Picked-Up a New 2012 Mazda5 GT

Having 3 kids (3 year old and twin 20 month olds), the wife's the 95 Civic Coupe was not cutting it any longer. 208+K miles and still going strong but space was the issue. We have 3 car seats on the back of my 5-Series but no room for a grandmom . We looked at several SUV's and Mini-Vans in our price range and they all drove like well SUV's and Mini-Vans..BLAND. The Mazda5 does not drive like any of those cars, this things handles, WOW! We wanted it in Black but opted for the Silver as we hope does not show the dirt as much. We got the car for $21750 + Tax and Tags and 1.9% financing for 60 months. The dealer threw in the rubber mats, wheel locks and a few oil changes in for free. Filled it up twice and averaged about 29 mpg on first tank (mainly hwy) and about 22 mpg on 2nd tank (mixed driving). Hoping the 22mpg is a fluke.

Just got it tinted this week with 35% film all around.

Future mods:

• Rear bumper guard (already ordered)
• Roof rack and/or trailer hitch. What are some of your opinions on either? What brands/type work and look the best.
• Speakers (stock ones are HORRIBLE) have some 6.5" MB Quart Components from a previous car. Hope they fit. Anyone add 6.5's in the stock 5x7 location? What adapters did you use?
• HID High's & Fogs, anyone know the bulb type? Has anyone tried this yet?
• DVD/LCD for the kids not sure if I am gonna do the roof mount or the head rests. Anyone have any info.
• Remote car starter. Should I go with the OEM unit or with an aftermarket. Does the OEM unit come with a separate remote or can the original key be used alone?

Wheels:
I like the stock wheels but I just so happen to have a set of 18X8 OZ Superlagerra III wheels that I think will look quite nice on it. Hoping the TPMS sensors are compatible with the Mazda5, if not I will be stairing at a light for a while

Will take some pics and post them.

Thanks

BP

Congrats!
Sorry can't help you on the speakers, trailer hitch or lights but I did a little photo-essay on the rear bumper guard. Not that it's difficult at all I'm sure 90% can figure it out themselves.
Keep us posted with your work, and oh yeah you're supposed to post pics
Sweet wheels too - you're going to have a bunch of little faces pressed up against the side windows if you use all of the massive grip I'm sure those tires are capable of

Congrats on the GT purchase. That's real good price for a GT -- I paid way more than that, you got a steal!

I've not had the roof rack installed on this car but OEM is shaped such that it reduces wind noise and supports up to 100lbs. You can get it from here http://www.mazdaparts.org/

Now for the hitch receiver, e-Trailer carries several brands, and they can be found here: http://www.etrailer.com

I just did an upgrade of my factory speakers to Focals from Crutchfield. Can't describe how good they are but just to give you an example, they sound better than my wife's CX9 with Bose system.

I replaced the fronts with a Focal components with separate woofer and tweeter. FYI, the factory speaker setup with tweeter mounted on the sail plate is not a true two way setup. It's just a pair of wire to the two way on the lower door panel. Crutchfield sent me a 5x7 adaptor to mount the 5.25" woofer. For the Focal tweeter, I had to cut out the factory sail plate (mesh) and mount the Focals. There's some photos on one of my thread on this Forum. For the rear, I replaced them with a Focal 5x7's with baffle behind it. Just about everywhere, it's been Dynamatted. Yes, you're right, factory speakers are terrible, and with almost no insulation on this car, harmonics is notorious!

GT comes standard with HID so not sure if dealer has told you that.

I currently have a thread with Dynamat upgrade, in the lieu of it, I have prepped the headliner to accept the Alpine PKG-RSE2 10.2" DVD player. I have instructions on how to tap into the AUX jack and to leave it on as a mode so you can send line-level input from the DVD player.

Again, MedCenter sells factory remote starter.

Hope the above answers some of your questions.

Bad Bimr said:

Having 3 kids (3 year old and twin 20 month olds), the wife's the 95 Civic Coupe was not cutting it any longer. 208+K miles and still going strong but space was the issue. We have 3 car seats on the back of my 5-Series but no room for a grandmom . We looked at several SUV's and Mini-Vans in our price range and they all drove like well SUV's and Mini-Vans..BLAND. The Mazda5 does not drive like any of those cars, this things handles, WOW! We wanted it in Black but opted for the Silver as we hope does not show the dirt as much. We got the car for $21750 + Tax and Tags and 1.9% financing for 60 months. The dealer threw in the rubber mats, wheel locks and a few oil changes in for free. Filled it up twice and averaged about 29 mpg on first tank (mainly hwy) and about 22 mpg on 2nd tank (mixed driving). Hoping the 22mpg is a fluke.

Just got it tinted this week with 35% film all around.

Future mods:

• Rear bumper guard (already ordered)
• Roof rack and/or trailer hitch. What are some of your opinions on either? What brands/type work and look the best.
• Speakers (stock ones are HORRIBLE) have some 6.5" MB Quart Components from a previous car. Hope they fit. Anyone add 6.5's in the stock 5x7 location? What adapters did you use?
• HID High's & Fogs, anyone know the bulb type? Has anyone tried this yet?
• DVD/LCD for the kids not sure if I am gonna do the roof mount or the head rests. Anyone have any info.
• Remote car starter. Should I go with the OEM unit or with an aftermarket. Does the OEM unit come with a separate remote or can the original key be used alone?

Wheels:
I like the stock wheels but I just so happen to have a set of 18X8 OZ Superlagerra III wheels that I think will look quite nice on it. Hoping the TPMS sensors are compatible with the Mazda5, if not I will be stairing at a light for a while

Will take some pics and post them.

Thanks

BP

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

I have seen checked out most of the threads and sites. As for the hitch or roof rack I am not sure on which direction we want to go. Not really liking what an aftermarket rack looks like but I guess you can remove it. Would love to see if we could get OEM Factory style racks like they have in other countries on this vehicle. As for the hitch I have seem 3 brands/options and wondering which is the better of the three. I think I am leaning towards the hitch as we will only use it maybe twice a year to head to the beach.

I know my car comes with HID's if it was not for the HID's and Leather Trim we were going to get the Sport 6-speed. Kind of sucks that to get a 6-speed you need to have zero options. I want to replace my fog lights and high beams with an HID's kit.

Confused about the tweeter on the front of the car. Is it functional? Is there room in the door and rear for a 6.5"? Like I said I have 2 sets of MB Quart components that can be also mounted as a coaxial via a tweeter bridge from my E-30 3-series show car (miss that car). They are older but top of the line speakers with little use on them. Don't want to spend money if I could use these. I also have the competition grade crossovers for this set-up. Gonna try them out and see how it sounds. If I still don't like the sound I'll hook up one of the several RF Punch amps laying around and give it a whirl. Not wanting to dynamat the car unless it still sounds bad.

Again thanks for the info.

BP

dieseldriver said:

Congrats on the GT purchase. That's real good price for a GT -- I paid way more than that, you got a steal!

I've not had the roof rack installed on this car but OEM is shaped such that it reduces wind noise and supports up to 100lbs. You can get it from here http://www.mazdaparts.org/

Now for the hitch receiver, e-Trailer carries several brands, and they can be found here: http://www.etrailer.com

I just did an upgrade of my factory speakers to Focals from Crutchfield. Can't describe how good they are but just to give you an example, they sound better than my wife's CX9 with Bose system.

I replaced the fronts with a Focal components with separate woofer and tweeter. FYI, the factory speaker setup with tweeter mounted on the sail plate is not a true two way setup. It's just a pair of wire to the two way on the lower door panel. Crutchfield sent me a 5x7 adaptor to mount the 5.25" woofer. For the Focal tweeter, I had to cut out the factory sail plate (mesh) and mount the Focals. There's some photos on one of my thread on this Forum. For the rear, I replaced them with a Focal 5x7's with baffle behind it. Just about everywhere, it's been Dynamatted. Yes, you're right, factory speakers are terrible, and with almost no insulation on this car, harmonics is notorious!

GT comes standard with HID so not sure if dealer has told you that.

I currently have a thread with Dynamat upgrade, in the lieu of it, I have prepped the headliner to accept the Alpine PKG-RSE2 10.2" DVD player. I have instructions on how to tap into the AUX jack and to leave it on as a mode so you can send line-level input from the DVD player.

Again, MedCenter sells factory remote starter.

Hope the above answers some of your questions.

Click to expand...

The tweeter works but the way it's wired from the factory, it's just a tap off of two way factory 2way speaker on the lower panel. To be a true tweeter, you'd need a crossover unit. I mounted mine on the kick panel of each side. It splits high frequency and mids and has a separate runs to tweeter and woofer. I'm really not sure if the 6x5 will fit the cutout of the inner panel, it's made of plastic. I guess you can do it but not sure if it's worth doing or just use 5x7's.

Seems like alot of VW and BMW owners are also MZ5 owners.