Are car roof ski racks going out of style?

I remember my first ski rack, back in France. It was made by DAV, a small company on the French side of Geneva, that could take four pairs of skis and was lockable. 

When I came to America, I would slide our skis into the family hatchback or SUV, or even my wife’s small station-wagon and it’s only in 1998 that I got my first Thule rack and began to carry our skis on the roof. 

Truth be told, racks had a few downsides; they were noisy, hard to load on tall vehicles, and affected fuel efficiency. In the early 2000s, I commuted to Vail, Colorado and purchased a Thule box that was more aerodynamically profiled and kept the road grim and salt away from my skis. That continued through the winter of 2021-2022. 

After that, I got a new car, designed an interior ski box and ditched my old roof carrier. These days, when I observe cars on the ski area parking lot, I would estimate the number of cars without roof or tailgate ski rack, or roof boxes to be around two-thirds of the vehicles parked. 

Most of people these days drive large and small SUVs that are generally a bit to tall to comfortably access a roof rack or box, which leaves their users the option to fold a seat inside and slide the skis or snowboards inside.

Further, EVs that are about sleek aerodynamics discourage their owners to place objects on their roofs. I would therefore conclude that the days of putting everything on one’s car roof are gone, or going fast. 

If you are into snowsports, where do you stow your ski equipment when you drive to go skiing?