What smaller car for bikes?

Northwind

Yeah, I know, sorry... Half my posts just now are car shopping.

So anyway. Very nearly buying a vectra estate, since they come fairly decent and well under my £2000 budget. But, thinking about it, do I need a bigger car?

Don't really want to store the bike outside the car, prefer to avoid racks but we often put 2 bikes in my mate's 323 along with kit (a real squeeze but doable with just the front wheels off) and another mate uses a Seat Ibiza as his "practical car" for moving his bike etc, seems to work.

So... seats down, seat 2, bikes in not too many bits + decent size kitbag each, cheap and cheerful but no tiny engines. Any ideas?

Oh, I suppose specifically, how does the Mk3 Golf do? Looks a fair size and I quite like 'em.

egg-banjo

Hi Northy, you have helped me with so much since i joined here, I picked my new Hardrock pro disc up 2 days ago, i went to pick it up in my car without a rack, its a rover 100, the back seats go down, i struggled to get it in, i had to push the passenger seat right forward and even then the back wheel was wedged right up against it and the front wheel was almost bursting its tyre trying to keep inside the car, most small cars have similar spec, buy an estate mate, evan a cheap ford escort estate just for your bike/s, i will be buying a single bike carrier shortly, you just cant get a bike into a small car comfortably.

BorisSpencer

+1 for sticking with the bigger option. After a muddy ride you can have some old sheets laid out and not be worried about squeezing a cacky pair of bikes up against the back of seats etc. Although I still have tyre marks of the headlining in my Zafira.

popstar

Honda Civic are small on the outside but huge on the inside. They do look like pensioners car, but then Vectra is no better. Can be had under 2k, and if its clean car, bombproof reliabillity too. They do shift with 1.6 engine (considering scotish mountains) and are in 40Mpg territory. That older model is better to drive, even J Clarkson complaining about new model handling** ... those multi-suspension on the rear do wonders in corners. Fact :shock: .

bike-a-swan

You can get two bikes in an old style (end of letters/beginning of numbers reg) fiesta with the wheels off without any real hassle. A golf (not sure which kind, sorry) will take two easily as well.

lasty

popstar wrote:

Honda Civic are small on the outside but huge on the inside. They do look like pensioners car, but then Vectra is no better. Can be had under 2k, and if its clean car, bombproof reliabillity too. They do shift with 1.6 engine (considering scotish mountains) and are in 40Mpg territory. That older model is better to drive, even J Clarkson complaining about new model handling** ... those multi-suspension on the rear do wonders in corners. Fact :shock: .

My choice too - I refurbish washers as a bit of a sideline and it swallows one with ease ...
As for the bike , just drop the front wheel out and the hardrock slides in a treat - wouldn`t look at anything else really , quick-ish , bombproof and 40+ mpg without really trying .

.blitz

BMW 335d estate

mickus

I have a peugeot 306 - small ish car with bags of room in the back when the seats are down.

The 2.0ltr HDI's are quick(for a diesel) and very cheap to insure, good MPG too. I paid £190 fully comp on a 2.0ltr HDI - I have been driving for 10 years with 3 points on my licence... if that's any help?

They are also cheap to repair if anything goes wrong.

I now have the 2.0ltr 16v XSi (140 bhp) and that costs me £350 fully comp. Cheap as chips!

Thewaylander

Just stay away from french cars, they have tendancy to fall apart.

macp

I was in the process of buying a 2nd car only but decided to buy a road bike and a car.Im looking around for cheap and cheerful and im going Japanese or German having plenty of experience in both Ive found they are mega reliable.

Honda Civic or Nissan Primera or Honda Accord would be excellent choices or a cheap VW Golf/Polo.

The Northern Monkey

.blitz wrote:

BMW 335d estate

I thouight someone would post that :P

.blitz

The legend lives on

popstar

it's under 2k? Bargain!

mickus

Thewaylander wrote:

Just stay away from french cars, they have tendancy to fall apart.

mechanically, mine have always been fine. Only ever needing bearings and the like replaced.... it's the electronics that's funny :P

but for a cheap run around my 306's have always been pretty bomb proof and reliable!

Thewaylander

Seen to many fall apart from Citreon and puguoet,

Plus if it's a small car the older 206 is less than a shoe box and useless for carrying anything sizable(housemate has one)

If your not after an estate but looking at golf size cars or below i would look at the skoda fabia, Seat Ibiza, the mk1 leon as the tdi can be had cheap and it is HUGE inside. I'd avoid VW costs are to great.

macp

Sorry have to totally disagree with the comments regarding VW running costs.I have run several golfs & polo`s and I certainly would not say they are expensive to run.If you go main dealer for your parts & servicing it will cost you an arm & a leg but there are plenty of VW independant specialists and parts suppliers who are a fraction of the cost of the main dealer.

Thewaylander

not just that but purchase price is higher for teh same spec.

And depends if you want main dealer stamps on your service book or not to keep the higher resale cost for later. On the whole they are still more expensive to run than simlar Seat or Skoda cars, and having driven skoda/seat/VW equivelants i would say that skod/seat are more fun to drive too but that is a matter of opinon.

Northwind

Ah, but I like the unloved Golf Mk 3 and they're pretty cheap, especially the Not A Proper GTI model Common-ness is a big help too, there's millions out there. Theres not that many Fabias and Ibizas around at this price in decent shape, not without travelling anyway.

Thanks folks, all looks useful... Still probably more tempted by a proper dad's car (told my dad I was thinking of a Vectra and he said "Oh, they're nice", kiss of death!") but I'll keep thinking. I'm always knocked out by how much goes in that 323, it's like a tiny estate.

bike-a-swan

how about a honda jazz? My experience with them suggests they take a huge amount of stuff. Haven't tried to get bikes in them though- any experience anyone?

popstar

Me thinks H Jazz would struggle in scotish mountains. Civic way way better, well my Accord flies around there.

bike-a-swan

S'true

FIow

I have an Ibiza TDi 130. Pretty quick, 60 mpg on a run, and plenty big enough for 3 bikes when (with the wheels out) the seats are down.

Radioactiveman

FIow wrote:

I have an Ibiza TDi 130. Pretty quick, 60 mpg on a run, and plenty big enough for 3 bikes when (with the wheels out) the seats are down.

Where does the owner of the 3rd bike go ? on the roof?

carlos-g

with careful planning you can get 2 bikes and limited kit into just about any 4/5 seater.

I had to use the wifes fiat siecento for a year and could get 2 GT i-drives + a weekends kit in it .

wheels off, seatpost out, turn bars 180 degrees so headtube buts against back of seats at one side then swing back end across to the other, then jam everything else round

paulbox

I picked up my new Anthem X2 last night in my Boxster...

Both wheels in the front boot, frame etc. sitting on the passenger seat (with seat belt on!), new pedals, shoes, tubes etc. in the rear boot. Had to drive the 60 odd miles home with the roof down mind which got a bit chilly towards the end but I wasn't hanging about and was on the motorway.

My next car is going to be a hatch I think (Audi S3?), I prefer to use roof carriers than putting the bikes in the back.

bigmat

Mazda 3- with seats down takes bike with wheels still on, could easily fit 3 bikes plus bags with wheels off / saddles down. Very reliable and good "drivers" car as well apparently.

kieronymous

Ford Focus is the no-brainer option in the 'medium family' size range. I just got a peachy 1.8 with FSH for well under £2k.

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/topten/medium-family

Common as muck of course, but there's a reason for that.

Re getting bikes in there, if they don't go in fully assembled (and they often won't in this size range), you should re-consider a roofrack system.

I paid under £300 for a full Thule rooftop rig for 2 bikes (feet, bars, 2 carriers). Do the numbers (offset price of smaller car + racks + slighlty increased fuel consumption against the price and running costs of of a bigger car) and you may find that this also is a no brainer. Convenience-wise, forget about it - you're halfway home before your mates have finished the bondage session.

Keeps your car clean too, and they sell on easily. You could then even go down a car size, but then you're moving into buzz-box territory - not so great on the m-way.

Then again, as my Dad says "it's pretty hard to buy a real lemon these days". So just buy whatever you like the look/feel/price of!

bike-a-swan

PaulBox wrote:

I picked up my new Anthem X2 last night in my Boxster...

Seen a 2-bike rack on an mx-5. Looked brilliant!

Larok

Vectra estate sounds good if its bikes in the car your after.