Now the shops are back open you might be looking forward to a mega shopping trip. In which case you’ll need a bigger boot! Why not hire a car from SSH Self Drive for the day? It’s a really easy solution.
If a bigger boot is your main requirement when hiring a car, then SSH Self Drive has a number of options. Our cars are available in various classes; from A to N, but what is the difference in boot size? Let’s look at each one and compare what you can get in, in litres. As a rough guide, assume a typical supermarket shopping bag has a capacity of around 20 litres.
Class A cars
These are the smallest vehicles in our fleet. The Smart ForFour has a boot capacity of 185 litres, but its rear seats can be locked at a right angle which is good if you have a box to fit in. The rear seats split 50:50 when they’re folded down which increases the maximum luggage capacity to an impressive 975 litres. The front passenger seat also folds forward if you have longer items and no passenger.
Class B Cars
This class includes the popular Ford Fiesta. For shoppers, you can fit in 311 litres of goodies, even with the parcel shelf in place. If you remove the parcel shelf and drop the rear seats then you will get a total capacity of 1093 litres.
Class C Cars
The Ford Focus hatchback falls into class C. Boot space is very competitive with 375 litres of luggage room when the rear seats are in use. If you choose to fold down the back row, you can find space for an impressive 1,354 litres of shopping.
Class D, E & L Cars
We now look at the Ford Mondeo, a class D car. The standard hatchback has an impressive 541 litre boot expanding to 1,437 litres with the seats down. It has the added advantage of a large tailgate, making loading really easy. The estate version (which is a class L), which has a boxier shape, has less capacity at 500 litres with the seats up, but more with the seats down at 1,605 litres.
Class F Cars
At SSH, Class F includes the Audi A1 which offers a boot capacity of 335 litres in total. You can’t fold the rear seats in an Audi A1 completely flat and the split is 60:40, but you do get a total luggage space of 1090 litres, similar to the Ford Fiesta.
Class G Cars
The Volvo V40 hatchback is in Class G. It has a surprisingly small boot for its size, offering a capacity of 324 litres. Seats down, the load space goes up to 1,032 litres. Unfortunately the seats do not fold completely flat which might cause an issue if you have large boxes to load. However, if you have a long load then the front passenger seat does fold flat, so definitely worth considering!
Class J Cars
SSH offers the Nissan Qashqai 4×4 in Class J. As you might expect from its shape, it has a fairly decent size 430 litre boot, enough for the weekly shop or a small set of golf clubs. Adding the lack of a boot lip and the flat folding seats you can slide heavy items into the load bay through its nice, wide opening. Look out for the false floor too which can be arranged in 16 different positions to prevent your luggage rolling around as you drive.
Class K Cars
Our Class K vehicle, the Peugeot 308 Estate has 660 litres of luggage capacity. Lifting items in and out is easy too, thanks to the wide opening and low load lip. If you fold the seats down you will get 1,775 litres and find a completely flat floor. A good choice for a serious shopping expedition.
Class M Cars
The Citroen Grand Picasso is made for carrying lots of people rather than lots of shopping. When all seven seats are up, boot space is limited to 165 litres, the smallest available in this article. However, if you aren’t carrying that many people, then you can slide the middle row forward for 793 litres of luggage. Or fold it down completely for 2,181 litres of capacity. The clam-shell style tailgate opens wide with no load lip and for very long loads, you can fold the passenger seat up too.
Class N Cars
You will find 300 litres of boot space in our Class N car, the Ford Galaxy, when all the seats are in place. This rises to 1301 litres with the third row down and 2339 litres with just the front two seats in place. The boot opening is very wide and its loading lip is low which makes it easy to put awkward items inside.
Summary
Hiring a car with the biggest boot capacity is just one of the considerations when you need to transport larger than normal loads. We recommend you consider ease of loading too and how well the seats fold, which could impact your decision. Of course, there are people to load too, so hopefully you will not have to leave anyone behind in the shoppers’ carpark!