Project: AWD Turbo Family Hauler (PART DEUX)

[Sijray21]

Everyone I know that has had a roof mount bike tray has run into something with it - drive through, parking garage, home garage.  Everyone. 

you know one person - ME. 7 years of relatively heavy usage and no incidents with running into a garage, house, low-hanging plebs, or the like. an open sunroof/moonroof helps, too...

i had a roof rack on the GTI for about 7 years. it was really convienient because i used it ALL the time (pretty much every weekend in the spring/summer and often during the week). When i stopped using so frequently i bought/installed a hitch-rack. here are my thoughts:

if you don't use the rack all the time to transports bikes or anything else get a hitch rack. if you use it frequently use a roof rack.

Roof Rack Pros:
easy to mount unless you're short because you have a wagon and not an SUV
no risk of people rear-ending you and destroying your rack and bikes as well (had a few friends have this happen and the insurance companies are a bitch when they find out some bikes could be worth more than the cars involved...)

Roof Rack Cons:
Fuel economy... i lost about 1-3mpg on the highway
distorts the lines of the car. if you like the way your car looks stick with the hitch-rack

Hitch Rack Pros
Easy to mount and you can simply take off the hitch and store in the garage when not in use (i really like this). it doesn't ruin the lines of the car and helps with fuel economy
better for fuel economy

Hitch Rack cons:
installation is more arduous. i had to remove the bumper and make some cutouts in the diffuser to install a hitch on my wife's MK7 GSW and my buddies' MK7 GSW
potential for someone to rear-end you and destroying the bikes.

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Wagon people.... it’s so huge and useful as a family vehicle! I just immediately have to install this roof rack and hitch....

Lol.

when you can use the storage inside and put equipment outside and get decent fuel economy for trips, yes it's very useful ;-)

we packed our wagon with infant stuff for a week, adult stuff x2 for a week, beach stuff, a trailer for the infant, stroller, beach equipment, and 2 bikes using a hitch-mount rack on a beach trip to NJ and averaged 44mpg doing so (TDI). that was nice