On 4-Apr-2006, "Wilko" wrote:

what about the rail system that one can find on so many
different brands of stationwagons nowadays? They have the advantage of
being able to space the crossbars just like the old gutter system did,
and they are very sturdy.

If the car makers provide four fixed points, as per BMW and the CRV, there's no
reason you can't bolt on a couple of rails like this and have full adjustability.
That's what I like about the potential of such a system widely adopted. It
greatly simplifies the approach to adding roof mounted gadgets. The only
thing that will differentiate different vehicles is the shim that matches a standard
roof attachment to the exact roof curve/profile (like the different rubber feet
currently supplied with various incarnations of standard Thule/Yakima towers).

Mike