Mulling over changing the car and (current) shortlisted vehicles are
e91 3 series estate and 2007 Renault Megane.
So a hatchback and an estate. Does anyone on STW own either and use them for carrying bikes inside the vehicle, if so what sort of dismantling of the bike has to take place please?
Not averse to folding car seats down.
Not interested in roof bars.
TIA

E91 – MTB in with the front wheel off, road bike in whole. May have to put the seat down a bit to get it past the wheel arches (or temporarily unhook the parcel shelf bar).

No experience of either but the 3 series being rear wheel drive, would have thought the higher floor/reduced height to ceiling would be a substantial disadvantage for bike loading.

Why are you comparing a hatch with an estate, Megane estate is 1,600 litres v 1,500 litres for the 3 series estate (so near enough the same)

Thanks for the info so far.
I’m comparing the estate v hatchback as I’m looking at an R26 Megane hence hatch.

E91 – can get the 29er in with the front wheel off – have to fold the seats down though. Bit of a faff with bags of riding kit in there as well, but that’s probably more down to my carrying too much random kit.

RICA are great for this – they measure cars for accessibility and ability to carry wheelchairs. They have boot floor length (seats up and down) and width at narrowest/widest points.

http://rica.org.uk/content/car-search

Measure up your bike dimensions and compare.

Generally I’ve found you need to be into Passat/Mondeo size estates before you can chuck bikes in whole. With the front wheel off, they’ll fit in most things. Once you get down to Fiesta/Fabia size you may well need to take off rear wheel too.

I’d worry more about your choice in comparing a small family day to day car in the E91 to a near track day toy in R26, before whether a bike will fit in either.

SimonG, that’s great, really useful ta.
Spence; I ran a 911 as a daily driver, there’s a lot of marketing BS spieled about what a car can and can’t do. A car is a tool.
BTW I was looking at the Alpina D3 variant of the e91, point still stands in that it’s a tool.

Most of the car posts on this forum indicate its the driver thats the tool rather than the car 😉

Just seemed an odd comparison, although a D3 makes it a little clearer in thinking.
Done the bikes on top of 911 and Boxters. And in the same vain Chris Harris stuck his Orange in his FF and to help answer your question, Catchpole used his Evo Fast Fleet R26.R as bike transport as well, cage and all.
Are these the right tools for all your jobs, only you can decide that.

How the hell can you consider a Megane alongside a 3 series…? 😕

Cheers for the Catchpole pic, Spence. Looks like quite a bit of room in there. I could get the road bike in the 911 with the rear seats down and the wheels in the boot but it was a faff feeding it in as it was a coupe, not cabriolet.
Loddrik; I like many different types of car. No point in tying myself to one particular marque. I like the look of that era Megane and I like the R26. I wouldn’t have a normal e91 3 series but like the Alpinas in general.
Cheers all.

Do not get a Megane. My 2ltr non-turbo does around 20mpg, and despite having only done 47k (I presume the previous owner couldn’t afford to run the bloody thing,) no end of electrical problems, bits falling off or rattling. Loads of room in the boot however.

Both are nice cars. I can get 2 bikes in the back of my Clio 200 but need to remove all the wheels. The R26 will be bigger but I still expect all wheels will need to come off. I would expect the megane to be a mpre engaging car to drive.