I want a minivan or small pickup; i.e., some vehicle, small, that would allow me to carry my bike without breaking it down and haul a few small boxes when moving around. Can you help?
Cars.com editor William Jackson is our resident Weekend Athlete and writes a column for the KickingTires blog about testing weekend-athlete-friendly vehicles for hauling bicycles, camping equipment, etc. Jackson routinely throws his bike in the cargo area of a given test vehicle to see how well the bike fits, and rates it on a scale of 1 to 10.
Jackson explains his bike hauling ratings:
“Almost everywhere I go, one of my bikes comes along. If the bike can go into the car without me having to remove a wheel, that's great; if I have to take one wheel off, that's average; if I have to take both off, it's poor. The range in the scores is determined not only by how much room there is for the bike, but also how easy it is to load the bike. In other words, is the load floor too low? Or is it too high, especially for shorter people? Is the opening too narrow for the bike to slide in? I use a bike as the example here because it's a fairly common item that people can relate to.”
Out of the vehicles he’s tested, the Honda Element is a continual favorite and tops his list as far as bike storage because he says you don’t have to do anything to the bike — such as taking the wheel off — to make the bike fit, plus it’s easy to unload. See the video here: Weekend Athlete Video: 2008 Honda Element. Runners-up include the vehicles below, which scored 9 out of 10 in the bike hauling category.
Because you may be riding a larger or smaller bike than the one Jackson uses, he recommends measuring your bike’s height, width and length and using those dimensions to see if the bike will fit into the cars you’re test driving. If the dealership lets you, he suggests taking the bike along and trying it on for size in potential vehicles.
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I was pleasantly surprised how easily my (men's) mountain bike fits in the back of my 2006 Prius. I just fold down the back seat and in it goes! Awesome!