Is your car any good for fitting bikes and 'stuff' in?

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KneesUp

Guru
We have a wheeled potato at the moment - it says Citroen Xsara Picasso on it. Whilst it's not a car one can love, it's very practical and reliable. Like most people we could do most of our journeys in a Fiesta, but sometimes we need a bigger car (and I'm aware that when I say 'need' I mean 'it makes life loads easier to have')

For example, we go camping with an 'OMG it's huge' frame tent and get everything inside the car. This does involve DD being surrounded by stuff as we remove two seats to fit it all in, and unfortunately you can't fit bikes in as well. The Citroen does have a tow bar though, so we could get a rack for that. Ours has the glass roof which means we need Citroen's own roof bars, so we don't use the roof because the genuine ones we bought are rusted solid due to shoddy design, and I refuse to buy any more.

I also commute one-way most of the time: OH and I work in the same building so we go in together and I ride home, so it's useful that you can stick a bike in the boot upright, albeit with the saddle and front wheel off.

Much as the Citroen has never let us down, and costs not much to run (it's cost about £70 plus basic servicing in 30k miles, and it's showing 170k miles) it's getting tatty inside now, and as such a large percentage of our journeys are fairly short and in town, I feel a bit guilty doing it in a diesel, on top of which it's probably not doing it much good: I haven't had it up to full temperature for over a week and it's used every day.

So - after that preamble, I'm thinking of getting a car to do the same job as the Citroen (shift family of three in comfort, cost peanuts, run reliably and need cheap parts if it does go wrong, take a bike easily, and take three bikes and three people inside if nothing else is in it) but petrol. Preferably one that will get something near to 40mpg on a run. I accept that around town economy will be painful. I generally spend 'shed' money (e.g. £2k tops) and get one that has lots of options (my Picasso has cruise control and auto headlamps - oh yeah baby, it's posh!) so luxury bits are nice too.

Thoughts appreciated. Thanks.
 

Hugh Manatee

Veteran
We generally have estates for that reason; you can fit plenty of stuff in them. I'm due a new car now and will be going for a Mondeo estate.

Having said that, I have had a bike in my Formula 27 as well!
 
OP
OP
KneesUp

KneesUp

Guru
We have a Saab Sportswagon and it can fit 2 bikes in, with wheels still attached. Or it can fit both of us, our 4 dogs our friend Mark and his 2 huskies in it without too much palava.

Love the Saab to bits.
Interesting - my shortlist consists of a Saab 9-5 so far. It's a very short list, which is why I asked for other ideas :smile:
 
OP
OP
KneesUp

KneesUp

Guru
Defender 110. Fit anything in it, go anywhere, selfservice and repair, lots of parts available, and as there is only one pertol option, a V8 it is. Got a 300tdi though and insurance this year is £180.00 fuly comp.
My OH has driven a Land Rover in a previous job. She will not entertain the idea of owning one.
 

MikeW-71

Veteran
Location
Carlisle
Skoda Octavia estate with the 1.4TSI engine. Big big boot, comfortable and can achieve 50mpg on long runs. I reckon 3 bikes would go in with their wheels off and still get 4 people in it.

The other that springs to mind is the Skoda Roomster 1.2TSI. Remove 1 rear seat and I think you might squeeze 3 bikes and 3 people in. 50mpg economy and cheap to run.
 
I use the wife's Honda Jazz, which takes 2 bikes and 2 people, or 1 bike and 3 people.

My Saab convertible now has a boot bike rack, so 4 people and 2 bikes, or 2 people and 3 bikes with the roof down.
don't suppose you have a link for the boot bike rack ?? I have a convertible and can't have a tow bar and found nothing suitable so far for transporting bikes.
 
Interesting - my shortlist consists of a Saab 9-5 so far. It's a very short list, which is why I asked for other ideas :smile:
Saab 9-5 is a good bet, cheap to buy and specialist servicing available, parts reasonable. Otherwise consider older Merc E class estate or ML. Land Rover defender too uncomfortable, disco not reliable and higher servicing costs.

BMW too costly if anything goes wrong.

Citroen, Renault etc too dull.

Chrysler Grand Voyager for max space
 

srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
Ford C-max - the mini-MPV version of the Focus. We've just upgraded our 2003 model to a 2010 model.
 
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