With a small car you may be better off looking for a trailer. If you do car top the canoe it has to be tied down so that it can't slide off to either side as well as front and rear. If your canoe is wider than your vehicle as mine is you need some kind of padded bars tied to the roof of the vehicle and then tie the canoe to those. Try googling canoe carriers or looking for them on e-bay just to see what the options are.