Surfing Waves

looking at buying a car... just wonder what kind of car will take a 7'6" funboard into the cabin (not on the top rack pls). It looks hatchback, station wagon, and SUV are potential candidiates. But with the cost factored in, what would be a good compromise?

Do you care if it sticks out the back window or not? Just go looking for cars at different car dealerships and bring a measuring tape with you and see if the car would fit the board. Even better, you could ask the sales man if there is anything that will fit it and then measure, just in case.

Many cars will take a 7'6" board - it all depends how many seats you need to use while having the boards in the cab.

Most saloons/sedans for example (which you haven't mentioned so I assumed you ruled out?) will take a 7'6" board if you a) drop the back seat down and b) drop the front passenger seat down. My current car is a 5 door mistubishi carisma saloon, and I can drop 2/3 of the rear seat down, drop the front passenger seat down (i.e. "wind" the back part of it forward as far as it will go), I fit my 7'6" board (plus my hubby's 6'8" board) in from the boot, lying across the lowered portion of the rear seat with the nose resting on the back of the front passenger seat when it's dropped down, leaving 1/3 of the back seat free for himself to sit in while I drive. My car was pretty darn cheap as I bought it second hand and costs bugger all to service and is pretty reasonable for fuel consumption and roadtax (dunno what the story is with roadtax/registration/insurance in CA, but where I'm from, the bigger the engine size, the higher the insurance and road tax payable).

An estate/stationwagon or an SUV will have more room alright, but with SUVs in particular the costs are higher - more expensive to buy, to run, and also more expensive to maintain/buy parts for. I used to have a 2 seater 4x4 (a Landrover Discovery) which had oodles of space in the rear, but it was pretty darn expensive to service it, even the tyres were very pricey. Also from an insurance/roadtax POV, it cost a lot more than my current car as the engine size is naturally going to be bigger than a hatchback/saloon/estate, given they're a much bigger vehicle (my Landrover was a 2.5 l engine as opposed to the 1.6l engine in the car I have now). Best option is to set your budget, look at what cars you like for the price, do a bit of research into running costs, then go see them all in a dealership and get out your measuring tape. Make sure to take into account the width of your board to see if it will allow you to leave up any of the rear seating/leave the front passenger seat up if you want to carry an extra buddy in the car with you.

Hi azzie, thanks for bring up the sedan option. Owing a hatchback before, I know it's pretty easy to fold the back and front seats flat to make maximum room for a long object. But it never occured to me that sedan can do the same thing. This is getting interesting, because my family actually wanted honda accord. So maybe I can give in and settle on the accord... thanks again for the great info provided, thumb's up!!

We fitted a 7ft 10 into a ford Ka so i wouldn't worry too much.
KS

I had a Ford Focus and a Mazda 323. Both of them could fit at least a 7'6" with the front seat down (or just head rest off) but with the back seat still up so the board resting on the parcel shelf. Making it dead easy to get it in and out.
So I'd say any hatchback would be ok.

Much to my suprise, I can fit my 8'6" Shane Smith in its board bag, AND my 7' Kane Garden fish into my 2000 Honda Prelude (it's a 2 door coupe - not even a hatchback - with a passthrough to the trunk). Of course, I can't fit any other people in my car at the same time.

Is Prelude the predecessor of Accord? If so, we might have a solution that keeps everybody happy in the family - Honda Accord.

I can fit two boards in my car just now, but it means I cannot see out the passenger window. I've driven to the beach a few times only turning left! It takes a bit of thought!

travel wrote:Is Prelude the predecessor of Accord? If so, we might have a solution that keeps everybody happy in the family - Honda Accord.

No, though they are somewhat similar, I suppose. The Accord is a 4 door sedan, the Prelude is a 2 door coupe. They stopped making the Prelude in 2001, and as you probably know, they are still making the Accord. They both have trunks instead of hatchbacks. I don't know if the Accord has a trunk passthrough big enough, which would be the deciding factor. If it does have one, and you can fold the front passenger seat down far enough, you can probably fit a decent sized board in there.

One thing I didn't mention is the board won't fit with the fin on, so I have to take it off every time.

Please don't go buy a car based on my advice without trying to actually fit a board in there though. In my car, it is a very close fit!

sure thing, Unorthodox.. I won't hold u responsible for that...

Smart car?

If you wind down the front passenger seat, fully back so its flat it'll fit in a vw polo.

I bought a cadillac SRX last year and I can fit two longboards inside, dig it as a surfboard vehicle. I dont' like to use my surf racks unless I have friends riding with me.