I've had my 5 for 8 months and I can't believe how much stone chips I have. Touching it up just makes the car look like crap. looks like zits all over. I miss the old nail polish type of touch up paints.
It seems to me that late model cars have a thin coat of paint.
Is the 3M clear good enough to last years? I'm trying to stay away from hood deflectors.
Anyone with the electronic rust control, is it working for you?

Also standard oil filters with the G2Y instead of F2Y part numbers have a smaller check valve and a square o-rings.....for the same price. So I bought all the old stock from my local dealership. Any idea as to why Mazda is doing this?

Speaking of oil filters, the cartridge type cost more than the standard type oil filters. I figured that it would be cheaper since there are less material and manufacturing process, I mean no metal casing and no check valve. Just a filter element and 2 o-rings. Then theres the oil filter cover. could not find anything that would fit properly to take it out. They have it for Toyota, GM, Saturn etc.....and it is $20 at the dealership as opposed to $5.


Other than that the 5 is great! Nothing beats a light twisty run with your kids! But then the tires. 17" and a short tread life....

I think I'll stop for now.

 

bmw 5 series? or like...u mean that ugly mazda 5 thingy.

 

3M clear bra works great.....2 years now on my wifes TSX and its all good

 

It works great if you don't keep it long, and if it's a light colour, on darker colours it gets cloudy and looks like crap.

 

There's also a company called Lamin-X that makes a clear protective film. May want to try them.

 

Hey ; You can buy the oil filter stand from a 2 liter M3 and it will let you use screw on filters . I did this for my wifes M6

 

I have the titanium grey. I'll check out the 3M and this laminex.


in regards to the standard oil filter mod. Is it the tall or short one?

 

I'll expand the rant on new cars...

I have a Mazda 6 wagon that I bought new (and I love it), and while stone chips aren't a problem, the windshield is! We owned the car for 750kms before a rock cracked the windshield. Since then we have had two more spider web cracks from subsequent rock impacts.

I have spoken to friends with new (less than 2 years old) cars, and they have all had to replace their windshields. Honda, Nissan, Subaru and VW... all cracked from stones. I've never had to replace the windshield on any car I've owned, but it seems that new cars are using cheaper (thinner?) windshields.

 

funny you mentioned windshield. My buddy's mini is going into its 3rd windshield.

 

we had an '88 740 GLE Volvo since 1990 and never had it undercoated once and rarely washed the thing all winter. apparently it had 7 layers of paint from the factory and we never had it painted. even with years of tough abuse it hardly had any chips, scratches or dents that turned into rust. after owning a 2002 protege for a few years I was very dissapointed with the quality of paint Mazda gave it.

I also noticed the same thing about the winshield on the volvo. we had to replace it once (because I put a ladder through it).

they don't make things like they used to!!!

 

And sometimes that's not such a bad thing. My wife got rear ended this week in our 6, and I'd rather it happened in a car from 2006 than one from 1990!