stick. Maybe not like a regular manual, but you still control the tranny. So why is the manual option farther away from you on the right side of the shift gate. Shouldn't it be closer to you on the inside or left side of the shift gate? Honda, Acura, and BMW has the manual mode of these trannies on the inside, closer to the driver. It just makes perfect sense to me that the mode you control should be closer to you while the mode that you don't even control stays farther away. Of course, if I had a regular manual, I'd never had a problem. But since I don't, it's a huge annoyance.
Okay, so I was really picky about everything. Most of these annoyances, I don't even notice on a regular basis. But a car is a huge investment. You're losing money just for having it so I just want the most out of my losing investment.
Of course, there are also awesome things about the P5 that makes up for anything wrong with the P5. But I won't write about it cuz this is long enough.
Bottom line, little details of quality and ergonomics, Mazda still trails. Of course, I'm being very specific and most of us don't notice this in every day life. Mazda has gotten ahead in the designs, but to catch up to the competition, everything matters, not just looks.
