Big board....little car...an inquiry

General Discussion
1 
Thinkin of getting rid of my mini-van, which has been a great vehicle for transporting and locking up my longboards up to 10-4. When I found myself calculating the costs of going(or not) to my favorite So. Cal. breaks, I realized maybe I need a more economic vehicle that would not influence destination decisions.

Considering a Saturn SL2 from 98-02. Anyone have experience locking up a longboard in one of these. I know there is access through the trunk.

I was astounded when I relocated my 10-4 to Oahu and fit that sucker in the wife’s Nissan Altima.

Thanks in advance,

roger

2

Hey Proneman,

I don’t know about the saturn, but i drive my wife’s toyota matrix from time to time. Sort of looks like a mini-mini van. Great car for surfboards in my opinion. The front passenger seat and the back seat lay flat allowing you to get most boards inside, up to 9.4 if you go glass to glass. For longer boards you can open the back glass and let it hang out the back.

The big plus is the thing gets just under 30 mpg around town and around 35 on the highway.

good luck.

3

I have a ‘04 Civic coupe and when I fold the back seats and recline the front passenger seat I can fit up to two a 9’-8"s and a 6’-6".

4

Take the board with you to the dealers. They’ll crack up. I found out a few years ago that a 10’2" fits inside a Subaru wagon, a Mazda 6 wagon, and a Passat wagon (I bought the Subaru) but not in a Ford Escape or a Jetta.

5

My fiance bought a prius which I love for transporting boards. I have to put longboards over the front passenger seat… but my 9’2" fits very easily. You could probably get something a between 9’6" and 10" in there, maybe longer… With enough headroom to throw a couple of boards on top of it.

6
Quote:

Hey Proneman,

I don’t know about the saturn, but i drive my wife’s toyota matrix from time to time. Sort of looks like a mini-mini van. Great car for surfboards in my opinion. The front passenger seat and the back seat lay flat allowing you to get most boards inside, up to 9.4 if you go glass to glass. For longer boards you can open the back glass and let it hang out the back.

The big plus is the thing gets just under 30 mpg around town and around 35 on the highway.

good luck.

i drive a matrix…LOVE it. can take a board up to 9’4" inside, stack boards 6 high, and still have room for 1 person behind me and all our stuff in the trunk. perfect for surf-trippin’ (just drove it across the country to SoCal and back). and it takes a Thule or Yakima rack system very well for the boards 9’5"+ (if you don’t want to stick it out the rear glass).

7

Aloha Proneman,

This is interesting…what’s your criteria? After just spending $78.00 filling my truck, my ’84 jetta is looking better everyday. Impulsive driving has become more contemplative, so what are you looking at to travel the freeways chasing waves?

We have a Honda CRV that carries longboards well, inside up to (9’8"x2), and up top, but the gas mileage ain’t up to par(26mpg}. I think the bottom line will be to go for the great mileage and put the boards on the roof. Keep this up to date.

8

Would an 80’s Benz Diesel station wagon running on WVO be what you’re looking for?

Cheers,

Rio

9

The RV-Inno racks works well on top if you can’t fit boards inside. They lock - kind of - so you don’t have to worry too much about leaving boards on your car. I drive up and down the coast alot - up to 60k miles a year, and have never had a problem. They advertise in Longboard Mag.

10

O.K.,

a message from outside the box

channeling the spirit of surfers past

select the car with the most outrageous gaas

milage and reliability and… ground clearance

now comes the kicker…

phone george barris,tell him Dale velzy sent you

http://www.barris.com/

holy cow I clicked on this and the music is unreal

so consult with the man and ask him for a recomendation

I.E. where the design students are that need to make academic points redesigning a body for the model you’ve selected.

or go straight to the net and get the name of the school

and …Hec you are in the hotbed of california car inovations

and a direct decendant of the most avant guarde sub culture

that velzy cushman with the overhead rack

the beatnik bandit

all those batmobiles and that hollywood and vine krap aside

pop proctor and the millions o’vans decended from the

chevy pannel wagons and delivery station wagons

man would a micro parkasaurus rex oscars wiener wagon modified poptop

with a fiberglass case locking that holds a four pack of assorted

stix a kitchen and hot water shower and a refrigerator and surf movies

those guys on T.V.

could do your beat up citroen farm truck

w/ 58 miles to the gallon

blazing with a supercharged 2cylinder

top ending at 62.8 mph

in cruise control

and the net surf report wireless

ensenada to big sur in a tank of gas

and dont forget the wood paneling.

what college in the L.A. basin is geared up for the 21st century?

Cal ARTS?

BERKLEY?

UCLA?

CAL TECH?///

ssssslash forward

are we pirates or

dirrect decendants

of the greatest collector culture

in the history of man.

beach combing is high arrt.

oh yaeh when you select the model

look for thre one with thw crushed top

that has to be rebuilt into a

SURF CAR…

OOOOOHHHHHHHHHH BABY!

…ambrose…

stir them juices

put a lid on the finances

upolster and paint it in mexico

right?

maybe do the body work down there too.

cut the top off a 55 chevy and flip it over and weld two tops together and weld that on a sedan of note

foilng it all the way

come together… together…

right now.

…ambrose…

I’m pressing the play again button on the chuck barris site

11
Quote:

Aloha Proneman,

This is interesting…what’s your criteria? After just spending $78.00 filling my truck, my ’84 jetta is looking better everyday. Impulsive driving has become more contemplative, so what are you looking at to travel the freeways chasing waves?

We have a Honda CRV that carries longboards well, inside up to (9’8"x2), and up top, but the gas mileage ain’t up to par(26mpg}. I think the bottom line will be to go for the great mileage and put the boards on the roof. Keep this up to date.

EP - I’d measure that mileage in the small car, with and without the longboards up top. My gut is that you may increase consumption by upwards of 20-25% at highway speeds…

-Samiam

12

Art Center in Pasadena is THE car design school. That’s where 90% of the world’s car designers come from now days.

I spent eight years working for George Lucas, starting as a chief model maker. For about $2 million, I could build the eco surf car of your dreams - kind of defeats the purpose of “eco”.

13 
Howzit Brother Brose, I've been gone for almost a month now and will be returning next week to our beloved island. What is the price of gas these days at the Shell station in Kapaa.Here in Az it's about $2.79 a gallon.Aloha,Kokua
14
Quote:

Art Center in Pasadena is THE car design school. That’s where 90% of the world’s car designers come from now days.

So that’s who is responsible! I’ve been wondering who designs all this rotten crap out there in the U.S. market place. It is no wonder why foreign cars are taking the U.S. market…the Big Three in the U.S. seem to be intent on making stupid herd decisions. So if you go through a used car advertising mag you find fuel effiicient Hondas with 175k miles for $2000 less than new…or you can buy a midsized truck for less brand new.

B.O.H.I.C.A! Bendoverhereitcomes!

That really kills me when one realizes that most of them have overseas manufacturing operations that make fairly competitive models which never come out in the U.S. including fuel efficient models. Down in Australia they have made those van/wagon combos…can’t recall what they were called and don’t know if they are still made but for the U.S. people think glorified Pinto wagon meets panel van…years and maybe decades ago! Maybe still? Something like that ought to sell great in the U.S. and they spent years (Ford I think?) making them so they know how and have tooling designs.

NO VISION IN THE INDUSTRY! I bet they “kill” or co-opt anybody with talent every chance they get. Somebody came up with the PT Cruiser, an unexpected success especially when considering the previously wretched Neon model which it mutated from.

Ambrose offers an excellent solution: find something beat, do the mad scientist thing, make it a beach cruiser of beauty. Force that trip across the border for fun and profit. Either that or the Toyota option. If you go late model or new on anything I would warn against any “all wheel drive” option for the simple reason that it seems insane to me to wear the tires a while, get an unrepairable sidewall flat, and then have to buy all 4 new tires or risk the drivetrain (and warranty). I can’t call that an improvement on anything except maybe the economy.

15

Art Center grads are responsible for most car design, not just US brands. For expample, Nissons are designed in San Diego. Mazdas are desined in LA. Grads also come from all over to attend the program, and many find jobs overseas when they get out.

Don’t blame the designers though… it’s the bean counters and commitees. A new car model costs a couple billion and takes a couple years to get to market. What starts out as a beautifully designed object gets diluted by cost concerns, manufacturing ease, (soft) focus groups, and fear of doing anything new.

Executives at the US car companies get shuttled around in limos and have no clue what it’s like to buy and drive a car anymore. And the last thing they’re thinking about is how we’re going to get our boards to the beach.

They need to hit rock bottom to see the light. That’s what happened to the Japanese cars right before they took over the world in the early 90’s. Now that they’ve had a few years of being on top of the food chain, they’re losing focus again.

Maybe our energy crisis will open some eyes and we’ll see good things before we die of old age.

16
Quote:

Would an 80’s Benz Diesel station wagon running on WVO be what you’re looking for?

Here’s an option I didn’t see mentioned. Buy the old 80’s Benz diesel wagon, and then throw $750 bucks into it to get the engine converted to burn biodiesel.

I read an article about a guy up in the Bay Area who’s doing these conversions by the dozen. Lots of happy customers, it said, and you can run on restaurant grease.

Plenty of places to fill that thing up near most So Cal breaks that I know of…

17

kokua

price o’ gas is still twenty bux

go in tell the girl " iwanna bet 20$ on # 1 pump

and drain till it stops.

its about 6 gallons.

I smashed my tank on a rock

and changed it and now it has a smaller tank…

now it cost less to get a half tank.

you are in arid zona,agood place to buy a new 68 vw van

no rust in aridzona…

…ambrose

18
Quote:

Here in Az it’s about $2.79 a gallon.Aloha,Kokua

LOL!! We pay about $2.20 a LITRE!!!

My little '99 Alfa Romeo takes a 9’4" but it ain’t comfy so racks are the way to go…

19
Quote:

Don’t blame the designers though… it’s the bean counters and commitees. A new car model costs a couple billion and takes a couple years to get to market. What starts out as a beautifully designed object gets diluted by cost concerns, manufacturing ease, (soft) focus groups, and fear of doing anything new.

Executives at the US car companies get shuttled around in limos and have no clue what it’s like to buy and drive a car anymore. And the last thing they’re thinking about is how we’re going to get our boards to the beach.

How about if I don’t just blame the designers? I can totally agree that it’s executive decisions in the end, but real serious design considerations have to be given early in the process to the manufacturing process, materials, etc. This of course isn’t limited to the auto industry; I used to deal with it in aerospace on a scale and level you can’t possibly imagine. There are reasons they are still trying to squeeze mileage out of the space shuttle and haven’t figured out what to replace it with.

I really don’t get the point of the whole “concept car” thing. Things touted at auto shows seldom show up recognizeable at the dealers. Again, bad executive thinking. Fun though…very expensive fun, but fun nonetheles…

In my earlier post I mentioned the old Ford Pinto. Ford dumped a ton of money into that and aftermarket parts for the “car culture” market, only to get their asses kicked when everybody went Van’ing. I don’t think any of the big U.S. automakers did that again, have they?

Back to the Proneman Problem, which pretty much effects us all…

20

Howzit Brose,Think I would rather get a 67 or older vw van since they are easier to work on.I have been looking but so far nothing.Aloha,Kokua