5.5

fairly significant
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
16,652 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.

Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 2002 Mazda Protege:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

problem #1

Apr 192004

Protege 4-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 16,652 miles
My 80 year old mother was driving the car eastbound on sw 104 street when at the intersection of 127 ave. The steering wheel stopped responding and felt unattached to the wheels. I was informed today, by the Mazda service representative, that it was in fact the geering box that had failed. There were no fatalities but there could easily have been if it was not for the good samaritan that used his/her own vehicle to forcibly bring the car to a stop. Yesterday my mother was driving the car but if it had been another driver, a younger, faster driver, this incident could have been catastrophic.

- Miami, FL, USA