I need to carry a canoe and two bikes. Criteria is: ease of installation and removal, security, as little wind noise as possible, and no marks on the car.<p>What's the best roof rack for the 1.8t?<br>

You'll never get a definitive answer on this one, just a bunch of opinions, like mine. <p>I very highly doubt that any one person has actually used BOTH Yakima AND Thule racks on his/her A4, so each person responding will say that whatever he/she has is best. Kind of like how I think my Thule is best...<p>But they're both good racks and you'll be both happy and OK with either one.

I had this discussion with my father once. At the time, and this may still be the case, Yakima had round support bars, and Thule had rectangular ones.<p>Now from and engineering point of view, round ones are better in that they can support a greater load before warping and/or breaking.<p>On the other hand, we're talking about a roof rack, and you're probably not going to put such a load on these bars that they bend. If you did, you would probably be exceeding the weight limits of what the roof of the car can safely hold.<p>That's about it. I hope someone else can really answer your questions.<br>

Agree with Drew's comments. Another consideration with the round bars (Yakima) is the idea that the rack accessories will always fit to the bar as designed, regardless of the shape of your roofline (eg. VW Beetle vs. GM Suburban). Makes sense in theory, although I doubt it really matters in practice.<p>I don't think you can really go wrong either way as far as fit, quality, and function. Maybe you could locate a dealer that carries both, and try them both on. Consider appearance and price.<p>My personal choice was Yakima because I thought their products looked better. They also have cool names... 8-)<p><br>Regards,<br>Dean W.<br>Avant with DoubleCross towers, RocketBox, and WindJammers <p>

I have had a yakima rack on a three different makes of car....and the adapters have let me move it without too much hastle. It is bulletproof. Thule is supposed to be just as good...<p>On the round bars, the audi roofline is not perfectly flat...but it almost is.<p>Yakima is US made (pretty sure), Thule is Swedish, if that matters to you.<p>jeff<p>Both are good, and colorado cyclist even has a bunch of parts that can be used with BOTH brands!!!

I just moved my Thule rack over to my A4 from my Honda two weeks ago, and I noticed that the ski rack attachments definitely do not both stand "straight up", due to the curvature of the A4 roofline. Both of my rails are located at the official position designated by Audi for such things (indicated by the marks at the top of the door frame). Not a big problem for the ski rack, but when I put my bike racks on in the spring, their rectangular clamping mechanism certainly won't sit completely flat on the rails.<p>But then, my bike racing team in Colorado some years ago used to use Yakima racks all the time, and we had big problems with the front wheel carrier thingies rotating around on the round rails, with the freely-spinning tires coming into contact with the roof of the team cars and making big ugly marks. Not such a big deal, except one of our sponsors was John Elway's Jeep/Eagle dealership, and they used to give us cars to drive to the races, and we'd often return them with unremoveable tire scuff marks on the roof. Oops. :-)

First, both are very good systems and you won't go wrong. Drew S.'s statement about round vs square is true if you compare it apples to apples (ie. equal width, thickness, material, type of stress/loading etc.), but both bars are very stiff. <p>My beef was that no matter how clean you try to keep the footpads on the roof, dust/dirt always manages to work underneath and leave behind marks. My solution was to seal out the dirt/dust/water by using static cling window tints that I've cut out into the shape of the footpads. Whenever I remove the rack, I take off the tints and voila, completely clean and no marks.<p>Drew

I've got a Yakima rack with two SteelHead fork-mount bike carriers. I also purchased two wheel holders to hold two front wheels. Sure enough, they moved out of position and that spinning wheel came in contact with the roof on my old Corrado, putting a small gouge in the paint. Needless to say, I don't use those wheel carriers anymore. I usually just throw the front wheels in a trash bag [I'm a mountain biker, so they're usually pretty muddy] and then throw that in the trunk.<p><br>Andy Hedin<br>'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Wett 1.0 Bar Chip, ABT Filter, Euro Headlights with<br>PIAA SuperWhite's, A!AvantGarde Grill, Smoked Side-Markers,<br>Clear Corner-Markers, Tint<br>

Check www.rei.com, I shopped pretty heavily and found them to have excellent prices and great service (also had free shipping). fwiw .. I bought Yakima.<p><br>

I've had both Yakima and Thule racks. I switched from Yakima to Thule when I got my '90 Coupe Quattro, because Yakima didn't yet have an adapter for that car, and Thule did. I've used Thules ever since.<p>They both work just fine. I drove my bike into my garage door once recently with the Thules - bent the crossbars, bike essentially unharmed. I've no idea if the outcome would have been any different with Yakimas.<p>Both companies have essentially similar accessories that do essentially the same things.<br>I'd use either rack without hesitation. Which accessory would you use most? Bike rack, ski rack, kayak? Whose adapter for that item do you like best - i.e. Yakima bike rack or Thule? Pick the rack based on the accessory you like best.<p>They both work just fine.<br>

I purchased a AutoMaxi for my 4000 (Ok, 4 years ago while I was a STUDent). I have seen the mounting kit for gutterless cars and they used an A4 as the model(European Web site)! I have yet to find a distributor here in the US for the kit so I am w/o the necessary hardware<p>These are BULLETPROOF! I ran my bike up on covered parking, ripping the seat and post to shreds (American Classic and Sella San Marco, for those gearheads), only tearing a rivet on the gutter. Absolutely no damage to the rack! The mountings gave way and prevented major damage to the car.<p>They are light weight and look great. They are multipurpose as they have built in rachet straps, locking covers and full adjustability. And they look like new after 4 years! Match that with a Yak or Thule.<p>Cheers<p>Keith (jurenak@kochind.com)<p>If anyone out there knows of a Stateside distributor, please email me.

I will defnitely go with the Yakima.. I have both of these systems and the Thule is just sitting in my garage all the time, because it's such a pain in the A$# to put in on the car.. With the Yakima the rack just clamps on easily!..<p>Dmak 1.8TQMS

After looking at both I got a yakima, even though I have plenty of Thule attachements from another car, because is seemed to have a cleaner mount- that just clamps on. Then I drove it into a garage with bikes attached! The good news it ripped of cleanly with a minimum of damage to the car and no damage to the rack.