It was the perfect bike car, with “was” being the operative word. But that came to an end on September 23 in Williamsport, Pa. when a truck dropped a water container, at speed, in front of me and I hit it hard. The car was totaled.
My 2002 Toyota RAV-4 had removable rear bucket seats. It was not a large car as there was only room for a small amount of luggage behind the two rear seats.
But the seats were removed quite easily and since I had floor to ceiling room, I installed a fork-mount rack that I could carry two bikes – upright. I just rolled them right in and the wheels sat neatly on the support for the removed seats – a built-in wheel chock.
We have another RAV-4, this being a 2012 model. But I cannot roll the bikes in that one. It has fold-down seats that are not quite the same as removable seats as there is not as much clearance from floor to ceiling.
New or used? I started looking at used cars, beginning my search at CarMax. I looked at the Honda CRV as the most compatible. I could squeeze my bikes in there if I leaned one over to clear the back and then set it upright. The saddle would press or rub against the ceiling and I never took my DIY bike rack to see the effect of raising the fork to the attached bike would do. I feared it would be worse.
(538,000 km)
I almost bought a new CRV in Woodbridge. But I felt like I was settling with that car. My search continued.
I looked at trucks. I loved the Ford Ranger. The Super Cab model gave me the 6′ bed. The Super Crew model gave me a 5′ bed. And I needed a cap. I ended up at Ourisman Ford in Alexandria looking at trucks. The Super Cab with the longer bed featured two jump seats in the back that folded down, had about 12″ of knee clearance, and sat upright (90º). It was unworkable and the Super Crew’s 5′ bed wouldn’t work.
The salesman and I were walking in the truck section when I saw the Ford Transit Connect.
The Transit Connect was there by itself, a van in a sea of trucks. I asked about it, at first thinking it was a new vehicle. We opened the rear cargo doors to see lots of room but fold-down seats. I looked at the mounts, willing to remove the third-row seating to carry my bikes. I folded down the seats. I looked closer and told the salesman that I thought the seats would disappear. He knew nothing about that and brought out a van salesman from the dealership.
The van salesman did show us how the seats disappeared. And with the there was enough room to carry my bikes. The van was used but looked new. And ultimately I negotiated a price I was happy with.
It took a slight modification to my DIY bike rack to put it in the Transit. Because of the much longer interior, I can carry bikes without having a wheel next to my shoulder which I had to in the RAV4.
It can carry two bikes although once carried three, and has a split second seat. With that, I can carry one or two passengers in the second row along with the bikes.
In 2020 I needed CarPlay which it has. And the gas mileage is 50% better than the RAV4. While I was disappointed in losing the RAV4, for me, the 2020 Ford Transit Connect, is the perfect bike car.
