European Roof Rails??

[Marilyn]

I am new to this forum and a new owner of a Mazda 5 GT. I love this micro-van! Mine is black and had a white pin-stripe down the side..very sharp! Love the black leather with white stitching!
I have been trying to get those European roof rails as seen in the European web sites. I have made contact with a dealer in England, talked to someone at the Mazda Headquarters in Irvine, California, made many inquiries as to why we can't install those rails on our US version. They say the holes will not line up with the tabs that are on the US Mazda 5's. I would have to remove the headliner and drill new holes which seems like a huge job.
I am very frustrated that our US design team didn't follow the European version as to the beautiful flow of those rails and is offering us the ugly ones!
Anyone agree or have any suggestions?
I'm even thinking of having them custom made to fit the existing holes.

 

[wmzda5]

who know maybe someday someone will fabricate this design using hard foam rubber just like the foha diffuser.

 

[Silentnoise713]

I would like to see the European roof rails too. They make so much sense but someone at Mazda USA don't think so, or may be it is the regs... Perhaps look for a starving artist who works with metal and have him/her make you one out of tubing and coat it up well.

wmzda5 -what good is a 'hard foam rubber' roof rail? It won't be able to hold any or much weight?

 

[was98strat]

given that all mazda5's are built in Japan, I'd be suprised if they had seperate tooling for NA an euro versions. I'll bet that if you remove the rubber trim piece, you'll find extra mounting tabs for the euro rails. So I'd guess all you have to do is find someone to order you the rails AND the rubber trim piece and you're in business!

IMHO I'm glad the euro rails didn't make it to NA. Looks like someone at Mazda NA had the sense to see how brutally ugly the EURO rails are, and came up with a better solution. the regular roof racks that can be removed, leaving a clean looking roof line!

 

[mpvue]

given that all mazda5's are built in Japan, I'd be suprised if they had seperate tooling for NA an euro versions. I'll bet that if you remove the rubber trim piece, you'll find extra mounting tabs for the euro rails. So I'd guess all you have to do is find someone to order you the rails AND the rubber trim piece and you're in business!

IMHO I'm glad the euro rails didn't make it to NA. Looks like someone at Mazda NA had the sense to see how brutally ugly the EURO rails are, and came up with a better solution. the regular roof racks that can be removed, leaving a clean looking roof line!

I agree. experience shows that the mfgr will makes things easy to make, w/ as many shared parts as possible. I'm sure the mounting points are there.
as for the euro rails that run the length of the car; what good are they? to carry anything of substance (bikes, boat, boxes, etc) you still need to add cross bars.
I like how ours are set up. as you said, we can remove them and it's clean and smooth!

 

[Marilyn]

I like the "look!"

I wanted them not so much for carrying something on top......I just like the way it the European version follows the contour of the roof line. To me, it also raises the height and looks more finished. The majority of all mini vans and small SUV's have roof rails.
That's just my opinion.

 

[wmzda5]

I wanted them not so much for carrying something on top......I just like the way it the European version follows the contour of the roof line. To me, it also raises the height and looks more finished. The majority of all mini vans and small SUV's have roof rails.
That's just my opinion.

Exactly! Only fo raesthetic purpose.

 

[mpvue]

I wanted them not so much for carrying something on top......I just like the way it the European version follows the contour of the roof line. To me, it also raises the height and looks more finished. The majority of all mini vans and small SUV's have roof rails.
That's just my opinion.

oh. a lot of the wagons/vans I've had didn't have them; saturn VUE, '00 MPV. the one on my '96 MPV just made it even more difficult to wash the roof.
I guess I understand. old school sedan based wagons always look good w/ rails.

 

[Silentnoise713]

The roof rails on my dad's Esteem have been very useful on many occasions. Hauled mattresses, furniture, bed frame, and others stuff on many occasions -just add rope and bungee cord. I also like the look of it and dislike the look of floating cross bars, but do like rails with cross bars!. A vehicle as tall as the Mz5 looks better in my eye with it than without. Eye of the beholder...

 

[jibwagon]

FWIW, the subject of the euro roof rails was discussed here in 2006-07 when the car first came out in the U.S. (im sure the thread is still up) From what i remember, it was researched extensively and the conclusion was the US model DOES NOT have the required mounting locations to use the euro rails. i remember the researchers even had the CAD drawings of both the US and euro versions of the car to compare, and indeed they were different. The same assumptions were made before that rail mounting points would be there even though they werent being used. but alas.....theyre not.