At last, someone has put some thought into the humble bike rack.
Vauxhall Astra FlexiFix Bike Rack
I’m a keen mountain biker myself and I’ve tried various collapsible bike racks that you hang onto the rear hatch. Some are good, some not so good, but almost all of them leave tell-tale scratches in the delicate paintwork.
So could all manufacturers take note of what Vauxhall have done with the soon-to-be-released 2010 Astra? They’ve integrated a clever bike rack system called Flexi-Fix into the rear bumper that’s capable of holding two full-size bikes and even has a set of extra tail lights.
The rack simply pulls out when needed and folds neatly away when you’ve finished, without ruining the lines of the back of the car. Genius, and although it may be an optional extra you won’t end up with a crappy bike rack and you won’t have to pay for a respray afterwards!
One question – how will this work on the next Astra VXR? The old one had a centrally mounted exhaust, and I doubt that’s going to work too well with FlexiFix.
Source: Torque Astra