SUVs are useless for carrying stuff

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Gunk

Guru
Location
Oxford
although there sloping backs aren't the most efficient for load carrying - equivalent Volvo, when Volvos were "squared off" carried about 50% more!

But being shallow I bought the BMW ‘cause it looks nice
 

oldwheels

Legendary Member
Location
Isle of Mull
I like my Peugeot Partner which is really a van with windows and easily removed rear seats.
My Brompton fitted nicely behind the passenger seat but now I have all the rear seats out to carry my Kettwiesel trike unfolded.
Around where I live there are about a dozen of them or the Citroen equivalent as they are very practical.
 

icowden

Veteran
Location
Surrey
An ID4 is an SUV in name only, doubtless to make it appeal to gullible fashionistas as Paley suggests. "Rather blobby and tall hatch with no real extra ground clearance, off road ability or lifestyle load capacity" only fails to trip off the tongue because marketing types find the truth an inconvenience.
Whilst I don't disagree with you that the label SUV now seems to mean "big family car" more or less, it does pose the interesting question of what exactly *is* an SUV.

The guide I found suggests than an SUV has higher ground clearance than a hatchback. I found another reference that suggested that for a proper off roader 8 to 10 inches of clearance was required, but for well maintained tracks 6 inches was sufficient. So the ID4 passes in that regard with 6 to 6.7 inches of clearance depending on spec. It has a more upright, box like body - check. It has 4 wheel drive and a low centre of gravity - check. There are a fair few videos of people being surprised that it can do offroad tests reasonably well.

So - I'm not sure that the advertising blurb is *entirely* incorrect.
 
My previous car, an Octavia estate (2011 'facelift 2') was rather capacious
I would, however, have liked a hybrid with rear of the initial model, as that had a almost vertical tailgate

Its successor (from May 2021), a Kodiaq, has a boot that's almost as big, or seems it (I've not measured the two)
That does have an interesting trick though!
As it's available in a 7-seater, & the 5-seater (mine)
l presume it’s a feature of the 7-seaters that stayed in the 5-seaters

The rear seats slide forward, by about 9 inches!!!
This will be to allow access to the 3rd row?
Oh!, & they have 2 back-rest positions
 
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alicat

Squire
Location
Staffs
I've got a Ford C-Max. Not sure if it counts as an SUV. I once fitted in three people, a bike, a tent, camping, holiday and bike ride stuff for one person for a week, a wheelchair, two Zimmer frames and luggage for the other two people for a week. Happy with that!
 

Jameshow

Veteran
Xc90 has plenty of space as much as v70 with the rear seats folded down. Only issue is the roofline is a bit tall for using a roof rack.
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
Xc90 has plenty of space as much as v70 with the rear seats folded down. Only issue is the roofline is a bit tall for using a roof rack.
Ouch.

bjpuofxd11c61.jpg
 

SpokeyDokey

67, & my GP says I will officially be old at 70!
Moderator
In defence of the small SUV

We have a small SUV - VW T.Cross.

That's the category of car that it falls into and their are lots of others in it too.

It is a tiny fraction longer than a VW Polo, whose platform it shares, but the packaging is amazing - four 6 footers can be seated comfortably.

It is not 4 wheel drive and we appreciate that its off-road abilities are limited.

But, it can swallow an awful lot of luggage - more so than our friend's 330d x-drive for example.

It is lovely to drive, easy to get into and has great visibility - all important qualities to us.

Possibly the nicest car we have ever had, and we have had some very expensive cars over the years.
 

Jenkins

Legendary Member
Location
Felixstowe
From a personal point of view the thread could be simply re-titled "SUVs are useless".

But then my preference is for a decent estate having previously owned an Alfa 156 Sportwagon and now running a Mazda 6 Estate.
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
Even my ex Mrs 110 Landy, superb though it was a tow vehicle, and very much a work vehicle had less space inside than you'd think. A useful amount of space maybe but I reckon you'd get more stuff into a Mondeo, albeit I'd not want to tow 3.5 ton with the latter, nor drive off road. She regularly towed 2.5 tons (trailer 1 ton empty, plus horse x2 @ 600kg+ each, plus water, hay etc, including across very muddy fields, which is why she bought it
 
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midlife

Guru
I thought the S stood for sports which meant unfeasibly large amounts of power in a big 4 x 4 with increased ride height.

Not sure which mentioned above have big power / big cubic capacity
 
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