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Why do (most) estate cars have roof rails? How do folk with saloon cars cope without them?
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They save about 5MPG :)
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They have to buy roof rails before they can take the kids surfing, or do their window cleaning round.
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>>Why do (most) estate cars have roof rails?
I believe the first modern estate car to have roof rails was the Mercedes W123 Estate. They were in chrome and instantly differentiated this estate from all others. They were considered very practical and secure by other manufacturers, so were copied.
Every estate car I have owned has had roof rails and are very useful for carrying large items that do not fit in the load area.
Many manufacturers do allow a no cost option of supply without roof rails, but you would be mad to specify this as secondhand buyers now expect them.
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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Mine doesn't have them, and I would not want them!
I do have a very good Thule rack which only takes five minutes to fit!
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I'd agree with that, the noise from the rails I had on my A6 was very noticeable. You have to fit cross-fitting bars anyway when carrying a load so there is no purpose to them.
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I have some fitted as standard on my Fiat Panda (current model) - surely fashion accessory on such a small car. Couldn't be any use for carrying heavy loads, they are only lightweight aluminium. Suppose they serve as an anchor to fix lateral bars or a rack. Fuel drag probably counts against them.
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Never used the black roof rails on my Passat. I'd be much happier to use them than clamp a rack to my bodywork.
If anything like my old tailgate mounted bike rack it will drop off.
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I wasna fu but just had plenty.
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Hmm. All interesting stuff.
If roof rails are there to secure a roof-mounted load, it should be saloon cars that need them most: estate cars have extra room inside for bigger loads. And despite the presence of roof rails, don't you still need extra bits to fasten to the roof rails in order to secure the load? So why not supply them?
I've never used the ones on my A4 Avant. look nice, though. And somehow estates now look wrong without them. Daft, innit?
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My Touran has them - great for carrying bicycles without getting the interior muddy after a good trail ride. VW also use them as a subtle way of signalling the top of the range Sport with chrome bars from the lesser models that come with black bars. However I notice that the S Max comes without bars yet accepts Thule load mounting points to exactly the same effect so I agree, they are probably just another way of adding wind noise.
I have found the bars on the Touran and on my previous Galaxy useful for hanging onto whilst cleaning the roof and balancing on the door sill!
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Some years ago I had a Renault 21 Savanna - a brilliant, practical estate car. Not only did it have roof bars but it also had rubber strips on the roof between them, so you didn't need the cross bars - the load sat on the roof and you tied it to the bars.
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Mine doesn't have them, and I would not want them!
Same here.The Chasseur style may look cool but uses more fuel.(Unintentional rhyming).Ford did a good job of making the Sierra the most aerodynamic car of its time,why spoil it?On the rare occasion I want to transport my ladders I clip some roofbars on.
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As far as I see it, there are two major users of estates. 1 - sales and maintenance people and the like who need to carry vast amounts of gear for their job and 2 - families. The first lot probably have no use for the rails, whereas most of the second probably do. How else to you carry the skis with a car full of kids other than using a roof box or ski rack?
BIG
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>>They save about 5MPG :)
Whilst not doubting that the extra drag must have some adverse effect on mpg, my own experience is that it is negligible
I leave my roofrack (so greater drag than roofrails) on the car all the time, have measured my fuel consumption with and without it and finding no measurable difference.
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Having become standard, roof rails are reverting to the option list as manufacturers realise that many estate buyers specifically want to put the load inside and don't want to look like a Transit with a roof frame!
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I was wondering if anyone else had a view on these things and it appears they do! Even so, I've not seen anything here to persuade me that roof rails are any more than cosmetic. My thoughts in bullet form:
* The rails don't allow you to do anything that you can't do by attaching crossbars to hidden mounting points above the doors, as I do with my S60.
* You can't actually attach a load to the rails: you have to (a) buy and (b) attach the crossbars first;
* The rails must make some contribution to drag and wind noise
* A load attached to bars-on-rails sits higher than the same load would if the bars were attached directly to the roof, increasing drag and noise and possibly making the difference in a marginal fit-car-into-space-on-ferry situation.
OK - what am I missing? Crucially, what could I carry on roof rails that wouldn't go on the same car (meaning big estate or MPV) with bars attached across the roof?
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They save about 5MPG :)
I do not see my 520 touring going from 25mpg to 30 mpg by removing the roof rails.
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They were a no cost option on My V70, so I specced them and wouldn't be without them:
Convenience
Whenever I need to carry my mountain bike on the roof (it travels inside the car when there is space), it's far easier to lift the roof bars (already connected to bike bracket as one assembly) in to place, and snap, snap, snap, snap, than mess around fitting a roof rack
Load security
It's solid. Period! I carried a large settee on roof bars clipped to the rails for a considerable distance. It moved not a jot. Not sure I would have done that with Dad's spindly aluminium "Desmo" roofrack all those years ago.
Damage risk
The risk of marked paintwork is much lower than when fitting a roofrack.
Aesthetics
A V70 without roofrails just doesn't look right. Looks kinda bald.
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SjB - question for you in IHAQ 175!
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Convenience
Whenever I need to carry my mountain bike on the roof (it travels inside the car when there is space), it's far easier to lift the roof bars (already connected to bike bracket as one assembly) in to place, and snap, snap, snap, snap, than mess around fitting a roof rack
But wouldn't the same apply to roof-mounting crossbars like mine? I could keep them fixed to the bike carrier just as you do with yours. I've done this with a big roof box attached to the bars, and while the sheer bulk of the box makes that a bit awkward, I'd be confident of managing it with a bike carrier.
Load security
It's solid. Period! I carried a large settee on roof bars clipped to the rails for a considerable distance. It moved not a jot. Not sure I would have done that with Dad's spindly aluminium "Desmo" roofrack all those years ago.
Again, I'm not considering rails as an alternative to the old-fashioned gutter-mounted roof rack. Just about all modern cars (those that don't have rails anyway) have mounting points for crossbars like mine. They're solid, too: when I pull on mine to test the attachment, I can rock the whole car on its suspension. What you describe with the sofa would have been just as possible on a pair of bars.
Damage risk
The risk of marked paintwork is much lower than when fitting a roofrack.
But you are fitting a roof rack! You still have to slip or screw the crossbars to the rails. I really don't see the advantage here over roof-mounted bars.
Aesthetics
A V70 without roofrails just doesn't look right. Looks kinda bald.
And just what's wrong with that...? >;---) Intriguing idea, though - roof rails as toupé.
I do wonder why the most obviously (to me) outdoor-sports-oriented vehicle available today - by which I mean the S-Max - comes without rails. It may be that the designers thought they wouldn't look right with the sloping rear roofline, but I suspect if they felt the rails would have any practical value, they'd have found a way to get them in.
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One difference they make is the cost of the cross rails - you can pick up cross rails to fit fixed roof rails (ie on the mondeo estate) for £30. These will then fit any other car with fixed roof rails. For Thules to fit fixed points on my car without roof rails would be £129 (cheapest I have found) and £140 for manufacturers own which are obviously a better fit - although my dealer has knocked off £39 as I bought two cars from them last year.
Why would I want stuff on the roof when I have an X-trail/had a mondeo? Five people + dog in cage + luggage+ food/entertainment + fishing gear + MacLaren buggy ..... or substitute sailing gear/repair kit for fishing gear as not everything safely travels in the dinghy.
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For Thules to fit fixed points on my car without roof rails would be £129 (cheapest I have found) and £140 for manufacturers own which are obviously a better fit
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I am not sure re a better fit.
I bought my Thule bars and fittings for my Mondeo for £5.50 last month :-))). Now that really is Cheeeeap.
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I think my Volvo-branded (but probably Thule-made) bars for the S60 were about £80, plus £20 for the locking kit. (Maybe some people like to buy one without the other!) That was in 2003, and I'll presumably be able to get some of it back via Ebay when I sell the car. Not especially cheap, I agree - especially when they must have cost about £10 to make - but a a tiny drop in the great big bucket of total cost of ownership.
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Henry - not better fit for a mondeo but better fit for fixed points on X-trail - purely because the Nissan ones have covers to fit in the aperture round the fitting which match the ..um .. non-raised rails (what DO you call them ) whereas the Thule ones appear to fit the fitting but don't have that extra cover. Now, if any of that makes sense..... I'm off to collect my new cross bars!
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M M
Yes that makes sense.
I now have a spare set of lockable Sierra Sapphire / Astra roof bars that have gaiters that seal around the hidden rails. They have a limited attraction due to fitting few vehicles and the bars being in effect clamped between the fittings.
No sign of a brand on them but very well built.
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Years ago shortly after buying a BX GTI, I needed to use roof bars, almost every weekend. It was a pain to take them on and off, so I left them on. After 5 years the roof paint was badly scratched where the rubber pads had obviously vibrated, and the roof gutter was starting to rust where the clamps gripped - and these were pukka Citroen roof bars. I replaced the GTI with a BX TZD estate with roof rails and rubber strips - brilliant.
We now have a C8 with integral rails and bars that slide to the back of the roof when you are not using them, preventing wind noise and reducing drag to the absolute minimum. If you need bars I think this is the best solution, but I've only seen them on Espaces apart from the C8 and cousins.
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Roof rails extend almost to the back of the car, so the cross-bars can be spaced quite widely apart - much further than if they were mounted on bars secured in the door openings. Better for carrying long loads (eg. ladders).
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.......but I've only seen them on Espaces apart from the C8 and cousins......
VW Touregs too I think.
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.......but I've only seen them on Espaces apart from the C8 and cousins...... VW Touregs too I think.
Not really "roof rails"; you only get one, and it's bowed in the middle!
assets.in.gr/dGenesis/assets/Content6/Photo/big/VW...g
What that's supposed to achieve, goodness knows.
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That looks like it splits and slides to me.
Can´t really believe I´m posting about it though, it´s so boring.
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This weekend I discovered another good reason to have roof rails to fix your cross bars to. If you have rails to fix cross bars to then you can buy any box to fit, if you have fixed points then certain boxes will not fit ...... oh what a wasted journey we had!
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They save about 5MPG :) I do not see my 520 touring going from 25mpg to 30 mpg by removing the roof rails.
Nor my Volvo's increase from 35 to 40 even if I remove the massive full length estate roof rack.
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Fore and aft rails should have a negligible effect on drag and,in anything,improve straight line stability.
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So that's what those Cadillac fins were for!
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My Berlingo has roof rails that run parallel to the car most of the time but can be turned to carry loads when needed. It's also possible to carry light loads directly on the rubber area of the roof and use the bars as lashing points.
There's plenty of room inside for bikes and what have you, but the odd occasion when I've needed to get something big back from Ikea - a bed or wardrobe - they're really handy.
Terry...
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It's also possible to carry light loads directly on the rubber area of the roof and use the bars as lashing points.
I can carry some long light loads on the side of my standard Mondeo saloon without using roof bars. ;-))
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