Boot capacity - Exec saloon vs estates

ramirez

ramirez

ramirez

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Hello guys.

I'm in a bit of a quandry because after packing up the Mrs' Honda Jazz' boot last night for a trip down south, it quickly became apparent that having a baby = a lot of extra luggage (cot, pram, you know what I mean if you're a new parent.)

What is quickly becoming clear is that we need a bigger car than wifey's Jazz, but she wants to keep hers as she has a fond attachment to it (don't ask.) So it's looking like the Jag may have to go. I'm not too fussed as I'll keep my GTR. Originally I would have just bought an estate and used as a 3rd car but on reviewing the situation thats not really financially practical.

My Jag's boot is absolutely rubbish. I don't know if this is something that is unique to Jags or executive saloons as a rule but it is so low slung that its pretty much useless unless it's just us in the car.

Ive grown to love big executive saloons, so depending on what the boot capacity of the Jag's rivals are I may be able to get away with going for one of them instead of an estate.

Does anyone have any stats on what the boot capacity is of the following cars?

Jag XJ8
Mercedes S class
BMW 7 Series
Audi A8
Alfa 166

Then down the road I may have to go..

Mercedes E class estate
Audi A6 avant
BMW 3 series touring
BMW 5 series touring
SAAB 9-5 estate
 
Remember that its not just about capacity, its about accessibility. Most saloons are terrible for packing things when it comes to including baby gear!
 
Not sure which era 7 series your thinking of, but, I had no issues back when I had my e38 7 and my sisters 4 kids (including double buggies x2!)

Not so sure about later 7's but the e38's boot was huge!

I think something along the lines of a 5 Series touring would be more practical than a saloon though.
 
oh Honda Aerodeck estate as well......... they are dirt cheap that might do me?

yes was thinking about maybe an e38
 
An estate is probably the way to go. Easy access and more volume.
It depends on your budget and how big you want to go, but Merc Es (starting with W124s) and boxy Volvos is where I'd be looking for load capacity.
 
Exec saloons may have a large capacity boot, but typically their access to that is not ideal - typically quite small, so you can't fit a large item in, but you could fit lots of small items!
 
Jag XJ8 (03-09) = 470 litres, relatively narrow opening
Mercedes S class (99-05) = 560 litres, easily accessed
BMW 7 Series (02-08) = 500 litres, quite narrow load area
Audi A8 (03-08) = 500 litres, wide opening, standard cargo net, optional automatic opening and closing
Alfa 166 (99-05) = 490 litres, deep boot, rear seats don't split or fold

All saloon variants.
 
Don't get a saloon, they're a nightmare for baby stuff. Our Bora has a big boot (455 litres) but it's awful for trying to fit everything in. Bought a Skoda Octavia estate which was fairly cheap to buy, cheap to run, well built and has a big (580 litres), easily accessible boot.

Estate is definitely the way to go for a dad wagon. If you want a bit of luxury for a more reasonable price, how about the Skoda Superb estate - 633 litre boot!
 
Last edited:
Lashout_UK said:
Mercedes S class (99-05) = 560 litres, easily accessed
BMW 7 Series (02-08) = 500 litres, quite narrow load area
Audi A8 (03-08) = 500 litres, wide opening, standard cargo net, optional automatic opening and closing


All saloon variants.
Click to expand...

All of these have pretty rubbish boots IME, the S-Class is pathetic enough that i use another car whenever i have to carry anything bulky.

Of the estates, i would probably buy an E-Class Wagon, E430 or something is a nice all rounder with decent grunt, gearbox and a decent ride, very reliable and readily available.
 
Von Luck said:
Don't get a saloon, they're a nightmare for baby stuff. Our Bora has a big boot (455 litres) but it's awful for trying to fit everything in. Bought a Skoda Octavia estate which was fairly cheap to buy, cheap to run, well built and has a big (580 litres), easily accessible boot.

Estate is definitely the way to go for a dad wagon. If you want a bit of luxury for a more reasonable price, how about the Skoda Superb estate - 633 litre boot!
Click to expand...

Even the non estate superb is good with it's clever twin opening boot (saloon + hatch in one) Best of both worlds
 
ramirez said:
Hello guys.

I'm in a bit of a quandry because after packing up the Mrs' Honda Jazz' boot last night for a trip down south, it quickly became apparent that having a baby = a lot of extra luggage (cot, pram, you know what I mean if you're a new parent.)

What is quickly becoming clear is that we need a bigger car than wifey's Jazz, but she wants to keep hers as she has a fond attachment to it (don't ask.) So it's looking like the Jag may have to go. I'm not too fussed as I'll keep my GTR. Originally I would have just bought an estate and used as a 3rd car but on reviewing the situation thats not really financially practical.

My Jag's boot is absolutely rubbish. I don't know if this is something that is unique to Jags or executive saloons as a rule but it is so low slung that its pretty much useless unless it's just us in the car.

Ive grown to love big executive saloons, so depending on what the boot capacity of the Jag's rivals are I may be able to get away with going for one of them instead of an estate.

Does anyone have any stats on what the boot capacity is of the following cars?

Jag XJ8
Mercedes S class
BMW 7 Series
Audi A8
Alfa 166

Then down the road I may have to go..

Mercedes E class estate
Audi A6 avant
BMW 3 series touring
BMW 5 series touring
SAAB 9-5 estate
Click to expand...

I was looking at this problem around 12 months ago. This is what I found:

Exec saloons can be tricky to load and unload lots of stuff, but are vast. Obviously being saloons they're not as flexible as you might like given your situation. Split folding seats won't happen and you don't have the parcel shelf that you can take out for awkward bits.

The yardstick was that the pushchair had to fit in the boot in a straight line- ie, stright down either side or across the front or back of the boot. After all, you can fit nearly any pushchair in the boot of a focus but it doesn't make the best use of the space and particularly for holidays you probably want it to be as easy as possible.

It might be easier if I list what I went to look at and then say what I found for each.

2003 e39 BMW 530d Saloon - the boot was neither deep enough nor wide enough to not have the pushchair diagonally. There was a huge price gap between late e39s and early e60s and tidy e39s are like hen's teeth these days, plus its still a car that went out of production 7 years ago.

2006 VW Passat Saloon - The boot on these is huge. More than enough space for pushchair and holiday luggage, and surprisingly easy to load too. The seats are comfortable, the interior is a bit plasticky and it's really dull to drive.

2004 e46 330d Touring - The boot is focus sized. The touring part just gives more flexibility in the height. Not overly impressed by the compromise of looks for the extra space (or lack of).

2003 Audi A6 2.7tdi Saloon and Avant - The boot on both of these is enough for what we wanted. It was a real contender, but I just couldn't stomach the looks of the saloon, and getting a decent spec on an Avant was proving to be too much like hard work.

2006 A6 3.0tdi Avant - Great for what we wanted. Not as good to drive as an e39, but that was a secondary concern to the space issue tbh. They were out of our budget though.

2003 E Class estate - Again there was enough room for a helipad in the boot, but OcUK warned against them I think (can't remember specific reasons why), and they felt really dated to look at from inside and out.

2006 Mk3 Mondeo Estate - Plenty of room, nice interior in Ghia X form, but snobbery set in on not wanting a Ford. In hindsight it was probably the best car for the money.

2007 Mk4 Mondeo Estate - Same as above but better still. They were out of budget at the time though.

2004 e53 X5 3.0d Manual - Plenty of room for luggage. High driving position which I like. Same amount of pasenger space as an e39 which is fine. Reasonably specc'd as standard. I feel they don't look as dated as the e39, even though they're pretty much the same car. This is what I ended up with, and I like it. It's averaged 34.4 mpg over 12 months and that is with the majority of the miles being around town.

If I had to make the choice 12 months ago again, I would have gone with the same thing. If I had to make the choice again now, I'd go with a Mk4 Mondeo every day of the week.
 
Have to say that I'm always a bit amused by this type of thread.
I remember my mother stuffing my sister and I (I was 14 years older than my sister) into a Datsun 120Y.
More recently, I never had that many problems getting my son and all of his gear into our E46 saloon. The replacement is a Volvo S60, which has a boot 30% bigger than the E46, and it swallows everything we need effortlessly.
Do you take the whole cotbed with you when you travel?
 
Mondeo estates seem to have a lot of space, may be worth checking out.

Also where are you guys getting the volume of these cars? Do they list dimensions also as I'm after something with a 4ft wide space in the back. :)
 
monkey_boy said:
I
2003 e39 BMW 530d Saloon - the boot was neither deep enough nor wide enough to not have the pushchair diagonally. There was a huge price gap between late e39s and early e60s and tidy e39s are like hen's teeth these days, plus its still a car that went out of production 7 years ago.

.
Click to expand...

Surprised by that with the E61 the boot is wide enough for our single buggy or double, no trouble at all. Can have double buggy in there and the dogs without needing to contact the rspca. Did E39 have a smaller space?
 
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