I’m getting a ford Kuga later this week and I’m looking to get some roof bars for it to carry bikes. Tow bar and mount are too expensive for me, and apparently it won’t take a rear boot mounted rack so it will have to be bars.

The car doesn’t have any rails at the moment (the ones that run front to back on both sides) but looking around I can get either rails and bars that attach to the rails for about the same price as a set of bars which don’t need the rails and attach via a bracket to the car itself. On my current car I have bars which fit to the car itself and this takes me about 15 mins to get the bars on, will it be any quicker if I get the bars which mount to rails?

I don’t really want to keep the bars on the car but equally I want to be able to get the bikes on the roof quite quickly if we decide to take the kids somewhere where they will want to ride their bikes.

Atera bars on my Golf take 5 mins tops to put on. Once they’re set up for the right width it’s just a case of plopping them on the roof and tightening the bracket part down so it hooks on to the car (there’s little divots inside the door frame so you know it’s in the right place). Then carriers just slide into the T-track, again they’re already set at the right spacing so slide in easily.

First time fitting about 15 mins, after that it should be less than 5 mins…or just leave them on and have your lifestyle vehicle look like another lifestyle vehicle…

Having rails give you more options on where to position the bars which I like. I can fit the bars to my car (skoda with rails) in about 2mins and use a little electric screwdriver with an hex bit to tighten them. (Yes that is very lazy!)

Burn that gas.  RAC estimates 10% increase with roof bars fitted.

Maybe chunky square ones. Aero type ones I found maybe 2-3% increase at worst at motorway speeds. Slower speed everyday stuff no difference at all.

looking around I can get either rails and bars that attach to the rails for about the same price as a set of bars which don’t need the rails

Are you sure? Assuming Kuga rails are similar to other Fords, fitting the rails means removing the headlining, and adding rails to a Focus was prohibitively expensive. Added fixed rails will definitely count as a modification for insurance purposes (removable bars are considered as a mod by some insurers and an accessory by others)

Are you sure? Assuming Kuga rails are similar to other Fords, fitting the rails means removing the headlining, and adding rails to a Focus was prohibitively expensive. Added fixed rails will definitely count as a modification for insurance purposes (removable bars are considered as a mod by some insurers and an accessory by others)

That video shows it being done from above and not removing the roof liner.

Are you sure? Assuming Kuga rails are similar to other Fords, fitting the rails means removing the headlining, and adding rails to a Focus was prohibitively expensive. Added fixed rails will definitely count as a modification for insurance purposes (removable bars are considered as a mod by some insurers and an accessory by others)

That video shows it being done from above and not removing the roof liner.

(fixed) Rail mounted bars fit much quicker than body mounted ones.  Half the time or less in my experience.

Burn that gas.  RAC estimates 10% increase with roof bars fitted.

Is that with or without the carrier, bikes and/or roofbox fitted to the bars?  Aerobars with nothing on them should be almost negligible.

That video shows it being done from above and not removing the roof liner.

Fair enough! Is that a 3rd party product or Ford?

I think the fixing method is the same for all rail sets. I’m looking at 3rd party as much cheaper.

I wouldn’t want roof bars fitted to a Kuga permanently, fuel consumption is bad enough without (lucky if I got 38mph from my old diesel model on long way journeys say at no more than 60-70)

worst car I’ve ever had the misfortune to own and was very glad to get rid of it last week

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/31861/mpg-mythbusters

Roof bars on there own or with roof box seem to make little difference.

Its far more about how you choose to drive and ‘make progress’

“Don’t leave your roof bars on because they create wind resistance and cause your car to use more fuel through the ‘drag’ effect.

Roof bars tend to weigh between 3kg to 5kg but the aerodynamic factor is greater. An empty roof rack affects fuel consumption by about 10%.”

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/how-to/fuel-saving-tips/

See tip 10.

Chowdhury et al. (2012) measured drag forces of passenger car add-ons through a series of wind tunnel tests. At high driving speeds (> 80 km/h), the unloaded and loaded roof rack (carrying a ladder) resulted in 10%~22% and 13%~28% increases in aerodynamic drag depending on cross-wind effects and speeds. The drag forces can be translated into 7.5%~17.6% and 10%~22.4% increases in vehicle motion resistance and similar Fuel Consumption penalties.

Chowdhury, H., Alam, F., Khan, I., Djamovski, V., Watkins, S., 2012. Impact of Vehicle
Add-ons on Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Procedia Engineering,
Vol. 49, pp. 294-302.

There is quite a few studies out there. Please note this was a US study and their high driving speeds are not so high.  Aerodynamic drag increases as a Square (x2 speed =x4 drag)