I love the CR-V but my 61cm frame won't fit inside it, never mind taking three bikes on a trip. Same goes for the Xterra. The Element is great but gas milage is supprisingly bad.

What I would really like to see is some auto review (site or magazine) companies to actually take out a tape measure and give us dimensions for cargo spaces in mini vans and SUVs along with rear door dimensions. Even consumer reviewers like Consumer Reports just regurgitate manufacturer's sales info by giving cubic inches rather than dimensions.

Get a clue pal, when my grandson has to sit in the back seat it's hard to fit two bikes in the Scion xB so I just put them in my diesel 4x4 Excursion that I could drive on the beach.

It's not exactly a "midsize", but we bought a new(2006) Toyota RAV4 a few months ago. My wife was dead set on getting a small SUV. One criteria for buying a new vehicle was that it had to easily carry two bikes inside. We were seriously considering the Honda CR-V for a while and even drove a couple. But by my measurements, it was just not going to be easy(or even possible) to haul 2 bikes inside. The way the seats fold forward takes up a lot of the space in the back(2007 model may be different, I don't know). We looked at XTerra's but I just could not live with 17-18MPG. Besides the Nissan dealers were all a bunch of jackasses. One of them wanted me to tell them I'd buy a vehicle "today" before they'd even let me test drive one. I just got in the car and drove off.

We looked at A LOT of small SUV's and we were getting pretty discouraged....until we saw the new RAV4. My wife liked it immediately(Ok, I did too). After some measuring, I was convinced it would easily haul our bikes(and I was correct). I already had a board with fork mounts on it that I had made for a pickup bed. After just a little modification it fit the RAV4 perfectly. The RAV4 seats fold down flat and take up absolutely ZERO space that can be used for bike hauling. It may not be the vehicle for everyone, but it was the perfect choice for my wife and me. It's sort of a "chick car" but since it's my wife's daily driver I don't mind driving it sometimes. At least I got the manly V6 and 4X4. It's a little hotrod! The thing gets 26-27mpg too. I consider that pretty good for an SUV with a 270 horsepower V6.

Here's a thread I started about this back when we were looking. It has some fairly usefull info if you are interested... https://www.bikeforums.net/foo/195075-can-ya-haul-2-bikes-inside-honda-cr-v.html