I’ve just bought a lovely shiny new mk7 Golf – a 5dr hatchback. Now I need some roof bars. Are the Thule ones worth the money? Are the aluminium, streamlined ones worth it over old fashioned, square profile ones?

I’ve got Thule WingBars on my A4. As well as being the black anodized option (my car is dark coloured) they are whisper quiet, honestly wouldn’t know they are there below 80mph.

You can only hear them when the bike is on, and I haven’t really noticed any difference in fuel usage without the bike.

But to answer your question, whether you specifically get Thule ones or not, aero shaped ones are definitely worth it over the old style square ones.

Thule ones are definitely worth the money unless you’re only going to use them once in a blue moon then you’ll get away with cheap ones. And aero/wing bars are worth it if they’re going to be on permanently. If you’re not keeping them on all the time then don’t bother and just bet the cheaper square/rectangular profile ones.

The wing bars are whisper quiet if they’re ‘naked’, but I have a couple of Thule 591’s on too and they do whistle a bit at speed – not annoying or anything that is not drowned out by the radio on at normal volumes, but you can hear it.

Thanks guys.

I’ve got Whispbar racks on my Skoda. The bike racks drop on in seconds & the aero cross bars are silent without them.
They’re owned by Yakima now, but are much nicer made.

+1 for Whispbar.

Noted, thanks

Another +1 for Whipbars, just fitted to exactly the same car. Dead easy to install, look great.
RM.

Ive got some genuine VW ones for a mk7 5 door Golf for sale if your interested. Changed cars hence selling

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I’ve got the VW ones here – got them thrown in when I bought the car, as they fitted my racks from my previous Scirocco. No complaints at all – I take them on and off every time I use them, and they are pretty easy to install.