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For the last two decades, two diminutive titans have towered over the rest of the compact car field, dominating sales, reputation, and mind share. Every friend of mine who has looked for a small car in the last decade has started their search by looking for a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla, and for good reason–they tend to be durable, high-quality cars.

Overshadowed somewhat by this excellence has been Mazda’s small cars, which have ranged from okay (the GLC) to amazing (the 323 GTX) to beautifully refined (the Protege). The Protege has long been one of my favorites; for quality transportation over the last decade, in my mind it has been more of a mentor in its class than a protege, leading the way in refinement, quality, and its driving dynamics.

Given my wagon fanaticism, it should come as no surprise that the Protege5 is my favorite Protege of all. A sports car among economy cars, with sweetly chiseled good looks, the Protege5 had it all–agility, cargo room, and ease of maintenance.

Proteges are underrated as sporty economy cars, possibly because their styling is usually so staid. We’ve talked a lot about older Civics as sporty little runabouts, but the Protege is a sweet handler in its own right. The Protege5 was no exception–reviews at the time called the Protege5 a hatchback Miata.

The Protege5 only had 130 horsepower, and there was never a Mazdaspeed Protege5, so it’s not as if the Protege5’s cup runneth over with power. But matched to the sweet chassis, and given the deceptively light weight of the Protege5–only 2,700 pounds–it was quick enough to be fun.

The styling, though, is what keeps me coming back to the Protege5. The Protege5 is, in my opinion, the best-looking small car of this decade–it’s conventional, but very pretty. Wagons get my blood pressure up anyway; but unlike most wagons the Protege5 is lean and purposeful. Compared to most of today’s over-stuffed cars, which look as if they are inflated at around 1,500 PSI, the Protege5’s lines are sleek. It’s sporty without looking tacky, classy without being boring. It’s even one of those few cars that looks great in yellow.

Subaru has really fumbled around with the styling of its otherwise excellent WRX; it would be much better off with something that looks more like the Protege5.

The Mazda 3 replaced the Protege in 2004, and while the 3 is a nice piece (in fact, soon we’ll run a Mazda 3 Car Lust from Nathan), I miss the lean simplicity of the Protege5. What I don’t miss is a car name that rams a number into a word. Protege5? Hit the space bar, Mazda!

Sorry, I guess I’m feeling mildly curmudgeonly today.

–Chris H.