Originally Posted by
Looigi
How's it not good for the bike or the car? I do it all the time; lay the bike on its non-drive side in the back, wheels on. For two, I cover the first with a doubled moving blanket and lay the second on the first (carefully).
I wondered this, too. I've laid my bikes in the back of five or six cars with no problems at all, except for trying to fit a 64cm frame into a Civic coupe (and btw what's the problem with removing the seat post? It's a 10-second job).
I have two trunk mount racks, Saris and Yakima, and a Yakima roof rack (which costs me 3mpg empty and 8mpg loaded, and eventually NO MATTER HOW CAREFUL YOU ARE, you'll go through a drivethrough with the bikes on board). I don't use them unless there's other stuff inside.
If you're so worried about your image that you'd rather risk damage or theft of your bike, I can't help with that.