1998 Mazda Protege problems
Owners have filed 53 complaints with NHTSA about the 1998 Mazda Protege. Transmission is the most reported problem area, at 23% of complaints. After that come engine (19%) and exhaust system (15%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 53 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Transmission 23% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 11 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 4 and 0
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
What the data shows
Safety-related details: 11 complaints mention a crash; 4 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1998 ranks 10th most-complained-about out of 14 model years of the Mazda Protege with enough data (39 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Consumer had a rear collision, and air bags did not deploy. Passenger hit head on windshield. The seat belt failed during the collision
Divers side seat failed in a minor rear end collison. Seat back broke and fell down into rear seat . No occupants in rear seat. Also, no injuries.
While driving at 60 MPH , vehicle started overheating. Consumer had vehicle serviced by a mechanic who indicated that the heating core had rusted. Please provide more details.
Automatic transmission problems. Vehicle downshifts for no reason. Intermittent times car will downshift to lower gear when foot removed from accelerator pedal whether on streets or freeway. Car is renderd unusable by wife.