The well-known rack manufacturers use a sort of 'floating' extension to gain any sort of respectable distance between cross bars, and to me it looks somewhat flimsy, expecially for the cost. It may not be flimsy, but from a design stand point, the mounting arrangement looks to be poorly thought out (same with most 2-door hatchbacks that don't have rain gutters or any other way to mount cross bar risers over the rear windows).

The BAT rack is roughly half the cost of a basic Thule or Yakima set-up, and *looks* more solid. It may or may not be any better than the big names, but the cost is much better.

: Have you looked at Thule and Yakima racks? They are definantly the big $$$
: solution. I don't know what they make for the Focus, but the fits I've
: seen on other cars were about as solid as welding.

: Mike