Yakima racks bad on gas?

[Foreverphishing]

about to buy one for my toyota corolla , just wondering how bad this will hurt my gas mileage and if the noise will be bearable? i see on the yakima website they have a new whispbar that is supposed to be better on gas and noise reducing . anyone this this rack would be worth the extra $$$?

[Foreverphishing]

http://yakima.com/learn/whispbar/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
link with a little more info

[kru1]

Not every car is the same. I know that my 87 horse-power Saturn went from 38 to 30mpg when I put a rack on it. However it relies heavily on aerodynamics, and the racks screwed that up. I got those figures w/o carrying a bike or boat.

kru

[Foreverphishing]

so ill be putting the rack on a 2009 toyota corolla. hopefully it won't kill my gas,

[Shep]

The solution is to take it off when not using it. My element gets 24-25 with it off, 20-23 with it on. And my car is NOT aerodynamic either way.

[Foreverphishing]

how easy are they to take on and off?

[Shep]

It depends on your car and how you set up your rack. I have "Landing Pads", which mean that I flip down a lever on each tower, and the bar lifts right off. My car roof is above my head, so if I had bike trays or something else that locked the two bars together, it would be a two-person job. As it is, it's a one-person, one-minute job to take the bars off. As a bonus, without the bars locked together, I can put them inside my Element if I only need them one-way, like when I take a boat down to Little Rock for my dad.

Most cars will be equally as fast. The rack mounting systems have gotten a lot better in the last 10 years.

Shep

[Foreverphishing]

awesome thanks for the info shep! I'm going to pick some up this week ill let you know how it goes! the car gets great gas compared to my jeep i had so I'm sure if i lose a couple mpg it will ok. also I'm going to spend the extra $$ on the whispbar, hopefully it will help a little