What do you think is the best way for carrying your bike on the car?

Currently I take the wheels off, back seat down and load it in somehow. It's such a faff that the bike spends more time in the car than the garage. I'm looking at new company cars and obviously my first consideration is where to put the bike!

I don't like the idea of loading it on on the roof (it's a long way up and you have to be careful of low bridges!) and I've seen the racks that fit to a towbar so the bike is quite low and sheltered by the body of the car (thinking of fuel economy here). What d'ya all reckon?

Defiantely tow bar rack you can get racks that will drop towards you so as you can still open the boot without having to take the rack off. Additionally you can lock the tow bar rack to your car as an additional deterant.

Alterantively persuade your boss that you really need a Volkswagen T4 or T5 that doubles as your overnight accomodation ( not that you'd tell them that !)

LOL! I don't think the T4/5 option would tick the right boxes on the company car policy.

I don't want anything too big or inefficient so 4x4 is a no-no... to my everlasting shame I'm considering BMW 1 Series - the CO2 emissions are sooooo low..... I may have to invest in some big sunglasses and a wide brimed hat

I saw the Thule(?) towbar racks that tilt - shall look into that further!

Pendle also do a tilting tow bar rack, as do Atera but quite a bit more expensive.

But for choice always an estate car at the very least then bike goes in without too much faff, it's not exposed to the weather or scallies.  You don't even have a boot edge to lift it over.

Or a big Ford Mondeo/Vectra type with a cavernous boot, doesn't need to be an estate!  I just won't put my bikes on the car, prefer them in it which I think stems from the time my bikes were worth more than my car though. 

I have a Mondeo which is about as exciting as watching paint dry but I can get my bike in with the seats down  and both wheels on but for ease of moving if I'm on my own I take the front one out.  My car does spend most of its life with the seats down and the parcel shelf in the garage. OH has an Audi A6 which is even easier for loading and takes our tandem easily (wheels out though).

Same as Ros and julbags for me too.  Estates are ace.  I have a passat.  I've only just learnt how to reverse park it though!

although there's the faff of it, i much prefer to carry our bikes in the car taking the wheels off ( ford focus ) rather than using any form of rack.

Reason being is that i think it is much easier to nick the bikes from a rack than it is the hassle of breaking into the car itself. Of course i might be talking rubbish, but when the collective precious'ses cost twice the price of the car, i feel at ease this way.

We have a roof box that we use to put our camping kit in if away for a long time so theres plenty of room in the car still. (prefer to have an estate thoughthen you don't have to take the wheels off!)

We tend to put the bikes in the car for longer journeys to save on fuel, 2 will go in my hatchback with the seats down and removing a wheel or two.

Otherwise we have a thule high mounted rack that doesn't obscure the lights and has trays for the wheels and clamps for the top tube, it's really sturdy but creates a lot of drag but when we're just doing short trips to bike start points it's a lot less hassle than putting muddy bikes in the car. Given the choice I'd get a towbar rack but I don't have the money right now to get a towbar fitted and a nice towbar rack.

Yeah I guess I'm really thinking of the small journeys during the week - only time the bike would be left on the rack is at work where it should be secure (you can never tell with police staff tho!). It just feels a bit of a faff to turn up at Llandegla/Clywds for a short ride and then have to put the bike together and take it apart afterwards. And the car does tend to stink a bit if you're too lazy to clean the mud out

OH has a Mondeo estate - three bikes and three people inside no problem  so that's more of the long distance trip solution.

hehe i got an e-mail from my mate saying "can you give us a lift to this wedding please, and if so, can you vacuum your car beforehand!"

cheeky woman, I can understand she may not want to put her wedding gear in my car though without it having a bit of a clean!

Yeah I know what you mean. Orienteering is another good winter sport for getting the car covered in mud - even better it usually involves parking in some farmers field, so you get the outside covered as well. And you don't want to see what happens to a half drunk cup of Latte when you leave it in the car for 2 weeks - the milk does really bad things . And then there's having to have the blower on full blast because the inside is so damp that the rear window steams up and you can't see out!

Glad its not just me then!  My car is currently full of bike lube, old gel wrappers (stuck to various things), smelly, bog encrusted running shoes, large shopping bags (enviro friendly me), a large bag of compost (don't ask), jackets, shoes, dirt and bits of conifer.  There is a lovely muddy tyre print on the back of the drivers seat too, I gaze at it with pride.  The seats are down and the parcel shelf is out so everyone can see it too.

I was a bit mortified recently when I offered a work colleague a lift to pick her car up, I just know her car is pristine!

Phew I thought my car was bad but it seems everyone else's may be worse.

It's reasonably clean and tidy at present having had to be cleared of everything in order to go to the garage, but camping next week, so it will soon go into decline.

PS another reason not to use roofbars;  still recovering after recent collar bone break and lifting my arm is improving but lifting an item up on to a roof rack is a totally different ball game!

At least witht he estate I can still go cycling but would struggle if I was restricted to roof bars only.

I'm meant to keep my car nice, well the oH does use it for work and needs to make a good impression.  It's not too bad at the moment, although gel wrappers get everywhere.  We have roof bars, couldn't get a bike in my car and I find them easy to use.  But never leave the bikes long out of sight, even though they are locked.

My old 106 was very different, I had lots of mess and a lovely chain ring mark on the ceiling! (Do cars have ceilings?)  regularly had two muddy bikes in that car!