I'm looking for some roof bars to fit my saloon, to carry snowboards on. For the full details see my post in the wanted section here. There are a few on fleabay such as these but hardly any have pictures of the actual ones for sale so I have no idea of the quality or ease of fitting etc. You can buy them as accessories from VX, but as always they seem to work out the average market price and multiply it by 5 then add VAT, so  seeing as I'm not yet a millionaire I'll give them a miss (unless a used pair come up).

Anyone got any advice in this department? Also my car has a little groove running along the length of the roof on both sides just above the doors, I take it this is the "gutters" for roof bar mounting they talk about?

This is something I would be very interested in too. 

I've got some roofbars for my saloon, and to be honest, they're crap.  I originally bought Paddy Hopkirk when I was due to go on holiday in preparation to pick up a kayak on the way.  I got to the hire shop and found that the bolts in the Paddy Hopkirk bars were too short.  They work by nipping onto the trim around the window, with a bit of rubber trim around the edge to 'protect' the paint.
I had to buy some bars there and then from a motor accessory store next door (no - they didn't sell bolts - gits).  The bars I got were almost identical but with a longer bolt, and cost about 25 quid.  They were the same design - a little bent bit of metal which bolted to another, nipping the gutter.

The saloon just doesn't seem to take to roofbars very well at all.  I'm a kayaker, and have a mixture of things to carry, including an 18ft sea kayak and the problems seem to be the distance achievable between the bars, the bars touching the roof and the fragility of the window trim.  If it's just snowboards you're going to strap up there it'll probably be fine, but anything of any weight or length (roofbox, kayak, timber etc) and I wouldn't trust the gutter style bars at all.  I'm also extremely wary of bending and creasing the door trim.  I get really nervous with things on the roof of my Omega - more so than any other car I've had.

The Mont Blanc ones look to be the 'nip the gutter' design - and I'd be really interested if Vauxhall have something different that is more secure.  I can't understand it - the Vectra of the same age has captive nuts in the body to receive bolts and it's extremely sturdy - but the omega saloon has nothing like it (that I've seen).

Are Mont Blanc and Paddy Hopkirk the same?  Not sure - perhaps they are the same company...

Let us know what you go for - and if you do get the chance to see some Vauxhall ones what they're like and how they fit!

Not when you've got a dual-fuel Omega

Besides, skiing is for middle-aged toffs

Paul M wrote on 07. Jan 2007 at 23:04:


Who spend less time on their backsides than the boarders we have to ski round ( or over) 

Got a Thule set for mine.

Took 4 bike racks without drama on one occasion, and a roofbox on another.

HI2DVY wrote on 07. Jan 2007 at 23:11:


Pipe lagging wrapped in duct tape helps alleviate this 

HI2DVY wrote on 07. Jan 2007 at 23:11:


You mean cars with gutters.

Omega has them Vectra doesnt

I use Paddy Hopkirk folding ones from Halfords.

If you look in the gutter there are a couple of small ridges, this is where the seam is strengthed to take the feet of the rack

HI2DVY wrote on 07. Jan 2007 at 23:11:


Cheers for the offer Dave, I stay in Edinburgh these days so it'd be pretty easy to pop over one evening . Where abouts are you? How much do the halfrauds ones cost?