Re: A6/100 wagon roof racks

[steveb@falcon.kla.com (Steven Buchholz)]

> In message <199612101803.NAA18695@Mail.IDT.NET> "A. Belzer" writes:
> 
> > Greetings and salutations of the season to all.  I have a late model wagon
> > and notice that the roof rack makes a considerable contribution to wind
> > noise, not to mention my belief that they are not of the highest aesthetic
> > standard.  I bought a wagon so I could put more things inside.  If I wanted
> > to put things on a roof rack I could have bought a sedan.  Has anyone
> > attempted (succeeded in) removing them?  TIA.
> 
> A permanently affixed roof rack?  They _do_ ship some odd things to you Yanks.
> 
> The Passat Estate has a roof rail option here in Europe, and you can turn it 
> into a roof rack by adding bars.  Its principle purpose in life, without the 
> bars, is to stiffen the roof and stop it "drumming".
> 
... I guess it is true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder ... I think
the rails on the 5kQ Avant are quite attractive ...

I have never seen any Audi with anything other than attached rails as you find 
on the Passat Estate.  Of course you may purchase bars from Audi for a consid-
erable sum to allow you to mount skis, bicycles, kayaks, whatever to the top 
of the car [why would they pass up the opportunity to get you to spend more to
make the rails useful? :].  Interestingly enough for those of you living out-
side of the North American continent ... VW has been selling several models of 
their cars with roof racks AND something to attach to them, such as the "Jetta 
TREK" which is a VW Jetta with a removable roof rack and a Trek bicycle.  

In case anyone has those rails and wants to get bars for them, I found that 
Thule makes bars that work well for a lot less $$$ than the Audi ones.  The
model number is either 311 or 411 ... I believe the latter.  I must say that
it is MUCH easier carrying a tandem outside than inside ... plus I need the 
Avant's longer roofline ... :-)

Getting back to the original poster ... unless you live in an area with MAJOR 
crosswinds I can't imagine (and don't experience) any additional wind noise 
created by the rails.  If you really don't like them you should be able to 
remove them ... on my car they only held on with a few screws ... probably 
5mm hex head.  Once removed the only thing you'd have to look at are the 
threaded mounts for the rails and the small patches that are just slightly 
a different different color than the rest of the car ... to each his own!

To my mind the "yanks" only get the mundane cars ... the odd ones go to the 
rest of the world ... :-)

Steve Buchholz
s_buchho@kla.com
San Jose, CA (USA)