The 2003-2003.5 mazdaspeed Protege poorly designed limited-slip differential has seen a failure rate of over 125 documented cases online. When this part fails, the vehicle does not respond to acceleration causing a safety issue at highway speeds and residential speeds. When this part fails, it could cause the vehicle and passengers to be at risk for roadside rear end crashes due to loss of power especially if the driver is changing lanes at highway speed. This issue has been a widespread problem for this particular model and Mazda usa has denied any responsibility for issuing a recall. 2003-2003.5 mazdaspeed Protege owners have had the limited slip differential replaced only to find the issue re-appear and fail again. Here is a link to the documented list of owners who have had this fail. (www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?T=64821&page=29). Some failures have even been dangerous. I would ask that the NHTSA look deeply into this situation before someone gets hurt or worse. Thank you for your time.

- New Hope , MN, USA

My daughter drove my Mazda Protege 5 to pick up my son and to retrieve something from a friend's house. She parked the car on the friend's flat driveway, placing it in first gear. While she was inside of the house, the car somehow popped out of gear and picked up enough momentum to roll onto the road. The road was a hill, which caused the car to accelerate. The car ended up striking a house, causing damage to both the house and the shrubbery outside of the house. Nobody could find any apparent problems with the car/transmission.

- Ipswich, MA, USA