@car-diagnostics 's detailed description is great, 

I'd just like to add a few points - First of all, this Mazda ain't a Corolla or a Camry

And with Mazda being owned by Ford at the time, it does have some quality conners.

Assuming that by Protege Hatchback you mean the Protege5 - 

Those came with a 2.0L engine, a reliable but very short lived design.

The main issues were: oil consumption, and low tolerance to overheating but an unreliable cooling system.

Overall, the weak spot of this car ended up being the automatic transmission (if equipped)

It either had a Mazda-Kia 4 speed for super low torque applications (as used by the 1st generation Kia Rio),

or Ford's low torque 4 speed (as used by the Ford Fiesta)

In both cases, you want to check that the fluid is in good shape and that there's no slow/hard shifting.

Except going to a mechanic before purchase.

I'd also recommend taking it on a long test drive (at least 20-30 minutes)

You want to hear the engine start after a cold soak (listen of rattling sounds)

Then, you want to drive and shift through the gears slowly feeling for jerks, hesitations and shudders.

And also shift through them at a high throttle openings - and obviously regular throttle openings.

After about 20-30 minutes for driving, you want to do the same with low/regular/high throttle openings.

Also, if possible wet/dry compression, and a head gasket test, they should be relatively cheap.

Yes this would be a good car. They're pretty reliable and that is quite low mileage for the year. They can last over 200,000 miles if maintained well. It would probaby cost around $400ish a month for maintnace and repairs can become somewhat expensive depending on what needs done. When first looking at the car look at everything carefully and make sure there's no visible damage and check to see if there's any mechanical issues such as headgasket leak (oil looks frothy), and things like that. Chrisfix has a video on buying used cars with a guide in the description for what to look for. Things to look out for(weather you are looking to buy the car or bought the car). When it hits 100,000 miles it's going to need quite a few things done. Such as, changing the oil/oil filter, antifreeze, and transmission fluid/filter (DO NOT FLUSH THE TRANSMISSION!!! Scotty has videos on why not to), brake fluid, power steering fluid. You will also need to change the timing belt, you might also have to change the spark plugs depending if they've been changed within the last 30,000 miles (acording to the Mazda maintnance guide spark plugs need changed every 30,000 miles). Hope this long answer helps.