pre-buy Mazda5 questions

[SuperJETT]

We've looked/test driven a 5 including an overnight so we could see how carpool with 5 kids goes and so far so good with a few exceptions.

The one we drove was a 2009 and the antenna hits our garage door and on the way outis a pretty hard bend. Any shorter ones that work well?

The rear seat belts don't even touch our oldest 2 kids' chest/shoulder. They are sitting on booster bottoms, and I figure we need to attach the belt positioning straps. After searching a ton, I don't see much concern over it. Our kids are 5/6/9 so they should fit for a few more years though the 9 year old (just turned) is already 4'6".

A small item: all 4 dash vents were broken on the one we test drove, what's up with that?


We have a minivan and 4-dr Accord currently. The van was hit pretty bad last week plus has some other issues so it's time to replace it and if the 5 is too small in the long run, I'll drive it and ditch the Accord for another minivan down the road.

 

[chief_wiggum]

The one we drove was a 2009 and the antenna hits our garage door and on the way outis a pretty hard bend. Any shorter ones that work well?

I replaced mine with one off of another Mazdaspeed3, works fine. There's a thread on that around here somewhere.

 

[SuperJETT]

I figured it was something simple like that, thanks.

The seatbelt issue is the only thing holding us back (plus insurance check for our van that got hit last week, hopefully that's resolved next week).

 

[mpvue]

our kids are 2, 8 and 10, and I've not noticed an issue w/ the seatbelts.

 

[turtlegirl]

My kids are 10, 8 and 5. One is still in a booster. I'll be interested to find out how/if you resolve this - are you saying the belt is hitting them all in the neck, even with boosters?

I haven't test fit my kids in one yet (I'm looking to buy, myself), so I don't know if mine "fit" yet.

 

[SuperJETT]

No, the opposite actually, the belt doesn't even touch them due to the anchor point being fairly high/forward of them. The belt positioning strap should take care of it---we've never had to use them in our vehicles, but now understand why they're included.

 

[flcruising]

When we bought ours, the antenna was missing. Got one from a Dodge Journey for $6 at my local Chrysler dealer and screwed it right on. Looks like this, but it has the spiral wire around the outside (can't remember what it's called?) that helps with the reception - https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned)

The belt strap positioner is necessary for our 3 yo when in the third row. I feed it around the headrest post to align it with her shoulder and it works perfectly.

When shopping for ours, every one of them had at least 1 broken vent. We lucked out with ours that has none broken. If it's from a dealer, just write into the agreement to have them replaced. Stress that that's the only thing really that bugs you about the vehicle. I did this with another vehicle that had some door panel damage and they agreed no problem to fix it.

 

[kyoshiro]

I have some random short antenna that i bought locally at a chinese car accessories store (the accessory looking like a china product) but it works fine in place of the original one and it costs like 10bucks.

 

[SuperJETT]

Awesome, thanks for all the info everyone.

I think we're going to move forward once we get the insurance claim finished up on our van, either totaled or just cash out the damage then sell it as-is.

 

[wmzda5]

I have some random short antenna that i bought locally at a chinese car accessories store (the accessory looking like a china product) but it works fine in place of the original one and it costs like 10bucks.

Dame thing with mine I bought for CAD14 in a local chinese/asian mall

Hey Kyoshiro long time since I've seen you here, I see you still got your 5?

 

[Heat]

Stubby Antenna, $12.99 including shipping: http://www.stubbyantenna.com/detail1.asp?key=Mazda_5_2005

About 2.55" long, so it would stick up maybe 1.75" or 2"? (it's at an angle)

But, before you do that, is your garage door fully opening? With your Accord it doesn't need to open fully, and probably with your current mini-van too. It may just be an adjustment, but you can buy smaller antennas. The antenna just screws on / off.

 

[SuperJETT]

Yes, it opens fully, the antenna is hitting the door frame and door both.

 

[kyoshiro]

Dame thing with mine I bought for CAD14 in a local chinese/asian mall

Hey Kyoshiro long time since I've seen you here, I see you still got your 5?

oh yah still here with my 5, just that I havent done much on it for a while except for the usual few hour car wash + wax every once in a while. Still got 2 more years of full coverage warranty till I will consider trading it in depending on how it goes. Im planning on getting a porter cable polisher to polish it, still working out the "combo".

 

[DKaz]

Could also get the Visual Garage shark fin antenna, it's a function antenna although I'd say you lose about 20% reception.

Come to think about it, I wonder if my antenna is still there or if I haven't noticed it lately lol. I would expect the antenna to be able to take some abuse, that's why it was designed like that. How much clearance is above your 5 exactly?

 

[SuperJETT]

Thanks for all the help, we'll be buying in the next week or two probably, just have to find a 2008+ in our price range that's not black or white.

 

[flcruising]

Don't limit yourself to your local area. We knew exactly what trim/color we wanted after shopping locally. I frequented hertzrent2buy and ebay for about a month. Ebay guarantees and protects you and lists the car's Autocheck (better than Carfax). I actually purchased ours and had it shipped about 700 miles for ALOT cheaper than we were able to find anywhere near us.

 

[thaxman]

The rear seat belts don't even touch our oldest 2 kids' chest/shoulder. They are sitting on booster bottoms, and I figure we need to attach the belt positioning straps. After searching a ton, I don't see much concern over it. Our kids are 5/6/9 so they should fit for a few more years though the 9 year old (just turned) is already 4'6".

A small item: all 4 dash vents were broken on the one we test drove, what's up with that?

If the dash vents were all broken, its a good indicator of how the previous owner cares for stuff. Let that one be someone else's problem, as it will probably have issues down the line.

As for the shoulder belts. I've got 4 kids - 9,6,4,6mos. The 2 in the middle sit in boosters in the back. The younger of the 2 has a backrest-style booster, and the 6-YO has the butt-booster only. Haven't had any probs, nor when the 9-YO sat back there, even when he was 8. But I also think that as long as they rest on the correct part of the shoulder when the kids lean forward, all should be OK.

 

[SuperJETT]

We almost bought a 2009 Sport with 43,000 but the alignment was off and they had some trouble correcting it, so we passed and just 4 hours later bought a 2008 with 59,000 for $1200 less otd. It also already had the windows tinted and is blue instead of dark grey and is a certified from a Mazda dealer, not a Smart dealer.

And my wife is happy...