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Help me choose a bi...
 

[Closed] Help me choose a big estate car...

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Congratulations!

Surely you can get your bike in a Zafira Tourer? In my older one I fold down the back seat and sort of wedge the fork in with the front wheel off. One bungee strategically placed sticks it solid. Can fit 2 adult+1 kid bike in without really thinking.

Quite tempted by a Zaffy tourer for the modern fitments (Bluetooth!) if someone can confirm it can take bikes inside? I treat mine like a shed on wheels though so it might be a bit too nice. Filled it up with spider infested logs and slid it across a sloping field today, and it’s great to chuck a load of rubble in for a tip run (suck it van drivers!)

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">The 7 seats come in use fairly often for multi family trips too, once we’re allowed again 😊</span>


 
Posted : 02/04/2021 9:50 pm
 5lab
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I have only had a 24" bike inside mine but it'd definitely take a modern mountain bike both wheels on if the passenger seat is pushed forwards a little. Maybe not if its all the way back


 
Posted : 02/04/2021 10:34 pm
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In the zafira tourer, with the rearmost seats folded and the centre middle seat folded, can you just wheel a bike in backwards between the 2 remaining centre seats? leaving child seats fitted:

I suppose you will need to remove the front wheel, could bolt a fork clamp to the floor to retain the bike.


 
Posted : 02/04/2021 11:31 pm
 5lab
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I got my kids bike in there that way but its not super high. Depends on the length of your forks and seatpost I guess. I used a galaxy just like that in the past and it was tight, and it's a bit taller than the zafira


 
Posted : 02/04/2021 11:46 pm
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I can put my bike on wheels on (medium 27.5) with all the seats down, but two muddy bikes are easier on the back (esp with the hope it'll rain on the way home and they'll get cleaned 🤣)

@matt_outandabout it's a Thule of some sort, second hand from FB marketplace so not sure. It's doing up the bolt that holds it onto the tow bar thing thats annoying but I'm going to get a ratchet spanner plus I'll speed up with practice for sure. It didn't help that I smacked my noggin on it the first time and had to hold in a stream of grown up language as there was a young family on the road outside!

I'll take some photos of bikes insode if that'll help anyone?


 
Posted : 02/04/2021 11:53 pm
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@thebunk re Bluetooth be careful, mines got all the steering wheel buttons for a phone but no Bluetooth. After some googling it turns out on some of the stereos you can have DAB or Bluetooth, not both. The DAB is good mind!


 
Posted : 02/04/2021 11:55 pm
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I can put my bike on wheels on (medium 27.5) with all the seats down, but two muddy bikes are easier on the back (esp with the hope it’ll rain on the way home and they’ll get cleaned 🤣)

Yeah I want to leave a bike in there when at work, car parks, overnight etc. I know thieves can just break the window but seems more secure inside the car. I'm also lazy so can't be fussed undoing child seats to fold everything.


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 12:08 am
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If you go with the Volvo get one with the Timber Resist option.


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 12:18 am
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The one I would have if I wanted an estate under £10k

Jag XF Sportbrake

Jag XF

Jag XF linky

Or an Alfa 159 - this one only has 34k on the clock. Not sure how big either are in the back though
159

159 linky


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 9:36 am
 5lab
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@i_like_food have a look at the 970. I got mine 2nd hand for £25 and it takes less then 5 seconds to mount on the back of the car, less than 30 to mount the bike on it. Small and light enough just to leave in the boot the whole time too. I leave the arms in place at right angles which makes it quicker compared to this vid..


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 11:02 am
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Is this car just for commuting or for use on the job? If the former I would keep the van and spend the £2k on a cheap but neat boring runaround.


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 5:14 pm
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You probably won’t get a decent sized MTB in the back of a superb with both the wheels on.

I could get my hooligan Inbred 567 hardtail with 6” Nixon’s in the back of my Octavia, just by shoving the seatpost down, or taking it out, leaving the wheels in place. I just dropped the seats and put a removals blanket over the seats, then shoved the bike in.
I had that car fifteen years, it had over 160,000 miles on it when I gave it away, and it had never had a service while I had it! It was doing 155 miles a week at the end, and I believe it’s now being driven around Poland.

Quite tempted by a Zaffy tourer for the modern fitments (Bluetooth!)

Driven loads of them over the last five years, they’re a very popular Motability car, for obvious reasons, and really very comfortable for extended journeys. The later ones have much better dash layouts and toys, the 1.7 Turbo Tourer is almost indecently quick for a 7-seater, and don’t forget that Vauxhall did a VXR version of the Zaffy! I used to regularly do 200 mile runs home from Cornwall in Zaffies, and they were nice, relaxed drives, unlike the Berlingos and Partners I’d have to pick up; if I could have refused the drive on the grounds they were horribly uncomfortable, I would have!


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 6:45 pm
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I expect Eliza Dushku to be sent to my bedroom lightly oiled.

You’re gonna have to wait your turn...
...I might be some time. 😎


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 6:55 pm
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Speaking from experience the 159 isn't very big, but feels very Italian. I bought the wrong one - the Diesel - and it only did about 10MPG more than the better petrol engine and felt tuned all heavy at the front and wrong.


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 6:59 pm
 5lab
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Inbred 567 hardtail with 6” Nixon’s

That thing is probably 20cm shorter than a modern, slack 29er, as well as having a lower stack height and narrower bars. I recon his point stands

1.7 Turbo Tourer

I dont think they do one. It's a choice of 1.4 turbo petrol and a 1.6 or 2l diesels. The latter was briefly available in biturbo guise which was reasonably powerful, but none of them are quick


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 7:05 pm
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CountZero
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I could get my hooligan Inbred 567 hardtail with 6” Nixon’s in the back of my Octavia, just by shoving the seatpost down

Sure but, modern bikes are miles bigger... A Big Dog is about 4 inches longer in wheelbase than a 456 of the same vintage (can't find stats for the 567), plus bigger wheels... But it's bars that really catch you out I think, suddenly roof height is really important and it messes with the angles loads (with 760mm bars on my Remedy fits really easily into my Legacy, with 780mm there's literally one exact angle that it fits at and it's like a puzzle, if the forks turn just slightly too much aargh bars stuck in the boot door, slightly too little aargh tyre smashes into the rear glass

I once put my BFe and my Hemlock, both mediums, in my mk1 focus with wheels on. Terrible idea, getting them back out was almost impossible, but they did go in. I wouldn't get just my Solarismax into one of those by itself, with the wheels on.


 
Posted : 03/04/2021 11:07 pm
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You probably won’t get a decent sized MTB in the back of a superb with both the wheels on.

I've got a Superb* estate and a large modern FS 29er. I take the front wheel off. I could probably squeeze it in but then I'd be wedging a muddy front wheel up against my nice leather seats! My road/gravel bike goes in with both wheels still on.

I've got a big plastic tarp that I use as a 'tub' to keep the inside of the car clean. The bike goes in easily with the front wheel off, with plenty of room for other kit. There's a big gap between the folded down back seats and the back of the front seats (in my old car the back seats touched the front when folded forwards) so you've got more room there to put stuff. You could put the front wheel upright in there I guess if you didn't want it under the bike.


 
Posted : 04/04/2021 1:26 pm
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