In the case of a roof rack for vehicles having an essentially level vehicle roof, especially for cars of the estate type, two supporting struts which stand upright with respect to the plane of the vehicle roof being provided on the vehicle roof, preferably so as to be parallel to the axis of the vehicle and parallel to one another, between which supporting struts there can be inserted supporting rods for receiving a load to be transported, the supporting struts (2) are articulatedly connected to the vehicle roof (1), especially by means of hinge elements (5), in such a way that in the normal condition they are parallel to the plane of the vehicle roof (1' ) and that they can be locked with respect to one another so that the load can be received by means of the supporting rods (3). This makes it possible to design a car, the roof of which is even over its entire surface in the normal condition and the supporting struts of which can be folded out and locked by means of supporting rods when it is to be used for transporting purposes.