Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

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 $$$?

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

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

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

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.

how easy are they to take on and off?

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

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