Car trunk: volume, comparison and storage

The trunk of a car is a storage compartment. It is most commonly located at the rear of the vehicle, although on rear-engined vehicles it may be at the front, but the trunk is usually covered by the tailgate. Its volume is often a purchase criterion by motorists.

🚗 What is a car trunk?

Le trunk this is its main storage location. It is located outside the passenger compartment, so it is generally accessed from the outside, although it can be accessed from the inside, for example by folding the rear seat.

The trunk of a car is usually located behindbut it can also be located at the front of the vehicle if the engine is located at the rear.

Strictly speaking, the trunk of a car means only storage compartment... It also contains a rear shelf, a rigid element that provides a good view for the driver and hides the contents of the trunk. However, this range can be removed to allow more load in the trunk.

You also need to distinguish the trunk from car trunk door, which indicates the tailgate/rear window assembly. The tailgate is a block of several elements, and the trunk is a simple place to store things. It is not always closed with a back door, but may have a swing door.

To increase storage space, the car trunk can be supplemented with additional equipment: roof racks, roof racks, bicycle racks, trailers, etc.

🔎 What is the safe storage space?

Le useful volume the trunk of the car corresponds to the usable volume in which you can load your luggage.

The size of the trunk of a car can be measured in different ways, which sometimes makes it difficult to accurately determine its size. Often the volume indicated corresponds to the total load capacity, excluding the rear parcel shelf. But sometimes it is measured only to the rear shelf.

The size of the trunk is usually indicated with an indication of its height, length and width, but it is more commonly referred to as volume. It is then measured in liters. There are two standards:

• La liquid standard ;
• La VDA standards, for the Verband des Automobilindustrie in German or the Association of the Automotive Industry.

Liquid standard meetsavailable space... In short, it is the amount of water that can be poured into the barrel, hence its name. The VDA standard has total trunk volume filling with rectangular foam blocks.

This is the one that lets you know the real usable volume of your car trunk: the trunk can have corners or nooks and crannies where it is difficult or even completely impossible to store a suitcase. The VDA standard uses parallelepipeds to simulate real loads.

Unfortunately, you understand: there is no single way to measure the volume of a car trunk. Some manufacturers measure to the rear shelf, others do not; and there are different standards. Sometimes there are big differences between the declared amount and the actual amount of memory.

🚘 Which car has the largest trunk?

Depending on the type of vehicle, the size of the boot varies considerably. As for city cars, the length of which ranges from 3,70 to 4,10 m, then the cars with the largest trunk include:

• La Seat Ibiza (355 liters);
• La Hyundai i20 и Volkswagen Polo (351 liters);
• La Renault Clio (340 liters).

Among SUVs (from 4,20 to 4,70 m), the most popular Peugeot 5008 (780 liters), Skoda Kodiaq (720 liters) and Hyundai Tucson (598 liters) have the largest chests. In a minivan, 4-seater version Ssangyong rodius has an impressive trunk volume of 1975 liters.

As for the 5-seater versions, then Nissan e-NV200 Evalia (1000 liters) and Volkswagen Carp (955 liters) have the largest chests. Finally, for sedans (4,40 to 4,70 m) Skoda Octavia (600 liters), Kia ProCeed (594 liters) and Subaru Levorg (522 liters) claim to be the largest chests.

⚙️ How to load the trunk of a car correctly?

To make the most of your car's boot space, there are a few storage tips you can use. Begin with distribute loads well to avoid imbalance in your vehicle. Place your heaviest or hardest luggage at the bottom of the trunk and load the rest from above in a decreasing size.

Place small soft bags last between large luggage in hold your load... To avoid turning loose items into projectiles, make sure everything is properly jammed and store useful items in other storage areas in your vehicle: glove box, etc.

If your load exceeds the rear shelf, it is usually removable. However, we recommend installing a net to separate the trunk from the passenger compartment and prevent objects from being thrown.

Good to know : when charging the car, you must not exceed Total Allowed Weight (GVWR), on pain of a fine or even immobilization of the vehicle.

That's all, you know everything about the trunk of a car: how to find out its real volume and how to use it correctly. If you need extra storage space, it is quite possible to install new accessories in your car, even inside the car, to save space.