All right, let’s get back to some more normal fare. Yesterday was a bit too much for almost all of you, I guess. Today we’re going to look at a couple of perfectly normal four-door sedans whose only fault seems to be scorched clearcoat. And even better, they’re both cheap!
Once in college, I was in my dorm room listening to the Pixies, and my roommate complained that it was “too weird.” So I turned it off – and put on Devo instead. See, I like weird. Weird is good for you. Weird makes you think, it pushes your buttons. You may not like where it takes you – my roommate left when I put on Devo (though that was kinda the idea; I didn’t like the guy much) – but it’s important to go out on a limb once in a while. That’s where the fruit is, after all.
That said, I don’t want either of yesterday’s choices any more than any of you. But they did get you talking, which is the point. They didn’t get you voting; the comment-to-vote ratio was way out of whack. Among those of you who could be bothered to vote, the scary Dodge Avenger won easily, probably just because it was much cheaper.
As much as I like weird stuff, I like a good bargain even more. I hate paying more than I have to for something, and cars are no exception. These two are the kind of cars I usually favor: cosmetically challenged, but mechanically solid, and as nice inside as I can find. In other words, good solid beaters. What’s this, you say? Two actual good deals after yesterday’s foolishness? Just keeping you on your toes. Let’s check them out.
1993 Mazda Protege DX – $1,500
Engine/drivetrain: 1.8-liter OHC inline-4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Floyd, VA
Odometer reading: 164,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
This is a car I’m very fond of. Mazda’s BF/BG/BH/BJ-platform cars don’t look like much, but they’re everything you could ask for in a small car: tough, efficient, practical, and more fun to drive than you’d expect. When the BG platform was introduced for the 1990 model year, the four-door sedan became known as the Protege, at least here in the US. Elsewhere it was still the 323 or Familia. But what’s in a name? You can call it whatever you want; I call it a lot more desirable than any Corolla ever was.
Two engines were available in the BG Protege in the US, both 1.8-liter four-cylinders. This being a humble DX model, it has the lesser of the two, a single-overhead-cam unit making 103 horsepower. Two transmissions were offered as well, and this has the one you want, a five-speed manual. The seller doesn’t give us a lot of information about it; they just say it “runs fine” and has “good brakes.” So it goes, and it stops. For fifteen hundred bucks, these days, that’s probably good enough. Anything else is just gravy.
For the price, the interior isn’t bad at all. The seats are intact and not stained, and most of the trim is where it belongs. The wires coming out of the left side of the dash are a bit worrying, but I’ve dealt with worse messes in cheap cars. It does have motorized seat belts, and I know for a lot of you those are a deal-killer. In most cars, they would be for me too, but I might make an exception for this car, because I like it so much otherwise.
Outside, it has some battle scars; the right front door has a serious dent, and the right front fender wears an LX badge, which means it came from a junkyard. Hey, at least it matches. The clearcoat on all the horizontal surfaces is shot, too. But it’s a good color, and it’s not embarrassing-looking.
1995 Ford Taurus SE – $2,150
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0-liter OHV V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Carmichael, CA
Odometer reading: 128,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
For a car that went out of production thirty years ago, it’s surprising how many second-generation Ford Tauruses are still kicking around. Sure, it was the best-selling car in the US in its day, and Ford cranked out a million and a half of them, but still. These cars were available in a wide range of trims and colors, and it seems like no two you see for sale these days are alike. I kind of like this one; it’s the 1995-only SE model, with a couple of sporty touches borrowed from the SHO, but without the horsepower.
The standard engine in the Taurus in these days was the 3.0-liter “Vulcan” V6, available only with a four-speed automatic. It’s a good old cast-iron pushrod engine, the kind of thing that runs out of steam after 4,000 RPM, but will keep spinning as long as you keep oil in it. This one runs and drives “excellent,” according to the seller, and just passed a California smog check – and it’s pre-OBDII, so we’re talking an actual tailpipe test, not just a code scan. It also sounds like the seller has owned it for a while, which is always a good sign. I tend to distrust flipped cars, unless they’re from our buddy in North Carolina.
Part of the SE package are a center console with a floor-mounted shifter, and really comfy-looking bucket seats. It’s all in good condition, too. The seller says, in all caps, that the “AC BLOWS COLD.” Good to know, thanks. The ad lists a bunch of other options, too, but there’s no word, in either upper or lower case, whether any of that stuff is broken.
Outside, the SE borrows a few pieces from other sporty Fords, including Mustang-like alloy wheels and the Taurus SHO’s rear spoiler. Does it help? I mean, it doesn’t make it any faster, but it makes it look a little less like a rental car. I like it in green, too. The clearcoat is fried, but at least there’s no rust or damage.
Cars this cheap are usually more of a compromise than these are. The biggest charge you can level at them is that they’re a little scruffy-looking and not all that exciting. You could do a lot worse, as we’ve seen. Which one of these calls to you?
On the note of comments to votes, through whatever combination of plugins I run, I have never, ever seen the voting window on desktop or mobile. I assume you need to be running something like vanilla Chrome logged into Facebook, TikTok, & Google for it to show up?
I read this site almost exclusively on a PC running Edge with an ad blocker plug-in and it works fine for me. Autopian TV embeds don’t autoplay, but I’m ok with that. No need for FB or TT.
Maybe it’s the webkit based browser. I’m nearly always in Firefox.
Taurus today. Maybe it’s just that neither of these really inspires me and the Taurus looks like it has nicer seats.
I want to applaud you for finding two pleasant car colors, even if the clearcoats are not helping at all.
I adore those Mazdas, but I had a ’97 Taurus with that Vulcan V6 and I know it’s unkillable. If I gotta live with one of there, make mine Found On Road Dead please.
That Mazda will dissolve from rust once it reaches the Midwest, so I’ll need to go with the nicer condition, but less pleasant to drive Taurus. I will also hope that the transmission has already been rebuilt.
Both are nice but I’ll go Taurus. The interior, lack of dents, and working A/C will sway me every time. Best regards to our North Carolina car flipper.
AC steams, ventilates, punctures, but he never blows – hot or cold!
Neither, can’t fit in themProtege and I’ve owned a Taurus, which was one too many.
I wanted to pick the Mazda, but that Taurus looks like great basic transportation for a low price. Practicality wins.
Tough call. It’s theoretically possible that I was the first owner of that Mazda—I bought one new just like it and traded it in within 100 miles of that location—and it was a great car that I should have kept. This one looks pretty beat, though, next to that clean Taurus. Hell, give me the Mazda anyway.
I didn’t vote your way, but I certainly understand your decision.
I’m familiar with a lot of Virginia having grown up there. Four years living in Blacksburg, which is only 30 miles away from Floyd, and I had never heard of that town. Looks like a nice place. Oh, I’d pick the Protege over the Taurus, given the price of gas currently. You could likely get 40mpg out of that Mazda, but maybe half that in the Ford.
Those Taurus had some tall gearing that allowed some good-ish MPGs for a pushrod V6. Mid to high 20s were very achievable on these
On long freeway stretches, my corporate fleet of V6 Tauri easily got upper 20 mpg. Around town, eh. And neither the engines nor the 4-speed automatics gave us any problems.
Tough call today, legitimately. Manual is usually a layup but man, I just have some nostalgia for that era Taurus. And those stupid belts in the Mazda cancel out the manual fun (nearly).
And the clearcoat on my 2007 Tacoma isn’t in much better shape, so that’s not a problem here. I guess I’ll go with the Mazda and figure out the belts.
Normally, there’s no way an auto anything beats a manual anything for me, but I’m going with the Taurus. For one thing, it’s located somewhere around ten miles from my house, and this is why they emphasize the fact that the A/C works. (Yay, it’s going to be 97 degrees here on Saturday!!) It passes smog, it looks good on the outside apart from the clearcoat, and it would be a comfy cruiser. The Mazda would be cheaper to run, but with the A/C and smog stuff unknown, it get second place.
I used to live in Sacratomato and still have family in Davis and Woodland. Crazy hot for early October!
Protege!
I don’t understand the automatic seat belt hate. I drove a 1990 Thunderbird SC for years and the mouse belts never bothered me.
Blue for the win! Didn’t even bother reading.
Taurus, it’s on the correct coast and fairly crash-safe.
If I were still in DC I’d consider the Mazda, and then probably say no anyway because of Beltway drivers and those damn mouse belts.
I’d much rather have the Taurus because the interior looks brilliant, but I’ve been burned by Ford automatic transmissions in the past and am not eager to repeat the experience.
Besides, Mazda manuals are pretty nice. It isn’t especially powerful or refined, but shit, neither am I. We would probably do well together.
That Taurus is nice enough inside that unless there are mechanical issues, I’m doing a re-spray of the exterior and really bringing it back.
Also, those SE wheels are the same wheels available since the ’92 redesign, just with a different finish.
The Taurus is the better car, but for the price, there’s got to be something I’d actually want to drive instead. I voted for the deal on the Mazda; it’s good enough to get around in for a while.
I drove a first-gen Taurus for work for a couple years and the transmission was already starting to slip with less than 50K miles. So while I love the look of that Taurus, you’re staring at a transmission rebuild if you want to keep it. Protege gets the win by forfeit.
I drove a 95 Taurus for a year when I started driving (same green, too). It was nice enough. But yes, the trans was starting to go before I got t-boned by someone running a red.
Mazda. In this type of comparison, the manual gearbox does a lot of work at these price points. They’re both good cars but I’d rather have the Mazda.
Mazda all the way. A 5 spd Mazda over a slushbox Taurus is an easy call. I already had to drive those as rentals back in the 90’s. No more.
I’m a Mazda fan. We own two Mazdas. I’m picking the Ford. For a beater to drive to work, I’ll take the more comfortable ride.
Mazda for sure. I has a 2002 Protege5 and loved it, and the generation being sold was pretty common, in both hatch and sedan, in my friend group so I drove a few of them. They were far more engaging than the assorted others cars that were common like j bodies, corollas, a bodies etc. Plus it has a manual which will make it more fun.
Now if were that or a civic I’d have a difficult choice.
I’ll take that Proteeeeege.