back to the cars thread

[mimitabby]

are there really no vehicles out there that carry bikes nicely AND get better than 25 mpg???? (that's pathetic!)

[7rider]

There was a review of the Honda Fit in Car & Driver recently. Photogs were in or around a velodrome (!) I think, and one of the pix showed a road bike, front wheel removed, tucked neatly in the back of that tiny little car. For a little car, reviews have indicated it has a surprising amount of storage. I sat in one at the D.C. Car Show last month. It's a very cool little car, and gets great gas mileage.

[Nokomis]

I love my Mini Cooper S - two bike racks on top (fork mount) and the minimum MPG we get with short distance city driving & bikes on top is 25. They recently released the Clubman which is a touch longer - and if it weren't for the mullet paint job I'd be all over that!

[mimitabby]

yeah, that clubman is cute, but $25,000 for a LITTLE car???

[kat_h]

I have a hyundai accent that fits one bike with the car's back seats folded down. I also have a rack for it that holds two bikes.

[7rider]

I love my Mini Cooper S - two bike racks on top (fork mount) and the minimum MPG we get with short distance city driving & bikes on top is 25. They recently released the Clubman which is a touch longer - and if it weren't for the mullet paint job I'd be all over that!

We also spent a fair bit of time with the Minis at the DC Car show.
DH joneses for a Cooper S in the worst way.
The Clubman looks really cool.
What makes its paint job a "mullet"??

[mimitabby]

I don't know, i thought the paint was nice. on that Clubman

I probably will NOT buy a new car. The Honda Fit seems nice, but it's rather new.

I just remember how thrilling it was to ROLL our bikes into the Honda ELement we test drove last fall, but the gas mileage is TERRIBLE.

Confession: Raleighdon has a custom bike which is really obnoxious to take the front wheel off of.
Bike racks seriously change gas mileage.

[Kalidurga]

My Honda Civic Coupe gets 30-35mpg and can take a bike in the trunk and as many as will fit on whatever rack's installed. And it was cheap

[Nokomis]

We also spent a fair bit of time with the Minis at the DC Car show.
DH joneses for a Cooper S in the worst way.
The Clubman looks really cool.
What makes its paint job a "mullet"??

I don't know how the paint was in the car show - but when you order, you have to get a contrasting roof - and the contrast color extends down the back pillars. The online description even details this as 'Business in the front, party in the back' which I believe is the definition of Mullet

I'm sure there are other options out there - but I love my Mini & can't imagine driving anything else.

[Zen]

I've seen that paint job before and mullet is an apt description.
Who thinks this stuff up? The same guy who designed the Pontiac Aztec

[Tuckervill]

The Honda website shows the Fit with a bike in the back seat with the wheel on (a mountain bike). But that had to be a KID'S bike. My bike would not fit across there, I am certain. I sat in one again last week while I was waiting for my oil change in the E. It's a tiny car and my husband would not fit in the passenger seat.

A roadie friend of mine rolls his bike into the back seat of his Accord, without taking the wheel off. I wouldn't want grease on my seats, though. (I didn't notice any on his, btw.) Accords don't get GREAT gas mileage, though, just so-so.

I am having pump shock every time I fill up my Element, since my diesel Beetle got 40 mpg easy. But I couldn't get a bike in it, in any way.

I'm buying back my son's '96 Civic 4-door 5-speed for my 14 yo to drive eventually. You can bet I'll be driving that 38 mpg puppy around when I don't have any big loads to haul! Maybe a bike will roll in the back seat like the Accord?

Karen

[susiej]

are there really no vehicles out there that carry bikes nicely AND get better than 25 mpg???? (that's pathetic!)

Our Toyata Matrix with a two-bike z-rack on the back gets its usual above 25 mpg city. About half of our driving is with my Trek on the back. Mileage has gotten worse with ethanol mixed into the gas, but hovers at 25 or 26. (That's a whole other rant entirely.)

My old Saturn SL was above 25 mpg even when I had the bike on the trunk rack for weeks.

We do buy the smaller engines with manual transmissions. We drive in the suburbs, so mileage is better than in a true city.

The lack of really great mileage in a car is why the Saturn's replacement might be a scooter. VW Beetles were getting 25 mpg in the 70s -- surely there should be a four-seater with some trunk space that gets 40 mpg by now!

[mimitabby]

. VW Beetles were getting 25 mpg in the 70s -- surely there should be a four-seater with some trunk space that gets 40 mpg by now!

and the fact that they are such rare birds is proof of the incompetence of the american automobile industry. All american car makers are selling cars like that IN EUROPE.

[susiej]

and the fact that they are such rare birds is proof of the incompetence of the american automobile industry. All american car makers are selling cars like that IN EUROPE.

We were down at SouthCenter the other day so we checked out the new Smart Car dealership. Though I'm dissapointed that the US versions of this car *do not* have the high efficiency Mercedez Benz engines in them, nor do they have the 60 mpg diesel option here, they still do get 30 mpg city and you can get a really sweet looking rear mounted bike rack that takes the bikes with both wheels on and is not very high off the ground (so mounting would be easy).

But ... but ... but ... efficiency is sexy!

Our neighbors would buy cars in Germany and ship them back here. A Smart would probably fit in the hand luggage ...

[Beane]

I too love my diesel jetta. I easily get 38 in around-town driving. And while I'm not a leadfoot anymore, I'm not driving slowly either. I've gotten better mileage on the highway. (and this is always with a roof rack of some sort). Plus, since it's a diesel, I expect it to live for several hundred thousand miles without any major drivetrain issues.

VW is coming out with a few more diesel vehicles this spring/summer including a new SUV:
http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publi...cle_2032.shtml

and new jetta wagon:
http://www.vwvortex.com/artman/publi...cle_1967.shtml

and new "clean" diesel:
http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...t_drive_review