Around 2 months ago, the check engine light on our 2003 Protege 5 came on and the car started to shake. I left the car at the dealer to be checked, and was told that screws had come loose on the intake manifold. A $20 kit and four hours of labor would fix it, to the tune of $350. I asked if this happened often with this car and was told, "No, you should expect this at 90,000 miles". Well these were highway miles on Tennessee roads, which are very smooth. My husband and I looked up the problem on the good old internet and found in less than five minutes that there was a recall for "certain" 2003 Protege 5s for this very problem. Mazda customer service very rudely told us that our car was not included, even though we experienced the same problem as the same make and model autos included in the recall. We were never told why it was not included, just that it was not included. We wrote Mazda and the dealership and no one is willing to repay us the $350 we had to pay to repair this, even though it is a documented problem. So they are going to loose a customer over a kit that cost them $20.
Now one of the front lights has gone out, and I am realizing what a pain it is to replace the lowbeams.
I bought this car used because it was highly rated, but am starting to have second thoughts.....[:'(]