While there are several decent car wash businesses near me, I have tended to favor a particular one that is a few minutes farther away than the others. They have had no issues with my manual transmission-equipped Mazda, and their drying technique always includes the use of compressed air to blow away water from the rear-view mirrors and tires. My experience has been that they do a more thorough job overall. I normally don’t stand at the windows to watch their machinery go through its paces, but I few weeks ago I did, and that’s when I saw it. The big overhead roller brush rolled right over my stubby roof-mounted antenna and ate part of the antenna’s rubber sheathing.
This was not their fault. The antenna easily unscrews with finger pressure only, and the business posts signs about potential damage to such items. I should have removed it. As I drove home that day, I was relieved to discover that the car’s radio reception was not affected. That was fine until I was waxing the car last week, using my new Griot’s Garage orbital buffer, and as I glided the machine past the antenna, I succeeded in snapping the spring-wrapped ceramic core. Now I had no radio reception, and it was time to source a replacement.
Google directed me to Amazon, where I had a plethora of choices, most of them from the aftermarket. Several companies offered a stubby version, but the reviews mentioned a loss of reception, an unworthy trade-off. I had to scroll down quite a bit to discover the Mazda factory antenna, which at $35 was twice the price of the elcheapo knockoffs, but I prized functionality over frugality.
Amazon delivered the part within a day, and thankfully, it was the correct item. (I had the Mazda part number, and checked that against several Mazda dealer websites.) The remove-and-replace took a minute, and everything is hunky-dory (yes, it’s in Merriam-Webster’s). I’m considering sticking a Post-It on the dash: “REMOVE ANTENNA AT CAR WASH!”
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