Originally Posted by
Road Fan
I havent seen a "Cars for Carting Bikes" thread for a while, so since I'm about tto buy a little bigger car, lemme see what the old bike guys think.
I've been driving Prius' since about 2007. One Mrk 2 was totalled so we replaced it with a 2009, Wife needed her own so we got here a used 2007, retired from Toyota so we traded the '07 Prius for a Lexus SUV, then we hated the Lexus and for a 2018 Prius (new).
The '18 Prius is a Mk 4 and a little lower in every way than the Mk2: harder to get in and out, the cargo floor os not smooth, and it's harder to fit two bikes. The cargo height is lower in the rear, as well. So even with the better fuel economy (better hybrid system and the "Ukieh-O Samurai Warrior" body style are more energy efficient than the lozenge-shaped Mk2, we like to drive the Mk2 Prius (2009, recall) better, even though it is close to 180k miles.
We're thinking now of trading the Mk4 (2018, 17k miles) for a 2018 VW Golf Alltrak SEL wagon, with 3500 miles. It seems to be a little old lady house-locked by Covid situation, except for the 6-sp manual transmission!
The bed seems long enough for a long wheelbase (105 cm) 650b, even two of them, it has loads of toys and safety features, and an easy to understand dashboard. I don't mind pulling wheels of of bicycles, but on the 650bs we have SON dynos and it's a tricky job to disconnect and reconnect the wiring. So we like a cargo bed where we can just lay bikes down.
Next alternative for a station wagon is a Volvo V60 or an Audi All-road (based on the A4 sedan). Mercedes-Benz has this year an E-class wagon, but the "cheap one" is $67K. V60 is available as a hybrid but that costs as much as the E-class. The Subaru Outback is also still in the picture, so I have to take a better look at it.
What have you folks found as good choices in the current market?
Many years ago there was a Ford pickup advertisement that stated if you have two vehicles, the second one should be a pickup. Why have two cars, when they do the same thing. That really seemed logical to me.
Finally back in 1994 I remembered that, and bought my first small pickup. Smartest move I ever made. Carrying bikes and trikes are only one of the many things you can do with a pickup. In fact if you can get by with only one vehicle, a crew cab mid sized pickup is the do all machine. You can carry 5 people, and the bed can be use for a multitude of hauling jobs.