Weekend Athlete Ratings Explained
To that end, here are the categories, what they mean and how a car gets its score:
Ease of loading gear: What I’m looking for here is something I can chuck all my toys into without having to think such thoughts as “Hmm … perhaps if the cooler were placed here, then the sleeping bag could go here.” Also, there needs to be enough room to carry everything without a lot of piling, stacking and mashing of gear. The easier things fit in, the higher the score.
Ease of seat operation: Cars that score the best are ones where the seats fold down and up quickly and easily. Picture yourself wearing a backpack, balancing a bike and holding a coffee mug while you load your car in the rain, and you can see why the ease of seat operation is important.
Bike hauling: Almost everywhere I go, one of my bikes comes along. If the bike can go into the car without me having to remove a wheel, that’s great; if I have to take one wheel off, that’s average; if I have to take both off, it’s poor. The range in the scores is determined not only by how much room there is for the bike, but also how easy it is to load the bike. In other words, is the load floor too low? Or is it too high, especially for shorter people? Is the opening too narrow for the bike to slide in? I use a bike as the example here because it’s a fairly common item that people can relate to.
Locker room cred: Does the car look like it can take getting dirty, or does it look like it could use doilies? The more comfortable I feel in the car, the higher its score here. Also, nicer interiors tend to get dinged (sorry, Pontiac Torrent). If you don’t sweat, never get muddy and don’t camp, go buy a luxury car and have fun — but that’s not me. To me, climbing into a luxury car after a muddy race would be like tracking mud into your parents’ dining room. I wouldn’t do it.
All-around: This is a rough average of the above scores. The car’s price could factor in here, though, as well as in the locker room category. Why? Because I believe that doing beats having, so given the choice between $1,000 in options and $1,000 in race-entry fees, I’ll go for the latter. I’ll always call this out, just in case you’re one of those people who doesn’t have to worry about dropping $1,000 either way.
I try to only test cars that I think will perform well, so you won’t see me taking out a Mazda MX-5 just so I can say it’s a bad Weekend Athlete car. Finally, I’m not out to dump on anybody’s car. I started this because I got tired of press releases and car reviews talking about how many golf bags a car would hold, both because I don’t golf and because golf bags don’t only come in one standard size. But I do ride bikes, camp, cross-country ski, etc., and I want to know if a particular car will fit that lifestyle.
I hope that through the pictures, videos and writing, these reviews will help active people get a better idea of whether a car should be on their shopping list. As always, feel free to ping me with your thoughts.
