I was at the dealer's this morning having an oil change done on our P5 and went strolling down the lines of stored new cars. There was an '03.5 P5 on the lot with the standard subwoofer. I noticed that the roof seam fillers have four little slide covers for the roof rack mounting bolts. Looks like the roof rack on the newer models is mountable without removing the interior trim and headliner. Might explain some why the filler strips are so pricey. Jim
There have been threads here concerning people wanting to remove the roof rack AND it's mounts from a P5. I was refering to the thin vinyl strips that fill the roof seams on the P5. On the '02 & '03 P5s, the filler strips need to be replaced with continuous strips. and they are sorta espensive for what they are. There was a thread just a couple of days ago about the cost. Jim
And those 4 small filler pieces you saw were only to mount the canadian style roof rack (completely different than the US). You do still have to remove the headliner to remove the roof racks themselves.
And those 4 small filler pieces you saw were only to mount the canadian style roof rack (completely different than the US). You do still have to remove the headliner to remove the roof racks themselves.
The four pieces I saw were not fillers. They were small captive slide covers that slid forward to open the mounting holes and back to seal the openings. The vinyl seam filler was one piece, front to rear with end caps, on the '03.5 P5.
I recall reading a thread here with pictures of someone removing the rack mounts from an older red US P5 and the vinyl filler was in three pieces on each side. This is why I thought that the '03.5 P5 was diffierent.
I agree, from reading the old post on removing the rack mounts that older P5s will require the headliner and trim pieces to be removed to get the rack mounts off, but I suspect that the '03.5s are different.
Since the accessories page on Mazda's web site doesn't show the rack, it's possible that the $250 rack accessory is really the Canadian rack of old. Maybe, maybe not. Where's Gazoom Gazoom when you really need him? Jim