Roof racks on German estate cars.

-Corkie-

I have noticed this for years but it has caught my attention lately. A lot of Audi and Bimmer estates that have roof racks(not confusing it with rails) on these cars.

The drivers normally people in suits dont look like Painters or Chimney sweeps, so why do they have roof racks.

colm_mcm

roofbars for surfboards perhaps?

Voodoomelon

Its to show they ski/snowboard/adventure sport in their spare time.

vectra

Scene

dgt

-Corkie- wrote: »

I have noticed this for years but it has caught my attention lately. A lot of Audi and Bimmer estates that have roof racks(not confusing it with rails) on these cars.

The drivers normally people in suits dont look like Painters or Chimney sweeps, so why do they have roof racks.

As in...


?

-Corkie-

colm_mcm wrote: »

roofbars for surfboards perhaps?

Maybe but they are always empty. Surley you would whip them off during non use. They would not help MPG.

There is a guy with a new Vrs estate living nearby with them and I never see him carrying anything..

colm_mcm

Sure there'd be more room inside than outside on a VRS.

TestTransmission

-Corkie- wrote: »

Maybe but they are always empty. Surley you would whip them off during non use. They would not help MPG.

There is a guy with a new Vrs estate living nearby with them and I never see him carrying anything..

He might go mountain biking on the weekend, up at the crack of dawn while you're nursing your hangover :pac:

Nice biking in Ballyhoura.

-Corkie-

TestTransmission wrote: »

He might go mountain biking on the weekend, up at the crack of dawn while you're nursing your hangover :pac:

Nice biking in Ballyhoura.

Maybe. I havent had a hangover in about 6 months unfortunatley. Ballyhoura is nice allrite. There is some nice rides in Duhallow too....:)

TestTransmission

Then again when I had the vRS, i'd get 2 bikes into the boot easily, nowadays not so much.

CiniO

Corkie which ones do you mean?

As there might be something like that, which is usually aftermarket roof racks for carrying stuff (ladders, surfboards, skis, snowboards, bikes, etc).:



There might be as well thing like this, which is usually part of original car equiments, and car comes like this from factory:



The second ones are usually used to mount the first ones like on the picture here:


Which ones were on your mean?

John_Rambo

He means the last one. I have much neater, aerodynamic ones than that though and I'm pretty sure the unique inserts for the unique tool for my roof bars that fit on the roof rails would suffer and get stripped from continuous taking on and off, so they only come off if I know there's going to be a long stint of no use which is rare.

Lurching

Its just in case they find themselves in a TV shop without notice and simply have to take a brand new 50" straight home, like this unfortunate individual;

-Corkie-

The ones in the first pic Cinio...

CiniO

-Corkie- wrote: »

The ones in the first pic Cinio...

Hmm then it's actually strange that someone has them and don't use them.
They increase fuel consumption, as if you travel at high speeds the difference can be quite significent.

John_Rambo

I think they are roof racks, not roof bars Corkie. Most estates should have roof rails which roof bars are affixed to.

-Corkie-

John_Rambo wrote: »

I think they are roof racks, not roof bars Corkie. Most estates should have roof rails which roof bars are affixed to.

I know I specified that in my first post....:p

John_Rambo

I'm having a particularly stupid day, milk in the washing machine drawer, using my phone as a mouse... apologies.

Anan1

-Corkie- wrote: »

Maybe but they are always empty. Surley you would whip them off during non use. They would not help MPG.

There is a guy with a new Vrs estate living nearby with them and I never see him carrying anything..

I got a set of bars for my car a couple of years back for an Ikea trip from Dublin to Galway. I did a load of homework, and paid extra for a set that were promised not to whistle at speed. It was about a year after I last used them that I finally got around to taking them off again. Mind, my car's not German so maybe i'm ok!

John_Rambo

Anan1 wrote: »

I did a load of homework, and paid extra for a set that were promised not to whistle at speed. It was about a year after I last used them that I finally got around to taking them off again. Mind, my car's not German so maybe i'm ok!

+1 I got pretty sleek ones, paid a bit extra for no noise and minimum drag. My car isn't German either, so I'm off the hook too.

vectra

Scene

John_Rambo

Is that there purely for fashion?

Ah well, each to their own...

............ defo surfers me thinks.

Matt Simis

Lurching wrote: »

Its just in case they find themselves in a TV shop without notice and simply have to take a brand new 50" straight home, like this unfortunate individual;

A great reason why the Avant / Estate bashers in that other thread need a reality check! An RS6 (Avant of course) would do that job in a lot more civilised manner and much faster than the 4.2 V8 R8 to boot (not a pun!).

John_Rambo

Matt Simis wrote: »

A great reason why the Avant / Estate bashers in that other thread need a reality check! An RS6 (Avant of course) would do that job in a lot more civilised manner and much faster than the 4.2 V8 R8 to boot (not a pun!).

You see... I'd want both.

high horse

Roof bars that attach to roof rails can be removed in a few minutes. Maybe it's just laziness to leave them on permanently?

Del2005

CiniO wrote: »

Hmm then it's actually strange that someone has them and don't use them.
They increase fuel consumption, as if you travel at high speeds the difference can be quite significent.

Maybe it's to show off how rich they are that they can waste fuel:D

Or the other option is that they don't actually know how to take them on/off as they ordered them from new when they got the car.

Anan1

high horse wrote: »

Roof bars that attach to roof rails can be removed in a few minutes. Maybe it's just laziness to leave them on permanently?

That was the case for me, anyway. Took 5 minutes to remove them, took a year to get around to it.

tossy

-Corkie- wrote: »

The drivers normally people in suits dont look like Painters or Chimney sweeps, so why do they have roof racks.

Have you ever heard of things called spare time and hobbies?

More importantly why does it bother yo u so much you need to post it on the net? are you begrudging people a hobby lol

Mr.David

Along the same lines, its really surprising to note that roof boxes (with the typical wedge shape at one end and square at the other) are fitted the wrong way around (from a drag perspective).

Putting the bluff/upright end at the front of the car and the wedge shaped tapered end at the rear would actually reduce the drag. Having said that I would follow manufacturers instructions as they are not designed to be fitted this way but still, its ridiculous. The reason? Because roof box manufacturers believe that people will instinctively think it looks wrong and not buy their product (quite possibly true!).

-Corkie-

tossy wrote: »

Have you ever heard of things called spare time and hobbies?

More importantly why does it bother yo u so much you need to post it on the net? are you begrudging people a hobby lol

Thats because I am a boring bolox..:P

I think Vectra is the only one that understands me here. I actually think the racks actually look nice..

R.O.R

-Corkie- wrote: »

I think Vectra is the only one that understands me here. I actually think the racks actually look nice..

You aren't alone. I appreciate a nice rack...............

tossy

R.O.R wrote: »

You aren't alone. I appreciate a nice rack...............

I agree especially on a German wagon

CiniO

Mr.David wrote: »

Along the same lines, its really surprising to note that roof boxes (with the typical wedge shape at one end and square at the other) are fitted the wrong way around (from a drag perspective).

Putting the bluff/upright end at the front of the car and the wedge shaped tapered end at the rear would actually reduce the drag. Having said that I would follow manufacturers instructions as they are not designed to be fitted this way but still, its ridiculous. The reason? Because roof box manufacturers believe that people will instinctively think it looks wrong and not buy their product (quite possibly true!).

Are you trying to say that it's the wrong way of installing it, as if it was opposite, the drag would be lower?
:eek:

Foxhole Norman

Personally I think that BMW/AUDI estates look mint when they have roof racks on. It just adds to their image in my mind.

challengemaster

CiniO wrote: »

Are you trying to say that it's the wrong way of installing it, as if it was opposite, the drag would be lower?
:eek:

Yup, that's what he's saying, and there was a study done to prove it too a while back, I remember reading it at the time.

CiniO

challengemaster wrote: »

Yup, that's what he's saying, and there was a study done to prove it too a while back, I remember reading it at the time.

I would love to see this study

Anyone's got a link?

keithclancy

http://www.metrompg.com/posts/roof-racks.htm