So, my daily driver is a dull car. It’s a big old Ford that’s comfortable and reliable, but doesn’t offer all that much in the excitement department other than talk radio. That’s okay though because I have access to a ton of other more-fun cars so you needn’t pity me. Don’t you do it!
One thing that my car does excel at is trunk space. At 21 cubic feet in volume it was at the time the largest sedan trunk available in America. That’s a nice convenience as it will not only fit four comfortably—five in a pinch—but it will also fit all their luggage in the back whether it be for a weekend in Vegas or an extended trip that requires checking bags at the airport. And don’t ask me about all the dead hookers I can fit back there!
That’s something that I think gets a short shrift with a lot of car design these days. Maybe it’s because of the global shift to Crossovers, but it seems like a lot of sedans these days are being designed without commodious boots in the back. A notable exception is the electric Tesla which seems to have room to spare everywhere. Not all of us are of Tesla-buying strata and so we make do with lesser fare. That means that some come with trunks that don’t have enough room for bags for the passengers they are supposed to comport. Do you find that to be the case with your daily driver?
Image: AutoEvolution
Hooniverse Asks: Is Your Daily Driver's Trunk/Boot Big Enough?
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43 responses to “Hooniverse Asks: Is Your Daily Driver's Trunk/Boot Big Enough?”
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Well, my kayaks stick out a little past the tailgate, and if need to get lumber longer than 10 footers I take the old truck, but yeah, it’s big enough
http://images.newcars.com/images/car-pictures/original/2013-Ford-F-150-Truck-XL-4×2-Regular-Cab-Styleside-6.5-ft.-box-126-in.-WB-Photo-3.png-
I can say yes and no. My pickup is a longbed, so 1000 lbs of 4′ x 8′ sheets will disappear into it and not peek out over the gunwales; but it’s a standard cab, so there’s very little room for more than a shotgun and a fire extinguisher behind the seat.
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It’s about a 3 on the dead hooker scale.
And I never use it, so it’s more than adequate. -
Considering that my daily driver is either a Trailblazer (swb) or a Silverado with a 6-1/2′ bed , I’m good. A tonneau cover on the Silverado is the best thing that I have ever done for it. It is a soft rolling cover with an internal release. That combined with a locking tailgate makes the cargo at least as secure as a convertible. I really wanted the long bed, but compromised due to cost and driveability issues with the wife, it is an extended cab. Wife did manage to fill up the bed on our last trip to the beach for a week.
The Leaf has a surprisingly large cargo area for a little hatchback too.-
“Wife did manage to fill up the bed on our last trip to the beach for a week.”
With sand or luggage?-
Luggage and assorted junk.
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It never is.
https://data.motor-talk.de/data/galleries/0/0/125/14167333/203550798-w500-h357.jpg
http://s26.postimg.org/gpiez62qx/12493955_10156463149530441_1535370657004756403_o.jpg
The fact that passengers are prioritised over trunk space in both the Forester and Superb did make that I drive neither of them now. I want both deep, high and wide trunks. That severally limits shapes and appearances of my cars. The ideal is to be ble to throw a bike in the back and get on with it. -
Went to the recycling center last week and couldn’t get all my beer bottles into the TSX wagon.
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On the one hand my A4, ordered from new without folding rear seats. Good size trunk, but no dice if I have long thin stuff to haul.
On the other hand the 800, one of the biggest hatchbacks ever made. Drop the seats and there’s space for a bowling alley or a monorail system. -
Drove a Chevy Avalanche for 7 years before getting the Challenger. Needless to say, the Avalanche had more space than I had use for most of the time, but when I did need more it was as simple as: fold the rear seats, remove the window, drop the midgate, and fill with whatever couldn’t otherwise fit. In conjunction with the side pockets and roof rack (should you need it) the truck was never short of storage capacity. I miss having it around…
I wasn’t worried about lacking space in going to the Challenger, and appropriately so. Trunk is massive on this thing…and rear seats fold when needed. Fitting 4 wheels/tires was interesting though…-
Did not know the Avalanche did that , makes it a lot more useful than it looks.
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Yup! Easily one of the best pickup innovations of the last, well, ever.
http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/coppermine/albums/userpics/10014/02Avalanche04.jpg
http://www.cars.com/crp/vp/images/07chevrolet_avalanche/side_box_km.jpg-
My in laws have an Avalanche, the few times that I’ve tried to use it and drive it, it seemed to combine all the disadvantages of a SUV with all the disadvantages of a pickup. It couldn’t even effectively hail a queen size mattress.
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Going to disagree, having transported a bunch of mattresses when I had mine. No, a queen-size doesn’t fit flat as does the plywood in the image above, but tilting it at an angle makes it fit just fine (with the help of bungee cords, of course). So I totally get your points about being the worst of both worlds, but having owned one…it truly is a great vehicle. It has the advantages of a truck without being as massive or bulky as typical Silverado-esque vehicle, it rides like an SUV (it was based on the Suburban), and it had a seemingly infinite number of configurations for the panels/midgate/window/seats. You can use it as an SUV every day of the week, then use it as a truck when you need it to be. Best of both worlds, I’d argue…
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Thanks for posting the picture, it confirms what I had suspected from reading the description. With the mid gate down, the cab is open to the elements. Really? What is this, a 1968 Blazer with removable top? Besides, I’ve always heard that (maybe it’s an old wives tale) having no rear window invites CO to be drawn into the cab.
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It’s only open to the elements when you’re stopped, otherwise it’s entirely encased by the wind tunnel (helped by the “wing” hanging over the back of the cab), and I never had anything come into the cab.
You can have the mid-gate down and the cab still sealed, though. With the window still in place and the tailgate shut, you can’t tell from the outside that it’s open.
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I’m able to fit my mother-in-law’s wheelchair in the Kizashi’s trunk without folding down the rear seat backs. So, yes.
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It’s surprisingly roomy.
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Never knew there was a rear-engined SAAB!
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The racing version has twin rear engines:
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5491/12736315873_c33dfcd56a.jpg-
That must explain the lack of rear bumper & tow ball. Weight savings!
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I much prefer that to the mundane explanation that I was able to cobble together precisely one good rear bumper assembly from parts on-hand when the time came to install that hitch.
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Wow! A nine-cylinder two-stroke terror
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IS300 – any time it’s too small is a time I’d probably be better off with a truck, so it’s fine. I do use a roof rack for bikes and my SUP board so that helps. I would prefer the seat to fold down though. But the pass-through at least lets me put my paddle inside.
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What is this “daily driver” thing you speak of?
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You know those vehicles that occasionally attact someone’s attention as “interesting” but, upon closer inspection, are either a bit too rough or perhaps way too rough for the owner to pass off as nice? I’ve found it saves a lot of time to describe them as “daily drivers.” People generally nod and accept that.
In other words, I use it synonymously with “my car.”-
I’ve decided to stop making excuses for the generally tatty condition of my cars. If pressed, I’ll explain that I favor quantity over quality.
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Volvo S60.
Surprisingly good. With the rear seats folded, you can hold a lot, although the incline once you get to the seats means that you may end up wasting some space. I’ve moved twice fitting all my stuff in the car, and that’s good enough for me. Admittedly, as an early-20’s male, I didn’t actually have that much stuff. I couldn’t pull it off today. -
99% of the time, it’s just my wife and I in the car, and most stuff goes in the back seat either way, or if we do have passengers, there’s no big cargo SP it doesn’t matter. But, my car is not big enough for four passengers, two large suitcases, and the random detritus I’ve accumulated back there. Thankfully, my parents were cool with using one of their bags as an armrest.
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My Taurus is more than enough for my daily needs. It was even spacious enough to fit the four of us and every thing we needed for a couple days of camping. We even packed wood and were able to shut the trunk. I think the next time we go camping we’ll need to take 2 cars to be able to fit the dog and our palatial new tent.
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My Toyota MR2 has two trunks, but they’re both pretty small. Mostly, I keep the spare tire and a bottle of washer fluid in the frunk, and jumper cables and motor oil in the rear trunk, and anything else in the passenger seat.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HednfHGEmCs/maxresdefault.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/HYCn1O2rdy0/maxresdefault.jpg
Although, with a little creativity and some ratchet straps, I once hauled some flat-pack furniture on the engine cover:
https://i.imgur.com/1mI9VHUh.jpg -
The SHO is pretty decent, with a 17 cubic feet.
My one complaint is that the seats don’t fold (the computer and other electronic bits are between them and the trunk.
Honestly, though, I rarely use the trunk, as my school stuff usually fits on the back seat.
Additionally, I have access to two pickup trucks (1991 Toyota, 2000 GMC 2500 long box) and a minivan (2006 Honda Odyssey), so I just take one of them if my cargo is large, heavy, or dirty.
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The GTO has a pretty small trunk, but it matches almost perfectly the volume of a standard shopping cart. If it fits in the cart, it fits in the trunk. If I have anything on the cart’s lower rack, something has to ride shotgun.
If I need more cargo room, I have the 9-7x. If I need more than that, I have the Silverado. If I need more than that, I have my trailer.
If I need more than that, I have to make multiple trips, or rent a U-Haul. -
Generally yes. But as usual: I love that my DD requires a bunch of contortions or tradeoffs for the cargo space to be fine.
For instance: I can take two people and gear for a weekend or more of skiing or I can use it as an around town runabout with four people. Having the back seat out provides for a lot of space, but then I’ve got a two seater.
I’ve also got a roof rack, but it bolts to the roll bars, and thus cannot be used with the top up. So if I want to pick up lumber, I can, but if it’s raining, I better be ready for a wet drive. -
I have an NA Miata. So no…
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The cargo space of a Renault Encore is surprisingly truck like in size.
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/12987019_10101640598958970_2182876033689390262_n.jpg?oh=a8bc5c1ce71717c061685f68faec30fb&oe=57A76B08 -
22 cu ft in the Saab before removing the cargo cover or folding down any seats so that’s generally plenty but if I need more I just take the Volvo 240 wagon.
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Om nom nom nom garden tractors nom nom…
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I can fit two cricket kit bags in the back of the Focus (hatch) with the cover in place, so I’d say it’s big enough for me.
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Since I started buying my own cars, except for a few months in a beater Chevy Celebrity coupe, I’ve always driven hatchbacks so I’ve always had extra space available.
I packed the disassembled loft for my dorm room in my 1980 Chevy Monza.
The 1988 Pulsar, well, it was pretty small until you flipped the seat down (but it had a removable hatch!)
We packed myself, my wife, 3 kids in car seats, a weekend’s worth of gear plus 2 bikes on the back in our 1993 Escort.
The Mazda3 brought home my rollaway tool chest and has served as parts hauler for returning bent body parts back to the PickNPull more than once. I also had over 30 folding chairs in the back once.
The 318ti has been loaded up with gear for marching band events more than once as well.
Long live the hatchback! -
My daily is a c6 corvette z51 m6 and its hatchback trunk is huge. Makes for a great daily driver, I bought it new and it’s been utterly reliable for 98k miles. The only bitch is every two or three years I have to buy new wheels and tires. The dam potholes bend these dam rims so to keep this car smooth at triple digits I just buy new rims from guys buying aftermarket wheels etc…
I fit tons of daily driver stuff in the trunk of the corvette this is even better than my last 500 hp modded c5 z06 -
I’d like to think so.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/2007_Volvo_V70_cargo_area.jpg -
The FR-S has a one-body trunk… Before I crammed in some stuff underneath and reduced the usable space.
It’s not big.
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