One of my reasons to choose my Honda Jazz as a replacement for my Vauxhall Meriva was for a car which I could relatively easily transport my bicycles inside (A mountain bike, a road bike or my touring bike - one at a time not all three at once!). Hopefully this may be of interest to potential owners!
I had read about the magi seats being able to be folded up into tall mode. So I popped the front wheel off my mountain bike (a large sized hardtail, with 29" wheels with 2.25" tyres on):
Fits, but can't shut the doors!
So, trying with the wheels off, and the frame upside down. Just like that!
A possibility, but not keen on having the bike upside down in case it causes issues with the hydraulic disk brakes? If I were to do it this way, I'd put the bike in a soft bike bag to keep all the oily / dirty bits away from the car upholstry, as well as put the wheels in wheel bags... Good thing about this way, is I still have a full boot to use.
Still wanting to experiment a little, I decided to try putting the bike standing upright, with the front wheel removed and using my patented plank of wood and old wheel axle fork holder...
So putting the rear seats into cargo mode using various old boot liners / seat covers from previous cars gave quite a large space (although with a bit of a boot lip)
Twisting the bike through the open boot, rear wheel first, it
just fitted with my saddle barely touching the roof lining:
However, not happy with the fact that saddle may rub on the head lining and cause damage I popped the quick release seat post out, and success! Had to put the bike at an angle so that it fitted lengthwise:
Gear packed for tomorrows off road cycle ride:
Bike? What Bike? The good thing about my Jazz having tinted rear windows, is that it hides the bike from prying eyes!
I had thought about getting a tow bar & tow bar rack fitted to the car, but seeing as it's relatively straight forward to get the mountain bike inside with a few minutes taking the wheels & seatpost out, I don't think I will now! Pretty much I'll be the only person in the car, with my bike, so the added fuel economy of having the bike inside, versus outside on a rack is a benefit!
Will be interesting to try the same with my road & touring bikes which have drop bars, which may come close to touching the rear window...
Honda certainly have worked magic with their Magic Seats!