2002 Mazda Protege

small car / 4-door sedan

2002 Mazda Protege 4-door sedan
1999 Mazda Protege shown

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test

Key

  • G
    Good
  • A
    Acceptable
  • M
    Marginal
  • P
    Poor
  • Superior
  • Advanced
  • Basic

Some ratings use a scale of Poor to Good. Others range from Basic to Superior.

Moderate overlap front: original test

Rating applies to 1999-2003 models

Tested vehicle: 1999 Mazda Protegé LX 4-door

The Mazda Protege was redesigned for the 1999 model year.

Overall evaluation
Structure and safety cage
Driver injury measures
Head/neck
Chest
Leg/foot, left
Leg/foot, right
Driver restraints and dummy kinematics
Dummy movement was reasonably well controlled. During rebound, the dummy moved toward the driver door. Its head went part of the way out the open window and approached but didn't hit the window frame.

Action shot taken during the frontal offset crash test.

The driver's survival space was maintained reasonably well, although there was more intrusion into the footwell area than is desirable.

Intrusion into the footwell area contributed to the likelihood of leg injuries.

The rear bumper system on the 1999 model allowed excessive damage in a 5 mph pole impact -- more than $2,800 worth of damage compared with about $700 damage to the predecessor Protege model.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF99005
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 24
Left (cm) 29
Center (cm) 27
Right (cm) 21
Brake pedal (cm) 21
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 6
Right (cm) 4
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 4
Rearward (cm) 3
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 5

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF99005
Head
HIC-15 230
Peak gs at hard contact no contact
Neck
Tension (kN) 2.2
Extension bending moment (Nm) 33
Maximum Nij 0.52
Chest maximum compression (mm) 28
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 4.8
Femur force - right (kN) 3.3
Knee displacement - left (mm) 1
Knee displacement - right (mm) 1
Maximum tibia index - left 1.01
Maximum tibia index - right 1.54
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 1.1
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 3.7
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 87
Right 95

How the moderate overlap front test is conducted