Vehicle help please

[Trek420]

VW's have "issues"?

[snapdragen]

VW's have "issues"?

They want to be Audis?

[Mr. Bloom]

They want to be Audis?

[Tuckervill]

The Honda Fit was my car of choice when I got ready to replace the Beetle. That came sooner than I thought it would. They do, indeed show a bike inside the Fit in their brochures, but it was a small bike.

Bikes will not stand up front-to-back in a Fit. I checked. It's more like the back of a Subaru than the back of an Element. A bike on the small side WILL stand up if you fold up both back seats towards the back and roll it in side to side.

Ultimately, I couldn't get a Fit because my 6'7" hubby could not squeeze into the front seat, which is a requirement. Even the Element has less passenger side leg room than the Beetle did. A CRV would have held the bikes, too, but not as easily as the Element--and hubby still couldn't fit. He wouldn't be comfortable in the Element on a long trip, either.

About VW reliability--it's a problem. There are "known issues", but most of them are easy fixes, and there is a huge online community (newbeetle.org is one, with a lot of bio and petro-diesel info) which provides help similar to what this forum does for bikes. I owned a NB for 5 years (one a TDI), and nothing major happened that I didn't anticipate or prevent, because of the forums. Still, it's nice not to have to carry a Bentley manual for the car in the trunk all the time. If you want ultimate reliability, get a Honda or a Subaru. If you don't mind tinkering around and doing stuff yourself or living with broken window switches and the like, get a Volkswagen.

Even with all the issues, I loved all (5) of my (old and New) Beetles. The Element just doesn't have the same panache. But it's got All Wheel Drive!

Karen

[KnottedYet]

Ooooh, a diesel Honda Element.... biodiesel.... ooooh.

I'm holding out for a diesel Subaru, but a diesel Element (if it were stick and awd) might tempt me.