On 09/28/2018 05:55 AM, iamkeith wrote:
Thinking outside the box here, with the "fun" driving criteria in mind:
If I didn't like SUVs or Vans and if the precious, small-ish cargo areas of
German sport wagons ruled those out, I myself would honestly look for a good,
used SRT8 Dodge Magnum. Or, if I needed AWD, there was an R/T version that
would be almost as fun. Bike would have to be set on its side, but I think
it's long and voluminous enough to accomodate most without even taking the
wheel off. It's also low enough to use a roof rack without the normal, awkward
reach issues if you decided to take it on a longer trip.
The cargo area of the VW Golf Alltrack (and the Jetta Sportwagen that I
owned before Dieselgate and the buyback) is large enough to fit a 60 cm
randonneur equipped with full metal fenders, both wheels on. Unlike
some cargo spaces (notably thinking now about the Acura wagon) the rear
wheel wells don't intrude into the cargo space, so loading is easy. And
it's a lot of fun to drive, and not all that expensive - certainly not
what I'd call "precious".
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "precious, small-ish" but I assume
you mean costly -- certainly true of the Mercedes E-class wagon, which
has a huge cargo area, and the current BMW 3-series (the cargo area of
which is large enough to fit a 60 cm randonneur equipped with full metal
fenders both wheels on). The Audi Allroad's caro area isn't large
enough to hold a 60 cm randonneur w/full metal fenders.
I haven't seen the new Volvo V60, but the old one definitely wasn't
large enough; the V90 certainly is large enough, but odds of any of us
actually seeing one in real life are quite small and both Volvo wagons
are certainly costly. Of course, they're not German.
Nobody's mentioned the Prius V so far; its cargo space is definitely
large enough for the bike I described, but the way you make a Prius
involves extracting everything that makes a car fun to drive (and what's
left behind is a Prius) but it sure does have good fuel economy.
I've recently had both a Rav-4 and a Chevrolet Equinox as loaners while
my VW was being serviced, and both have ample room for a bicycle -
slightly larger than in the VW, not necessarily a great thing as the
bike can slide around inside when you brake or accelerate (the fit in
the VW is much more snug, although large enough). Neither is much fun
to drive, though, and the Rav-4 had surprisingly poor fuel economy (I
only got 150 miles on half a tank of gas).
--
Steve Palincsar
Alexandria, Virginia
USA
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