The best cars with big boots of 2024

For lots of people, boot size is one of the most important things they look at when car-changing. Often the size of a car’s boot ranks well over passenger space, interior finish or even how nice it is to drive – some people really do just need a car to be able to move things  around, whether that’s the pushchairs and paraphernalia of family life, the tools and materials of a DIY enthusiast or even just a particularly hefty weekly shop.

So if you find your current wheels are lacking space for a bit of junk in the trunk and you want to change to a vehicle that has a rather more capacious rear end, you’re in the right place. Below you’ll find a roundup of small cars, SUVs, estate cars, saloon cars and people carriers all with large, practical boots. Oh, because we’re nice, we’ve also limited the list to cars we rate in other areas too – so they’re all good to drive, affordable to run and brilliant to live with.

Small cars with the biggest boots

Renault Clio

• Boot space seats up: 391 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,069 litres

If you’re looking for a small car that maximises boot space, the Renault Clio should be on your shortlist – although the hybrid version offers less space than conventional petrol variants. That makes the non-hybrid version one of the most practical small cars on sale, with a bigger boot than the Volkswagen Polo (351 litres), Audi A1 (335 litres) and Peugeot 208 (311 litres). The hybrid, on the other hand, is one of the smaller offerings with similar capacity to the Ford Fiesta at just 300 litres.

All that space isn’t easy to access, though, thanks to a high-set boot lip and rear bumper, so heavy items can be tricky to lift in and out. The boot floor is also quite low, so you have to reach in to arrange your luggage.

Ford Puma

• Boot space seats up: 456 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,216 litres

The Puma’s 456-litre boot is a big, square space and although there is a slight loading lip, it’s relatively easy to load. There are also some helpful tie-down points, luggage hooks, and a 12-volt socket, while the light, flexible luggage cover is easy to use and can be stored under the floor when you don’t need it.

Fold the 60:40-split rear seats and you get 1,216 litres of space, but the Puma’s party trick is the ridiculously named Megabox. The name might be rubbish, but it’s actually a useful 80-litre storage box under the boot floor (so you don’t get a spare wheel) designed for either hiding away valuables, or for carrying taller items upright. It also has a drain plug, so if you’ve filled your Megabox with something dirty, like sports gear or muddy wellies, you can just pull the plug and hose it all out.

Hyundai i10

• Boot space seats up: 252 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,050 litres

The first impressive thing you notice about the Hyundai i10’s boot is that when you open the tailgate, you’ll find an aperture that’s a clean rectangle, making loading bigger items straightforward.

The adjustable load floor is also practical when loading heavier cases when it’s in its upper position (although it doesn’t quite sit flush with the load sill). The i10, as a small car, has a boot that’s too small for many practical duties, beyond day-to-day shopping usage. But lower the 60:40-split rear seats and you free up an impressive 1,050 litres of carrying space. And, with the load floor in its higher position, there’s a smooth and level floor that can swallow up a surprising amount of luggage.

SUVs with the biggest boots

Mercedes GLS

• Boot space seats up: 470/890 litres
• Boot space seats down: 2,400 litres

The Mercedes GLS is a huge SUV with a huge boot that offers up to 470 litres of luggage capacity even with seven seats in place. That’s more space than many hatchbacks. In five-seat mode you get 890 litres and there’s a massive 2,400 litres if you lower all the seats to accommodate cargo.

The GLS’s boot is a good chunk better than the Range Rover, which only offers 229 litres in the long wheelbase seven-seat version, or 725 litres in five-seat mode.

BMW X7

• Boot space seats up: 326/750 litres
• Boot space seats down: 2,210 litres

Something would need to be seriously amiss for a 5.2-metre-long SUV to be anything less than spacious and practical. That means that the X7’s 320-litre boot capacity, even with all seven seats in place, is still enough for a weekly shop. Lower the back seats and the available space jumps to 750 litres, which is absolutely huge. By comparison, a BMW X5 has up to 650 litres in five-seat form, while a Land Rover Discovery has 258 litres with all seven seats up (rising to 1,137 with the back two folded).

The X7’s third row can be folded too, creating loads of space for tip runs, even if it seems too posh for carrying garden rubbish. You won’t need to leave the luggage cover behind, as there’s room to stash it under the floor.
The folding tailgate is another handy feature, so you have somewhere to perch when taking wellies off after a walk in the country.

Kia Sorento

• Boot space seats up: 616 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,996 litres

With seven aboard, the Kia Sorento’s boot isn’t big enough for much more than a few bags of shopping, but fold down the third row and the resulting 616-litre load bay should be up to anything you can throw at it. Fold the middle seats too and you get a huge 1,996-litre space that’s easy to make the most of.

The floor is almost flat with just a slight slope where the boot meets the middle row seat backs, and there’s no load lip to lift items over. Self-levelling suspension is standard, so however much clobber you throw in the back the Sorento won’t sag under the load.

Estate cars with the biggest boots

Skoda Superb

• Boot space seats up: 690 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,920 litres

It’s impossible to create any guide to the best cars with big boots and overlook the Skoda Superb Estate, with its warehouse-like 690-litre load bay. It’s about as big an estate boot as you can buy and its size means that you can fit 10 carry-on cases in the boot, without folding down the back seats and without loading above the luggage cover.

You get the expected hooks (some of which fold away), tie-down points and 12-volt socket, plus some useful under-floor storage space. Fold down the back seats and you get a massive 1,950 litres of space. It’s also worth noting you get loads of space everywhere else, too – with palatial rear legroom, lots of interior storage and tons of clever features, the Superb is a fantastic family car.

Toyota Corolla Touring Sports

• Boot space seats up: 596 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,606 litres

The Corolla Touring Sports has an impressively large boot for a relatively compact estate car. Even more so when you consider that it’s a hybrid, and so has to find space to accommodate a bulky battery pack and electric motor alongside its engine and fuel tank.

The Corolla’s boot is low, wide, and easily accessed through a big tailgate. You even get a useful underfloor storage area (on 1.8-litre models) and some metal boot rails to protect the carpet when you’re sliding items all the way to the back. The seats fold down to leave a completely flat floor, too. This isn’t the biggest boot, or the cleverest, it’s just a usefully large space in a usefully compact and efficient car.

Peugeot 308 SW

• Boot space seats up: 608 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,634 litres

The 308 SW is a great example of practicality blended with glamour. It looks great – it’s the supermodel of the hatchback class, but even as an estate its low body, intricate detailing and array of jewel-like body colours make it stand out. The interior’s great-looking, too – and high quality, though not always the easiest to use.

The 308 hatch is pretty practical, but the SW estate has a ginormous boot considering it’s not an especially massive car. With 608 litres of space there’s room for several big suitcases, and if you fold the seats down you get a good amount of loading length and a totally flat floor too.

Saloon cars with the biggest boots

Skoda Octavia

• Boot space seats up: 600 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,555 litres

Okay, it may not be a saloon car, but it sure does look like one. Regardless, impressive is the word that comes to mind when describing the Skoda Octavia’s boot, whether you choose the hatch or estate. The saloon-like hatchback boasts a huge 600 litres with the rear seats in place, dwarfing the likes of the Ford Focus (375 litres), Volkswagen Golf (381 litres) and Honda Civic (404 litres).

It doesn’t matter if you have the rear seats up or down: there’s a huge amount of space in both states and tipping the rear seat backs is easy, thanks to levers set into the sides of the boot wall. The Octavia also comes with tie-down points and hooks in the side walls, which keeps bags from toppling and spilling all over the floor.

Jaguar XF

• Boot space seats up: 540 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,484 litres

On paper, the XF has similar boot capacity to the Audi A6 and BMW 5 Series, but the narrow aperture is a little awkward if you want to load up with bulky items like golf clubs or pushchairs. If that’s going to get on your nerves then maybe the XF Sportbrake (Jag-speak for estate) will be a better option than the saloon.

On the other hand, the XF’s rear seats split and fold in three parts, rather than the more usual two, offering extra flexibility and making it easy to carry long and bulky loads while still finding space for a couple of passengers in the back. The XF isn’t long for this world, with production discontinued, but it’s actually a real bargain to buy from stock.

Citroen C4 X

• Boot space seats up: 510 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,360 litres

The Citroen C4 X is a real oddball of a car – it’s part SUV, part hatchback, and part saloon. It’s based on the regular Citroen C4 but in place of that car’s hatchback sits a proper saloon boot – so while you do sacrifice the flexibility of being able to carry bulkier loads, you make up for it with a much larger overall capacity.

The boot’s wide and quite well-shaped for a saloon, and you can fold the rear seats down for longer loads which isn’t always a given in a saloon car. If you opt for the all-electric e-C4 X, you even get a space under the floor to store your charging cables.

People carriers with the biggest boots

Volkswagen Touran

• Boot space seats up: 137/743 litres
• Boot space seats down: 1,857 litres

If you fill every one of the Touran’s seven seats, you’ll be left with just 137 litres of luggage space, which is less than you get in the frunk of a Tesla Model S. Even a VW Up! offers 251 litres behind its rear seats. However, if you don’t need the rear pair of seats, you can fold them flat to increase the load space to a huge 937 litres.

If you’re making trips to flat-pack furniture stores, you can fold both rear rows flat to get a massive 1,875 litres. Even massive seven-seater SUVs such as the SEAT Tarraco don’t offer that kind of space, which serves to highlight just how versatile MPVs are.

Ford Grand Tourneo Connect

• Boot space seats up: 322/1,287 litres
• Boot space seats down: 2,620 litres

The Tourneo Connect is, in effect, a van with seats, so it’s no surprise that this car’s big, square body hides a massive load area. With the third row of seats in place you get about as much room as a regular supermini – enough for a weekly shop but not much more. However, use the Tourneo Connect as a five-seater and it’s truly cavernous, with room for bikes, pushchairs, or really anything you want to throw at it.

With all the seats folded you’re, in effect, back to having a full van – so if you have a house move, a DIY project or just an awful lot of junk to shift, you’ll be able to do it with ease. Or, you can enjoy the versatility of seven full-sized seats. Aren’t MPVs great?

Volkswagen ID Buzz

• Boot space seats up: 1,121 litres
• Boot space seats down: 2,205 litres

The boot of the ID Buzz offers a huge 1,121 litres. You don’t get a flat floor when you fold the seats down: instead you can get an optional board that creates two levels to the huge boot, which you can remove to increase the load space. But there’s no other car that comes close to being as practical as the ID Buzz, which is streets ahead of its rivals.

Unless you go for a true van-based alternative like the Mercedes EQV that has 1,500 litres of boot space, the next-best car is the Tesla Model Y, with its 971 litres between the front and rear storage spaces.

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