Trumble

Ok then - I am planning on driving down to the alps next winter and am considering the options for transporting me and the family down.

1. Could use wifes 2.0 Focus Ghia

2. Could take MY06 STI


If we go in the focus (which personally I;m not adversed to as it has cruise control) then we're going to need a skibox on the roof.

Question - how much do these damn things impact the fuel consumption, her focus does 37mpg on a run at 75-80 mph what would we be looking at with a ski box.

Cheers

T.

Sport160

Trumble

Difficult to answer with any fact, but I put a roof box on my MY03 wrx for trips into europe, as well as hanging a few MTB's off the back. Whereas on a long run I would expect economy to improve over local driving, I find it stays about the same when fully loaded.

For me this means normal mpg is aprox 21 around town (lots of very short journeys) which I would expect to climb towards 26-27 (ish) on a long run. So arguably fitting roof box, 3 mountain bikes, a wife and 2 kids knocks about 5 mpg off or maybe a little less.

No science here just estimates and guesses

Rgds
Neil

PS Mine is a Halfords job, so not the most aerodynamic box available

Trumble

As a guide - we took a couple of small kids bikes on a rear rack up to Durham from Bedfordshire are christmas and that hit the fuel from the usaal 36 mpg to 27 mpg !

Hence my concern !

T.

MikT

Trumble

I ran from Edinburgh to Devon and back with Thule bars/roofbox on my MK3 v6Mondeo. Took it fairly easy around the 70mph mark and didn't notice any difference in economy (i.e. around 34mpg).

Am surprised to see the bikes make such a difference though.

P

Jonathan Davies

Bikes on the back create loads of turbulence, which causes drag. Somewhat like a huge funny shaped spoiler with no downforce.