Must fit 29er/fatbike pref with just front wheel out
wide rear door with low step
low road fund licence
economical
comfy for a 6ft+ driver

Van would be best but no van dealer wants my saloon car in exchange so stuck with car versions. Berlingo is stupidly high on tax & just looks plasticity on the inside

Any ideas

sell the saloon car and buy a van if thats what you want?

Well VED is going to be a very small percentage of your running costs so it’s not something I’d hold against a car. YMMV of course.

Do you have to do part-ex?

I’d have thought any of the small people-carrier type models would do: Skoda Roomster; Berlingo.

Honda Civic – with the magic seats.
You might be able to get a 29er in with the front wheel off across the back seats with the bases lifted up.
A previous boss had one and sure he loaded his bike across the back seats with the base lifted & only the front wheel off. But that was a 26″ wheeled bike (Marin Quad Link FS).

If you don’t mind dropping the seats, I’d have though that any mid-sized hatchback would let you get a 29er in with just the front wheel removed – I can get my road bike in my Ibiza with just the front wheel removed and that’s a pretty small car.
I think my mate used to be able to load his 456 carbon (26er) into his old Corolla hatchback with both wheels on (front wheel turned obviously).

So you will have a van, a saloon or hatchback. but not an estate? odd…

Yeah, intrigued why not an estate, it just makes more sense and there’s not many drawbacks

Berlingo is only 140 a year on tax, not sure you’ll find anything of a decent size any cheaper than that.. and it makes up for it with the high mpg. Plasticy? Matters less when it gets muddy and scratched!

Could fit bikes very well in my Saab 9-3 hatchback, with front wheel off, much easier with the berlingo as i just walk into the boot with the bike

As above, fold the seats down and a bike will go in most hatchbacks.
I could get two MTBs in my old BMW 1-Series with just the front wheels off.

Why no estate car?
We’ve got a Passat estate now – can get two bikes in without taking the front wheel off.

and there’s not many any drawbacks

FIFY 🙂
As above, van but not an estate? Why not? We’ve had an estate for about 12 years now and I’d never go back to a hatchback.

i would have said a c-max but seeing as i’ve got one i have to admit the only way my bike can go in is with both wheels off…and thats due to the way the rear seats fold up and take up the space in the car…you can of course remove the seats…if could be bothered to do that and have the space to store the seats then the bike would easily fit with just the front wheel off

You know the rules. Mondeo or Octavia.

get a Golf and you dont need to take the wheels off at all, at least not on a 29er Mondy that i have.

I have a current model Mondeo hatch.

Must fit 29er/fatbike pref with just front wheel out – With seats down it would

wide rear door with low step – I’ve never noticed it so probably
low road fund licence – £185 IIRC
economical – define this
comfy for a 6ft+ driver – very – I’m 6’5″ and it’s the first car I’ve had where I don’t have the seat all the way back and there’s loads of head room.

Why not a tow bar and carrier?

I’ve got an S-Max which replaced a T5

Very pleased with it and so much more refined than the VW (although obviously not as much room)

Bit like driving a seven seater sports car and I easily get a couple of bikes in with just the front wheels off attached to a sliding floor bar with quick releases attached.

I have slept in for one night pre race with just one bike and no problems

We have a mondeo. Lift up rear seat base. Remove front wheel.Turn bars to face backwards.
Put bike where rear passengers would sit.
Works on my 29.

I get my fatbike in an Audi A1, so any hatchback should work……….
and have taken 2 bikes and luggage to France.

That would work. Very spacious inside.

Or even Jazz?
My wife’s can fit 2 bikes with front wheels off, or 1 bike with front wheel on.

Octavia greenline hatch fits a 29r in easily. Your choice on which wheels to remove depending on the seat up down situation you want.

RFL is £30 and I got 67mpg yesterday over 3 hours of mixed driving.

it’s the boringly obvious answer for a reason.

mc – Member
So you will have a van, a saloon or hatchback. but not an estate? odd.

If I want to park it near my house an estate is too long & sticks out blocking access to 4 other houses sadly so shorter is better

arffy – Member
Why not a tow bar and carrier?

I want to be able to leave the bike in the car when I go to the loo etc at trail centres/road trips. Too many bikes get nicked off cars around here, at least inside it’ll be more of a deterrent

sell the saloon car and buy a van if thats what you want?

past experience of selling a car privately really puts me off, so part ex seem much more attractive

I used to have a Mazda6 diesel hatch
Easier to load bikes into than my Octavia estate
Much comfier too for my 6’1.5″ long limbed frame (sorry I got the company car now)

an estate is too long

Even mondeo hatches are really long. Best check that.

We Buy Any Car are very easy to deal with in my experience and the price was marginally better than offered as a trade in. Then go buy a van.

an estate is too long
Even mondeo hatches are really long. Best check that.

^ This, the estate versions of many cars are the same length as the saloon / hatch versions.

If I want to park it near my house an estate is too long & sticks out blocking access to 4 other houses sadly so shorter is better

I’m pretty sure my focus estate (which is awesome) is quite a bit shorter than a Mondeo hatch. There really is no reason not to get something like a Focus estate, they are spacious but not too big and they have more boot space than my old C-Max. Plus they handle very well and are a perfectly pleasant place to be on a long journey.

A Focus estate is shorter than a Mondeo hatch?
The Focus estate is better for putting bikes in though.

I have fitted my mates bike in my focus estate with both wheels on no bother. His bike is a large BMC Trailfox 150mm travel 29er. I regularly throw my bike in whole -large 650b 160mm etc

More than 1 bike requires the removal of front wheels

As above!

A Honda Jazz will take 3 bikes stood upright or lying down. You do have to take both wheels off but they are definitely a small car, cheap and economical. I’m also 6ft with long legs and could drive it no trouble.

Can get two normal bikes in the mighty Mondeo intact one on top of the other if you’re not too precious about them

And loads of room in the front for 6′ people

How about a vw touran? Quite a bit shorter than a passat but loads of room in the back when the extra seat are folded away.

As for the bikes getting nicked when on the outside of cars. I always a long cable lock with me that I run through the towing eye of the car if I need to stop any where. Never had my bike, although maybe my bikes are just not worth nicking!!

Mondeo Hatch is 4844mm long.

Focus Estate is 4556mm long.

Thats pretty much 30cm. Not a shed load but reason enough to get the focus instead of the mondeo.

Skoda Fabia….estate…cavernous inside but small on the outside……..or just sell the car and get a Vauxhall Combo van like mine, 1.3cdti….55mpg bikes in back with no wheel removal and a steel bulkhead and central dead locking if you buy an ex BT one and full rubber floor in the back…..there ace!

I have the old model Meriva which is a fairly crap car but an excellent bike transporter. With the seats down at the back it swallows my 29er FS with front wheel out or 26er intact. More creative packing can get up to 4 bikes in. My wife hates it which may be a recommendation! She says I bought it because it was the nearest thing I could get to a van without being one ( she discounts Berlingos etc which ARE vans).

@flashes how do you get the bike into an A1 ? Stood upright with passenger seat forward or lying down ?

Civic and Jazz are good recommendations. Civic better motorway car.

Civic
Can get the FSR into the back without removing the wheels if the seats are down, and can probably get 4 in upright if wheels are removed.

If I want to park it near my house an estate is too long & sticks out blocking access to 4 other houses sadly so shorter is better

Probably best you check out car lengths first, as others have said big hatch can easily be longer than a small estate car.

As mention above Honda Civic, VW Golf, if style is less an issue then the Hyundai IX20 looks like it fits the brief, but it isn’t a looker.

Fabia estate is uncanny actually… It’s like they’re made of elastic- you can get a ridiculous amount of stuff in one, as long as you aqueeze hard enough. If you lay the contents out on the ground afterwards, you know full well it couldn’t possibly have all been in the car.

Focus hatch has a decent boot, not wheels-on big but very nearly. But the ergonomics of the front seats are weird now, not sure how good they are for big folk. The estate is still not a big car. I had a mk1.5 which was genius for bike carrying, I don’t think the newer ones are as good at using the space.

Skoda Fabia….estate…cavernous inside but small on the outside

Surely it is quite narrow? My VW Polo which is the same platform is noticeably narrower inside than the next platform up, the one used for the VW Golf, Audi A3, Skoda Octavia etc.

Been using a Skoda Hatch this weekend to carry bikes around and it’s been great. Both wheels on the road bike no issues, in fact easier to get into the boot that an estate due to such a wide opening.