Cars and cargo space... a babble

[forgotten_aria]

So, in general, cars talking about cargo space in cubic feet. The problem seems to be that no one can agree on how to messure this. To look at the mazda5, you can find quotes of anything from 70 cubic feet to 44 for with both 2nd and 3rd seats folded and anything from 15 to 4 with all the seats up.

So I've been searching for "real" messurments (because I can't get this off my mind and it doens't make sense for me to go to a dealer until april.) I think I acutally found some and found that that despite the shorter nose, and longer body and wheel base, the cargo area is a mere 2" longer than my current saturn. How does that happen?! I can't really find good numbers on how tall the space is (with out blocking visiblity) but I'm really hoping that will be the big win. I'm still confused that it does not have a longer cargo hold than my saturn... So confused. I really hope it WILL be able to carry things better. What really fightens me is how small the mazda3's space must be.

The more I look into modern cars, the more I realize just how awesome my current car is. *sigh*

Comments

[nacht_musik]

I think you should take each car on a test-drive, and see how many cubic feet of styrofoam peanuts each one will hold. ;-)

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

Find something you carry. In my case, I brought some green plastic bins we tend to store stuff in. When I was younger and my parents were shopping for a car, it was "All four of us and his cello".

Right there, in the lot, we put the items in the car. If it didn't fit, off the list. One salesman tried to convince us that we could put half the seat down, have the cello stick into that area, and squeeze me and my brother into the other half of the back seat... we looked at each other and said "er, no." And left.

[zkzkz.livejournal.com]

The matrix has crazy cargo space. When I moved into my last appt in Montreal we moved tons of stuff and fit crazy numbers of large objects in it. My dad had a piece of plywood with bicycle quick-release mounts on it to carry his bicycle in. A friend with a big Jeep came over and liked it -- it wouldn't fit in the Jeep even though it fit fine in the Matrix.

But I'm not sure I would really recommend it overall though, Toyota build quality has gone way down. Mazda quality is actually quite high these days, though it could be because their sales numbers have risen so fast their car repair stats skew towards younger cars than Honda.

I wouldn't worry too much about restricting visibility though. I mean, visibility is important but if you're carrying a lot of stuff it's a special occasion when you're willing to deal with the hassle of limited visibility. Keep in mind that trucks have no rear window at all. Visibility under *normal* circumstances is something to keep in mind though. Cars like the Matrix and I think the Mazda too have the bottom of the window rising up which severely limits visibility in ways you don't realize when you're driving.

Actually trying to pack something in the pack isn't a bad idea. Trusting cubic ft measurements is a bad idea. Lots of cars have roofs that slope down at awkard angles or sides that slope in. Sometimes you cant' fit in things that seem like they ought to fit becuase you just can't fit it in the opening even though there's space inside.