This is a comfortable car. The Protege offers an impressive amount of headroom and legroom. It's as roomy as many mid-size sedans. Space is important for taller buyers and it's something many compacts don't offer. Front-seat roominess is comparable to that of a Honda Civic EX sedan. The seats are comfortable and supportive, though we found it a bit hard to turn the knob to adjust the angle of the driver's seatback.The rear seats are roomy. Mazda's engineers cleverly mounted the front-seat tracks in a way that yielded more space for rear-seat passengers, whose knees are now mercifully spared from being scrunched up against the back of the driver's seat. Rear-seat headroom is limited, however; at 5-feet, 11-inches, my hair brushed the headliner. The standard 60/40-split fold-down rear seatback now comes with a locking feature.
Trendy white-faced gauges are new for 2001. A new modular AM/FM audio system comes on all models (with standard CD on LX, LX-2.0, and ES-2.0). Mazda has revised the center panel and improved the cupholders. A new center console provides covered storage. Dual front map lights were added. DX and LX models get new two-tone interior trim.