Estate cars, how bigs your opening?

[Pvapour]

looking for somewhere online that gives the opening / aperture sizes for estate cars loading area.

anyone know of somewhere?

[Jasandjules]

What about the Parkers guide? It has dimensions, not sure about boot width but worth a shot?

[Mario149]

Filthy

[McSam]

Oh dear God. How's that for an opening gambit

[milu]

I've been through this quite a lot over the years.
My main consideration was height.
Most are around 29/30 inch often getting bigger once past the hinges.
Believe it or not some of the smaller estates have a taller opening eg. Astra/ megane.
Overall I think one of the longest with good height is the vectra.

[joewilliams]

milu said:

I've been through this quite a lot over the years.
My main consideration was height.
Most are around 29/30 inch often getting bigger once past the hinges.
Believe it or not some of the smaller estates have a taller opening eg. Astra/ megane.
Overall I think one of the longest with good height is the vectra.

I think the smaller estates are often designed to have a van variant. As mentioned above, my mk4 astra has an opening pretty much the same size as the load bay, with minimal intrusions.

[Hugo a Gogo]

Mondeo is enormous, Focus is huge in its class, bigger than many in the mondeo class too

don't auto express or someone have this info in their comparison reports? I know autobild do in germany (and it's the same magazine afaik)

Edited by Hugo a Gogo on Sunday 20th June 00:02

[Pvapour]

Milu - as you say 30" in height seems to be the norm which I can just about use, largest width between Audi A6, BMW E60 & Chrysler sees the BMW at 43" which is spot on for me.

autoexpress was my first thought but couldn't find anything, I seemed to remember reading the mag reviews and there being the dimensions at the tail end of articles but nothing online I can see

Will be doing BIG miles so looking for something quick and comfy with all the toys to replace the current SRT10 Ram, MPG in ANY car is going to be at least twice as good so MPG not massively important but still need at least 25 on a run. (compared to 12mpg at a steady 90)

No disrespect to the Fords & Vauxhalls, if it was for around town i'd be there in a heartbeat, but for long haul......

completely foreign to estate cars so any input appreciated

[thinfourth2]

Not something that can be easily measured as lots of estate cars have fold flat seats that don't fold flat they leave a nice little ramp

[Bill]

And the width at the wheel arch is often the narrowest bit.

[Mario149]

[13yrs old]
So....many....possible....innuendos....
Must......resist......posting......them....!!!!
[/13yrs old]

[milu]

A bit leftfield when discussing estates but I measured up a Nissan pathfinder. Loads of space. Tall,wide and long.
Might not float your boat but in top aventura spec it has everything you should need,apart from speed!!

[kiwifraser]

The old E class Mercs were monstrous. Might be worth checking out the new ones.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21800366@N04/47167505...

[Matt UK]

Hows about a VW Sharan VR6?

A mate recently picked one up to use for work. Bloody huge MPV, cheap, but still with a hint of character.

His is about 51 plate I think and seemed well bolted together. I rather like it.

Something like this in fact:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2010...

[EDLT]

swerni said:

clearly has a problem getting his load in the back doors.

[Pvapour]

really dont want anything van like, estate is the way I think plus i want at least 250 hp & equal torque, otherwise loaded & with a big trailer it will struggle, looked at the S6 (not V10) which seems good value, but wondering on the high miles and how many they are good for??

A6 04 >3.0tdi like the looks seem to be popular
S6 > 04 - some nice low mile versions around even an LHD which would be handy
E60 5 series 530d or 530i - always liked the looks of these (contrary to popular opinion)
E39 5 series 540i (bit rare, even rarer in low mileage, had the M5 once, drive great, devil you know, still look good imo)
Subaru Legacy GTB 2.0 twin turbo (bit old and not sure on boot size, bound to be great to drive)
Volvo V70R 300bhp - could be fun but not read much on them, certainly got the space n pace...
Mercedes E class - leaves me a tad cold, dont know why, a little tooo old man after the SRT maybe...

any others you'd through into the mix? or opinions on the list appreciated

[Pvapour]

have found all the opening sizes for the boot on www.whatcar.com for anyone else who maybe looking in the future

[8400rpm]

Pvapour said:

i want at least 250 hp & equal torque, otherwise loaded & with a big trailer it will struggle

Struggle to do what? Just curious.

[Pvapour]

8400rpm said:

Pvapour said:

i want at least 250 hp & equal torque, otherwise loaded & with a big trailer it will struggle

Struggle to do what? Just curious.

Struggle to satisfy my expectations of what I feel it should do.

through experience, towing with the Ram Loaded compared to a same load with our Range Rover (4.4 pet), I need at least what I have stated as the RR struggles on the long hills TBO in comparison to the Ram, I know we're talking 500hp v 300hp but it gives me a fair idea on how a 200hp would cope (not very well)

most of the long haul will be in France with a fair amount of long drawn out hills and I wont be sticking to 60mph, plus when not loaded or towing I want to have fun on the way there, which in this sort of weight vehicle means at least 250hp > 300hp for me.

I have driven high power vehicles all my life, sometimes I have found myself in 'normal' powered car and they just leave me frustrated & bored quite frankly.

I'd rather have too much power for the times I need it and any of the more powerful variants I am looking at will be better in the fuel stakes so the real question is, why would I have less power?

[8400rpm]

Not taking away from the lack of performance necessary to tow what you're towing, it's just unless I'm blind, I hadn't seen you state what sort of loads and towing it is you do