I know that Fiat say that a rear mounted rack isn't appropriate for a Multi, and clearly a towbar fitted device would be better, but for the use it will now get on our 2008 Multi I can't quite justify the outlay.

We've got 6 bikes to transport on holiday (if we can manage) - 3 adults, 3 kids. We've already got space for four on the roof, and in normal day to day we stick the other two kids bikes in the boot. Not feasible for summer holiday with luggage as well.

Now that the multi has been around for a long while, does anyone have direct experience of successfully using a classic rear mounted bike rack with a multipla, and any hints / tips. I suppose the main reason its not recommended is that the mid section is entirely glass so its not designed to withstand side to side loading. I'm sure I could get around that by securing side straps somewhere else on the car, rather than just clipping around the glass.

Failing that, how much ought I to expect for a towbar fitting with little fuss? I've had online quotes for about £300, but that seems very steep!

I took 5 people (me + 4 mid-teens) with a large dome tent (large enough to park the Multi completely inside the centre section and still have access to the 3 'bedrooms') and bikes for all of us on a long weekends holiday in Dorset a few years ago. I didn't think I'd have a cat-in-hells chance of getting us all in but in fact it wasn't bad at all. No bags on anyones lap, for example.

The only assistance the Multipla needed to get us there and back came in the form of a pair of the Fiat roof bars, so that I could fit my 6' roof box, and a tailgate mounted cycle carrier which I managed to get three 26" or 24"-wheeled bikes on without obscuring any rear lights and the tailgate could still be opened. I think I took the front wheels off of all three and they went in the boot with the other two bikes, also sans front wheels, but that's no great hardship. Both the roof box and the cycle carrier came from Halfords.

Three seats in the front, two in the back and a jolly good time was had by all. In fact, it was that little break that convinced me the Multi was something to keep hold of and not the stop-gap motor that I had originally intended it to be. I remember looking at our neighbours (much longer) Golf when we got back and thinking "I'd like to see you take five on holiday with their bikes in that!"

Cheers. For us its 6 of us, with 6 bikes and a fortnight's worth of packing (though no tent!). Roof will have likely 3 or 4 bikes, plus long thin roofbox, plus hopefully 2 or 3 bikes on the rear in one form or another. If not, then its a hire job when we get into the Alps.

I can play safe with only putting light, kids bikes on the rear carrier (well, one of them is light, one of the weighs a tonne!) to keep the load down, but every other space in the car will be chocka.

My one wish for the Multi was that they'd made an estate version - perhaps just 6 inch of extra boot space would have been ideal when you've got a growing family of 6 in the car. We need the roofbox for every family holiday longer than 3 nights.

What brand of bike carrier do you use? Any tips on how to secure it well?

I haven't got any photos of the bike carrier fitted unfortunately and it's now buried at the back of the shed. It's a very ordinary strap on tailgate mounting type. The straps hook on to the top edge of the tailgate and other ones go to the left and right hand edges, with the last two tensioning it all by hooking to the bottom edge. Very similar to this one:

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-racks/rear-mounted-bike-racks/rear-high-mount-3-cycle-carrier

I had a 26" and 2x 24" wheeled bikes on the back and it was fine. If you've got small kids bikes, it's worth bearing in mind that with a quick strip-down they can quite easily fit in one of the 'fat' roof boxes like the one in my photo. It's also a lot quieter on the motorway without the bikes stuck out in the breeze. Back in the day, I took many bikes (and a folding bike trailer) to France in this way. We even bought bikes in France (reasonable quality ones were much cheaper there at the time. Happy days, long gone.....) to bring back to the UK. Pedals off, seat and handlebars either remove or twisted 90 degrees and they take up surprisingly little space. Ten minutes with a spanner at the other end of the journey and you're good to go.

Tighten the straps for the tailgate-type carriers gradually and evenly. Use extra tube padding in the form of plumbing pipe lagging if necessary, to stop bits hitting the car glass/bodywork. That and some duct tape works wonders. Once tensioned-up, it's all very solid. I could pull the tailgate up/open by grabbing a bike rather than the tailgate without any problem at all. If you get the bikes mounted fairly high up, they won't obscure the number plate or rear lights and the added bonus is that they tip forward of the tailgate hinges when it's open, so the gas struts don't have a hard time keeping the tailgate open. Just test it all beforehand to make sure you don't over-do it, as you can end up with the handlebars whacking the roof when the tailgate is opened.

In my photo, the roof box was mounted a long way forwards so that the bikes on the tailgate didn't clout it as the boot was opened. It was offset to one side so that we could strap some monster stunt kites to the roof bars, and make sure the car aerial didn't get bent out of shape. The twin sunroofs could still be fully opened even with all this cr*p loaded up!

Six bods on board will prove more of a challenge. Losing one seat from the back does wonders for the luggage capacity. Good luck!

A 'Grande' Multipla was discussed on a wishlist thread here some time ago. I would buy one in an instant. Eight seats or 6 + a decent boot would be unbeatable.

Discovered a nice tax rebate last night, so perhaps the towbar option is becoming more viable!

But good to hear that a standard mounted rear carrier can work as a (much) cheaper option. I've used them in the past, just not on the multipla.

Cheers!

LOL. In the end we went for the towbar. So it was three bikes on the roof, four on the towbar, a roofbox, three children, a 6ft teenager and two parents in the car. All the way to the Alps. With an ECU fault which meant that revs above 3000 weren't accessible and the turbo was non-functional. Some of the climbs on the motorways were made in the crawler lane, but it got us there and back.

I'd go for the Towbar, then pick up a s/hand 'Camping' Trailer.
The Trailer will come in handy so many times, and if you ever sell the Multi, the Trailer will most likely sell for what you paid for it, as long as you look after it.

Without all that stuff on the Roof, improved fuel economy will help pay for the Trailer and Towbar.

I went to Wales a few years back, fully loaded, Camping Trailer piled high with gear.
The mpg went up considerably, by at least 8mpg, and even though it was pi##ing down all the way there, my rear screen stayed dry.

The Trailer filled in the 'dead' space behind the Multi, making it much more Aerodynamic overall, so despite the extra weight I was lugging, it used less fuel.