bjaspud

I'm getting ready to buy a new car. I'd like to find an American brand car or wagon that I can put my bicycle (minus the front tire) inside. I don't want an SUV, MiniVan or foreign brand.

Does anyone regularly put thier bike inside of their car?

I want to be able to take my bike on business trips with me and it needs to be locked inside the car to be safe.

Suggestions?

DEK

I have a Dodge Magnum that I can put my bike in no problem. Just fold down the back seats and I'm good to go. Only problem is Dodge doesn't make the Magnum anymore so you'd have to find a used one.

RonH

I can easily fit my bike in the back of my "made in Alabama" Hyundai Elantra. Just fold the back seat, remove the front wheel and slide it in. FYI: the car gets 40 mpg highway and 29 mpg city.

thirdgenbird

Nearly any car with a fold down back seat will fit at least one bike with the front wheel removed. My Porsche 924 will fit a 60cm road bike in the hatch despite being equipped with a rollbar.

My vote goes to ford fusion if you are ok with a car that was built in Mexico with help from Japan. Ours has plenty of room fo four adults and drives better than many American sedans.

Face Palm

Most mid-size and above cars with folding back seats opening to the trunk can fit a bike without the front tire. I have a 2003 Saturn L200, and get my bike through the trunk with no problem (till I can afford a rack...). And I even managed to squeeze it into the trunk of my previous Ford Escort ZX2 coupe with the seats folded down, and that's sort of a compact car. It's always easier if you put the rear of the bike in first, with the drive side up.

If you had a full size car, you might even get the whole thing in the trunk without removing the tire...

CommuteCommando

My Pontiac Vibe (built in the now closed Fremont CA NUMMI plant ) carries mine fully assembled with ease. It will handle two, but wheel removal on one of them may be required, as well as a second set of hands loading and unloading.

It is built on a Corrola drive train that it shares with it's sister car, the Toyota Matrix, which is still in production, but in Canada last I heard, if you can handle that.

28-32 mpg Avg.

Ali_Pine

A welcome splash of news for the UAW and the U.S. economy: Ford will commence production of the Transit Connect at a U.S. assembly plant by mid-year 2012. Currently built in Turkey on a version of the Euro Focus platform, the next generation Transit will also migrate to the FWD compact platform that will underpin the next Focus both hear and abroad. https://www.autoblog.com/2009/07/20/r...eside-in-2012/

I think this would meet your requirements... "I don't want an SUV, MiniVan or foreign brand."

Not seen driven by many soccer moms.


To celebrate the Transit's status as International Van of the Year 2007, Ford built this stretch style van — the Transit XXL. It is a unique special that is among the most expensive Transits ever

GeezerPete

Yep, my little Ford Focus hatchback works just fine. I don't even have to take off the front wheel and I feel safer than I would with my bike on a car rack. Pretty much any hatchback will do.

AzTallRider

I yearn for the days when editors ensured there were far fewer typo's in published articles... sigh.

I've been eying the Transit Connect, as I'd love to have the bike inside a vehicle and vertical, but it would incite divorce proceedings. :/

Retro Grouch 

An interesting option is a PT Cruiser. Pop out the back seat and a bike, minus the front wheel, will fit standing up.

bikepro

I have a roof top carrier but due to terminal absent mindedness, I carry my bike in the trunk. With the front wheel off, it should fit numerous smaller models as long as the rear seat folds down. If you don't want to fold the seat down, you'll need one with a fairly large trunk.

CommuteCommando

The Vibe/Matrix ripped off. . . er, borrowed, a lot of the interior functions from the PT, then improved on them.

bruce19

With the back seat down I fit my Masi and my gf's Fuji road bikes in my Audi A4 Avant without the front wheel off. One on top of the other with a thick foam pad between.

Retro Grouch 

I used to have a Chevy Citation company car. My road bike would fit neatly into the trunk without folding down the seat back but I had to take both wheels off. I carried my suitcase and my briefcase in the back seat.

Artkansas 

I rented a Dodge Calibre. It took my bike, fenders and all, without removing a wheel.

I have a 1983 Pontiac Bonneville wagon that will take almost anything.

My 1962 and 63 VW microbuses could take the bike even standing up.

t4mv

Retro, when was the last time you saw a (running) Chevy Citation? I'm not knocking the space, only the execution of what propels that space.

DnvrFox

I have squeezed both my mtn bike and my road bike (front wheel removed) into the backseat of my 2000 Neon.

CraigB

I have no problems getting a bike sans front wheel into our '98 Saturn SW2 wagon. Like others have reported with their vehicles, it requires folding down the rear seat.

That said, the car is waaay long in the tooth and has had plenty of other problems since we bought it 15 years ago, so I'm looking forward to the day I can replace it. It won't happen right now (we're hoping to nurse another 2-3 years out of it), but if it did, I'd be looking closely at the hatchback version of the current Ford Focus. That seems to be one of the best blends of utility and mileage.

k7baixo

My wife asked if I was going to open a dog grooming business if I got one. That's tacit approval I think.

CraigB

I understand the no-longer-made Honda Element was great at that.

overthehillmedi

Any comment on how many dogs you would have to groom to qualify it as a business in the Boss's mind? :)

Retro Grouch 

That's actually an on topic question. Eventually I bought that car from the company and drove it into the ground. I sold it to a salvage yard and used the proceeds to upgrade our Schwinn Twinn tandem for a Santana Elan. My son told me that selling a car to buy a bicycle was doing it backwards. I haven't seen an operating Citation since but I really haven't been looking.

Retro Grouch 

The issue with the Element is the fold up back seats. One road bike fits easily with a fork mount. Two road bikes is a struggle because there isn't enough space between the folded seats for two handlebars so you have to rotate the forks or do something like that.

The seats are supposed to pop completely out, but I'm going to have to take mine to a dealer so they can show me how it's done.

thirdgenbird

Full size bronco
-cheap
-reliable
-4wd
-cheap
-Plenty of room for two 59cm cross bikes vertically with the rear seat flipped

Models with an exterior spare would probably fit 3 bikes with ease but your seating capacity is limited to two with the rear seat folded up.

Terex

If I can carry a bike in the front seat of a Mazda Miata (with the top down and windows closed), you can carry one in anything, foreign or domestic.