Question About Door/Alarm Remote
 

I have just purchased a used 2012 Mazda 3 that was a trade-in at a Dodge dealership and it was too good a deal to pass up. This car has the push button start and the hidden key is just used to open the doors and trunk (boot).

My only problems are that I only received 1 remote with the car and the battery that was in it was low. For reasons that I won't go into here, I let that go. So I changed the battery and the car stopped complaining about it, but the range still sucks. I have to practically stand by one of the doors before it will work. I would hope that this is not typical behavior.

So I would like to know, do I need to get a new remote or am I missing something? The battery reads a full charge on a meter.

Also, since I only have the one, will I have to go to a dealership to get an additional remote and possibly a replacement for the one I have? It works, but the range just sucks.

These are the only negatives I have on what is otherwise an awesome car that I absolutely love!

Nobody knows? Oh well, I found the answer in the Driver's Manual of all places. I wouldn't have thought to look there for this issue. It turns out that this is stock performance for the remote. For security purposes the remote is designed to work at no more than 31" from the doors on either side of the car. So was never a problem here to begin with, it's by design. Just in case anyone else was experiencing this and didn't know why.