"It would be nice to have a system that worked well, had a cross bar near the windshield, and I did not need to start drilling the roof of my newly acquired car."

you could go "hybrid" and use the factory roof rack for the back and purt a Yakima rack up front wherever you want it - Q towers and Q-clips don't require any drilling and the clips are customized for a particular vehicle, so you could check availability before buying the car.  That's what I use on the cab roof of my dodge dakota - the clips are mostly held in place by the closed doors - unless you drive down the highway with your doors open, they will be solid - you'd need a cross bar also, of course.  That would be much better than foam blocks, though I have used them and if you put some sticky shelf liner under the block, they don't move around - but its a lot more fuss to tie the boat to the roof using blocks vs a rack.

I notice that a lot of cars nowadays have a very curved roof line - putting a cross bar way up front too far may not work if the roof slopes down too much - might not be enough clearance to keep the boat off the roof ?

one other point - many factory roof racks are more for looks than function and aren't at all strong - double check with the manufacturer to be sure they are strong and functional.  I have seen reports of factory roof racks flying off of cars and have seen one personally being very loose as the bolts worked loose on a Honda CRV - you could lift the front left corner up an inch or so before it got repaired.  Bow and stern tiedowns help hold any rack to the roof.

Magicpaddler wrote on Jan 7^th, 2013 at 10:42pm:


MP,

For years I had toted my canoe around on a van using the standard dealer roof racks.  No problems.  Since I put about 4000 miles annually carrying a canoe, I decided to purchase the Yakima Q towers, bars, strap kit, and the wind fairing (?) at Copia 3 years ago for my Toyota Corolla.  Total cost was about $400 with the discount.  They were kind of a pain to get them set up correctly, but once that was done, it's very easy to put on and take off.   Compared to how I hauled the canoes in earlier times and worried about things while on the highway, I am very happy with how the Yakima racks have performed to date.

If you already have a "rear" rack as you mentioned in your first post, you could just buy 2 Q towers and a bar to put near the windshield.