There's no need to buy expensive cross rails either
2 lenghts of square tubing with plastic end caps and 4 U bolts work for me.
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As a surfie I just feel the urge to point out that you can get some pretty sexy surf attachements for bars nowadays - blonde fit Aussie women for one!
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if you are unfortunate enough to turn a car on its roof in the snow then roof rails do very well as ski's & turns the whole lot into a high speed bob sleigh! saves scratching the paint on the roof!
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Years back, customer came back complaining (actually he was mouthing off!!) about the noisey whell bearings on the Metro van, he'd just bought, the day before.
Quite a pleasent feeling, being able to point out to him, that after a quick run up the road, with our mechanic & him, that the roof rack he'd fitted, was creating a lot of wind noise!!
Nicest bloke in the world, after that!!
VB
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If the question is "Should I order my new car with or without roof rails?" the answer, I'm afraid, is, "Depends."
Let me explain. Some makers equip their cars with excellent ready-made hard points on the roof for attaching crossbars. My Volvo is a case in point (mine is a saloon but I think V70s without rails come with the same thing.) For £100 or so, you get a set of Volvo-branded roof bars that go on or off in about four minutes with no tools required and have integrated cover flaps with built-in Thule barrel locks. Simple, rugged and very pleasing to use. I think Ford offers something similar - I remember noticing when I was considering an S-Max. In comparison, roof rails and their crossbars look bulky and unnecessary, and make the load sit higher than on directly-attached crossbars.
Our other car is a Toyota Verso T3, which also comes without roof rails. The T-Spirit and T180 models have rails but there's no factory option to fit them to the T3. No problem, I thought; it will have a similar arrangement to the Volvo and all will be well, so I ordered a T3 and the Toyota-branded crossbars to go with it.
The first time I came to fit the things, I had a jolly good curse. There's no pre-hardened mounting point for them; instead, you have to follow the instructions and measure and mark a centre line for each bar the right distance ahead of or behind the B-pillar. Then you have to open the doors both sides, hook the bracket into place over the edges of the roof, and tighten the holding screws with a torque wrench, would you believe? Finally, you can close the doors and cover the brackets with a separate end plate that locks with a horrible plasticky key. Then hope for the best: the bars are secure enough but two of our four end plates fell off on our holiday in France last August.
In short, if you're buying a Toyota, and seriously want to carry loads on the roof, you should seek out a model with rails. If it's a Volvo, don't worry. If it's anything else, have a good look at the mounting points before you decide.
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My Mondeo had covered mounting points and got me thinking... does my Mazda6? No idea. But good point. Not all cars do.
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WillDeBeest,
Many thanks for your advice. I had a Verso in mind, in fact: I test drove a T2 diesel 2.2 yesterday, and it felt very well put together and had plenty of power (what car wouldn't compared to my 60hp Polo?!). The only thing that made me think twice was the comparatively small boot compared with, say, a Zafira or a Touran. However, I don't trust the reliability of the Zafira, based on reviews from owners - I'd be hoping to keep the next car for at least a decade - and the Touran is not really to my liking. How do you find the Verso?
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I used to use a roof rack regularly, and in those days had a BX GTi (hatch). The rubber feet where the clamps clamped onto the roof finely scratched through the paint lacquer after many miles use (vibrations I pressume) and the clamps themselves damaged the paint and caused rusting. Ever since then I make sure I have at least one car in the fleet with roof rails. Last week did 1300 motorway miles with a heavily laden roofbox (on a heavily laden car) securely clamped to roof rails - I wouldn't have as much faith in clamp-on type roof bars.
So, yes, to me they do have a purpose. But luckily we are not all the same.
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Generally positive on the Verso, Bristol - and when I find myself comparing it unfavourably with the Volvo, I have to remember that it's a £15,000 car and not a (nominally) £25,000 one. Rather than spin off-thread here, I suggest you do a quick forum search on 'Verso' and my name - I've posted several sets of thoughts on it, although not a full review. (If that doesn't work, ask Avant, who seems more adept at finding my old posts than I am!) };---)
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Over the years I've had a Montego estate (stop sniggering at the back), a Mondeo I estate and a 406 estate, all with roof rails. Never used any of them. The only thing they were good for IMO were leaving a dirty stripe on the roof after going through carwashes and going rusty on the leading edge. :-)
Edited by Dave_TD {P} on 23/02/2009 at 20:43
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I used to have an escort estate without roof rails. The bars I bought had to be screwed into pre-drilled hools underneath the rubber door seals- very messy. Then had Zafira with rails - much easier securing garden panels, bikes and roof boxes. My Espace has sliding roof bars (so no rails), acting as a spoiler I guess with both together at the back when not in use. Again roof box and occassional large items easier to fix, and I like the ability to vary where the bars go along the channel for odd loads.
Verso - if you need load space try Megan Estate (or indeed any estate), if you need 7 seats Zaffira was great for me, until kids got bigger - hence Espace. (which we are about to replace with another....)
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I remember a family holiday in about 1972 - Six of us heading down to Spain in my father's MKII Jag with old-fashioned gutter-clamped roof rack.
Stopped for lunch somewhere in the middle of France and we could not open the rear doors - The roof-rack had slid backwards along the gutter (Stopped when it got the curved bit).
This was cured by wedging my mother's holiday paperback under the back of the rack.
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