Rack system and bike rack for the roof

I installed a Thule system on the roof. This is a hard mount, screwed into the sheet metal footer system. THe whole rack is removed with a simple snap in about 1 minute, leaving only the small footers in place. The whole system is very sturdy. I expected a huge hit to gas mileage but so far, not too bad. A couple of months ago I drove to San Diego and got about 66 mpg at 65 mph with no rack system on the car. THis week, the same drive at 55 mph resulted in 50 mpg. I previously had a hitch mounted system and saw mileage closer to 45 mpg. I am surprised that roof top is better. At 50 mph, it looks like I can get 52-53 mpg highway. All of this is reporting what the Prius registers on the display for mpg so take that for what it is.

 

You can see where the system plugs in, just below the rack. The bottom part is all that remains when the rack is removed. There are small covers that snap in place above each footer. I'll add a pic when I get back from this trip.

 

Here is what is left when you remove the rack.

 

Rack removed.

 

Mileage with 2 mountain bikes on top from San Clemente to Los Angeles. 60ish mph.

 

$700ish. Don't know the model number but it is a standard Yakima product.