Jadesfire 

I had a '96 Cherokee for ~10 years. A bike with both wheels still attached will fit, but it takes some creative placement .
Love my Wrangler now, too. I got the tow package and can use a hitch-mounted rack if needed, but I can fit a bike in the back of my 2-door model with the front wheel off. As I found out after an impulse buy on a used frame one weekend...

T Stew

My commute to work and back is 80 miles and I do it with truck for years. I've done the math a few times (and it changes based on gas costs of course) but even with the crappy mpg of the truck it doesn't make sense to buy new or somewhat new car that gets double the mpg just to save money. Got to take into account cost of registration and insurance, etc for another vehicle too. However if your going to replace a vehicle and not add another, then of course it can be a better deal. I'm finally thinking of replacing my older truck, and there are other benefits to having a newer vehicle besides trying to save money on gas alone (plus disadvantages too).

StanSeven

I have an SUV with a roof rack. It's much easier and quicker to put rear seats down with the bikes in back than putting them on the roof.

vinnyvincent

If I had room for two vehicles I would definitely own an older truck. Since I have to essentially replace each vehicle and only use one, I tend to go with new vehicles when it's time to replace.

hollywoodeskimo

Car Manufacturers With The Most Vehicles Recalled

Porschefan

Here's what I'm actively searching for:






I've been using my 944 daily driver, but it's getting long in the tooth. My "fun" car is a Cayman, and that's probably one of the worst-possible bike haulers--although there are roof and rear racks available.

I test drove one of these Elements a couple days ago and they are surprisingly lively and fun-to-drive. As far as "practical" goes--I don't think they can be beat. Of course the look a little dorky--but I like 'em!! Here's a great review from 2003 Car & Driver about these cars.

"Have you ever wondered what would happen if an automaker morphed a Hummer H2 with a Mini Cooper?" Pretty apt description!

STP

rekmeyata

Sometimes function takes precedence over form...those Elements are ugly but you can certainly use it for hauling a bike.

rekmeyata

hollywoodeskimo; Why do you keep deleting your posts? you found a web site concerning Honda recall then ok post it, not sure how accurate your site is but nor do I know how accurate my two sites I gave are either. You're not going to make anyone mad and get into a pissing war with each other, like I said before I don't really care for Toyota or Honda because they have dull looks, even though I own a 09 Acura TL AWD (which I love the looks of it for a modern car) I still don't care. A lot of car companies have recalls, all I care about is reliability and low cost of repairs and Japanese cars seem to have both slots covered while America has only the low cost repair slot covered, while Europeans don't have either slot covered!

TimothyH

OP here...

I appreciate the serious posts and that's the first time I have actually seen the inside an Element. There are not too many out there.

Carmax has zero inventory and I only see a few private sales in Atlanta on craigslist, most of them >150k miles.

I have some time but really can't hold my breath for more than a month or so waiting for the perfect car to come on the market.

hollywoodeskimo

I think I mentioned before that I have trouble with the Bike Forum's site. Typing and posting are a real challenge and I've tried with different computers and different IPSs. Here's an example of what my text would look like if I didn't correct the errors caused when typing in the reply box: Here's an xample ofwhat my txt would look like if I din't correct th erro caused hen typing in the reply box. That sentence actually looks better than most would if I didn't fix them. And it's not my typing. I've been successfully touch typing for decades. I also have problems with posting. Sometimes the message gets posted. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the messages apparently get deleted. I've used forums on other sites for years and never had the problems I do here.

I'm not trying to get anyone mad. Sorry if you did. I just thought that the article I posted might be of interest since it is a very current article (3/16) as opposed to the other articles that were posted. And I agree, it's difficult to know which of the articles is accurate since they appear to present very different conclusions.

bruce19

A little late to the show but....I have a Ford Focus ST that accommodates two road bikes. In general driving it gets 24-25 mpg. Once you have both bikes in and some riding gear you're not getting much else in it. So, it's not a car you can load up and drive away to go cycling for a weekend. Prior to that I had a Hyundai Elantra GT that got a little better mpg and was pretty much like the Focus ST minus some serious power/torque and fun. And, prior to that was an Audi A4 Avant. The Audi was the biggest and most cargo friendly of the bunch. As much as I love the Focus ST I would consider a new Audi except that they discontinued the Avant for an Allroad and you can only get an automatic transmission. Automatic is a non-starter for me.

hollywoodeskimo

Good luck. I hope you find what you're looking for. The Element looks like a good choice if you are set on putting your bike in the vehicle. The Element has good reviews, few recalls, and gets decent MPG.

topslop1

I'm not really arguing that manual is less efficient than automatic. At this point I'm more so arguing that the difference between the two is small enough that the average person is not going to care. I like manual trans, and I'd like to have it in my next vehicle. However, when I go to buy a vehicle, I'm looking for the cheapest used option on a 10 year old vehicle. If a deal pops up, it may or may not be manual. Cars are fun (some of them) but I will get much more bang for buck by throwing my money into a few bicycles than a slightly better car. $3,000-$5,000 will get you a 2-3 year old top of the line bicycle.. far more enjoyment than spending $3,000-$5,000 more on a car and getting..well.. not much.

We are on a bicycle forum, right?

mpath

Fuelly.com says ~21-22 mpg. (Honda Element Mileage | Fuelly) That's real world mpg and not EPA numbers. Not sure if that's considered decent or not.

hollywoodeskimo

My 2004 AWD Toyota Matrix gets about 27 MPG real world and it's probably about the same size as the Element. That's kind of what I go by, decency-wise for that kind of car. Honestly, I don't even like that. My 2010 Corolla gets 32.5 MPG real world and even that kind of depresses me. I really should go hybrid or electric. Just can't get out of the full combustion engine way of thinking, yet.

StanSeven

That's about right. One reason Honda stopped production is the boxy shape and the inability to get better fuel milage from lack of aero shape.

Another thing is the Element doesn't get particularly great reviews in the real world. Much of the positive feedback people see are from other Element owners, who are almost like cult followers. The Element has quite a few consumer complaints of someone takes the time to review those sites.

TimothyH

You can stop right there.

I just got an insurance settlement check for a wrecked '13 Focus SE. I'm glad no one was hurt but am equally glad the car is gone.

The audio control unit went bad twice - this is a systemic problem across the entire Ford product line in 2013. The passenger side doors stopped locking around 40k miles. Upper strut bearings were bad from the factory. It would have had endless transmission problems if it had the automatic transmission. As it was the computer is programmed to drop the revs whenever the brake was pressed making heel/toe downshifting and trail braking almost impossible.

Focus ST is a fun car and I'm saying that as a former SVT owner. It would take a lot to get me into a Ford again. I'll likely never buy another.

CrowSeph

On my family history those was the best cars for moving bike 'n stuff during the racing period / holidays.
Ford Focus SW 2004 and Jeep cherokee limited edition 2003.
god... i really miss those cars

StanSeven

Ford Focus, and most of the Ford product line, has very high quality. Consumer Reports data for example is close to striight excellent. You are taking the experience of one vehicle sold out of millions and making a generalization.

TimothyH

So I was at the Subaru dealership today. I test drove two cars...

Impreza 2.0i Sport Premium 5-Door

Nice styling, very sporty looking with side skirts. It is like a small station wagon and has roof rails. Tan interior. Comes with two year free scheduled maintenance and 5 year bumper to bumper warranty. About $23,500 sticker price. Performance is not that great though. It could have had way more power. The picture doesn't do justice to how nice the car looks.





Forrester 2.5i Premium

This is a really nice car. I was skeptical of the non-turbo after reading the reviews at Car & Driver but was pleasantly surprised when I drove it. The CVT transmission and 2.5 engine accelerated smoothly into traffic. I'm saying this as someone who has owned some reasonably fast cars. If not as stylish as the Impreza above, I think it would be way more fun to drive. The car pictured below has fog lights and leather and is >$28,500 which is way more than I want to spend. Can get it down lower by giving up leather, fog lamps, alloy wheels, etc. Also comes with two year maintenance and 5 year warranty. Not sure about the blue though - it was just the first one we grabbed to test ride. Had six miles on it.

jtaylor996

I have the turbo forester... or the wife does, actually. However, the turbo burns oil like there's no tomorrow. I'm not sure I wouldn't prefer the non-turbo version at this point.

TimothyH

No, the audio control unit failures and upper strut bearing failures are systemic. You can to to focusfanatic.com and see for yourself. The transmission problem is also systemic and has been in the news.

There were six Focus' in the service bay getting checked in for transmission work when I brought mine in for the radio. One of the service managers said, "You here for the transmission?" I replied that I had a manual transmission and he said, "You made the right choice."

Ford says that they got these problems sorted out. I hope so for their sake but my SVT had constant repairs. Multiple fuel pumps, bad primary catalysts - integrated into exhaust manifold to the tune of $1600. I had to carry a 10mm socket to disconnect the battery to reboot the computer because of false positive check engine lights which I eventually gave up trying to fix due to cost.

It's too bad because in the aggregate the Focus was a fun car to drive. Stiff chassis meant that they could tune the suspension well and in spite of difficult heel/toe it was still a very sporty feeling car.

TimothyH

Yikes! What year?

StanSeven

Either of the Subaru's are great choices to me. The 5 year warranty and two years maintenance mean worry free driving for a long time.

I didn't like that color blue at first but it grew on me. There are just do many black, white and silver I can take.

Since you had a Focus, the new RS coming soon is something to drool over

jtaylor996

2010. It's not something unusual... it's just a turbo thing in general. It's not good to give a turbo to a wife that completely neglects any car maintenance (including telling you the car is making a weird sound because there's no freaking oil left). Most of the oil loss comes from one of two places: 1. this engine seems to vibrate the hell out of the oil filter causing it to loosen up and leak. 2. all turbos burn some oil. 3. all boxer engines leak some oil pass the cylinder seals.

You can seal up a non-turbo practically hermetically on most cars.