I have no idea why people don't like Mazda? I used to have to Mazdas, one Protege, one 626, which are two great cars. Before I bought them, I tested the cars of the same class of other brands, Toyota, Nissan, Honda. Mazda beat them all in my opinion. I think Mazda is a good combination of Japanese engines with "American" bodies. The only disadvantage is it has bad gas-mileage due to its heavy bodies.