Need to get a new roof rack for my 1995 VW golf.
I've had the use of a Thule for a few years now, but a loser friend of mine is taking it back.
He says he wants it 'cause he paid for it or something.
Whatever.

So I need to get my own.
The Thule was alright. Minor quality issues with some of the plastics, and slight corrosion.
But I dont feel bound to the brand in any way. If the Yakima's are better I have no qualms about getting that brand.
Anybody have any opinions one way or the other?
Because these suckers are expensive I figured I'd cover all the bases before making a purchase.

Ill be carrying the following: 2+ bikes, a kayak, a canoe, and skis.
Not all at the same time of course.
And this is on a 95 VW golf.

Any opinions?

I had a thule for my audi and it was pretty good never seen a yakima.

This probably isn't very helpful, but I've been eyeing the Yakima Kayak setup with the handy rollers. I've seen many people with these and they look very useful.

But then I use these on a $20 roof rack from Ikea.

Well, I don't know what's out there now. I've had a Thule for about 10 years and it's been transfered from one car to another (mine, at the moment). It carries two bikes with both wheels on. I never could figure out why someone would want to store one of your wheels inside their car. I can understand it if you had a smaller car like a Golf, but people with SUVs and Minivans. It doesn't make much sense.

Anyway, I like mine and haven't had any realy problems. Yeah, the plastic parts have kinda broken on mine, too, but they werent' that useful anyway.

I was under the inmpression that one could chop & change parts between Thule and Yakima.
As in you could purchase a Yakima car rack, but ues a Thule bike holder on it - and so on.
Have I been mislead, or both makers completly in-compatable?

I was under the inmpression that one could chop & change parts between Thule and Yakima.

No. They are totally incompatible. The Thule uses square-section cross-bars, the Yakima uses round.

I have had limited experience with Thule, extensive experience with Yakima. In my opinion, the Yakima is better.

At the last national championship bicycle races I attended, where the typical bicycle was in the $2000+ category, Yakima racks outnumbered Thule racks by about ten to one.

tanstaafl.

I've got a LockJaw for a Yakima that I'll let go for the price of shipping, no rack, just the LockJaw. I've had it since '95 or so and used it maybe twice, works great, I just found easier to throw the bike in the back of the truck.
Yaks are very good racks and very versatile, I used it to haul a canoe mostly...

The Thule uses square-section cross-bars, the Yakima uses round.

But what about all these round holes?? I've got to put these square pegs somewhere!

I've got Yakimas and they've been fine. The only plus I could think of one way or another is that with round tubes you can fold the ski-rack attachments (less the skis of course) flat which cuts down wind noise slightly when not in use (but still on the car).

-Zeke