VW Passat estate - Do estates cars loose vertical space in the back? | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Wed 11 Jul 2012 16:49

VW Passat estate - Do estates cars loose vertical space in the back? - JonestHon

My current VW 2003 Passat estate provide loads of head rooms to the dogs residing in the boot space (very large breeds), I remember when I bought the car eight years ago or so most estates we looked at had a ‘big tall’ room in the back. As we are looking to get a new estate we noticed that all the current crop of estates got a slopping or slightly slopping roof at the back.

When we tested the A4 avant and the Volvo V60 both of our dogs couldn’t sit upright without touching the hatch glass above them.

We are due to check a Focus estate but this look a bit too narrow at a glance, does anyone know of something equivalent to a 2003 Passat in regards to vertical boot space? (Not an SUV).

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Wed 11 Jul 2012 18:05

VW Passat estate - Do estates cars loose vertical space in the back? - craig-pd130

The V60 does have a high floor in the cargo area (I've got one) because there's storage underneath and the sloping rear window because it's a 'sportwagon' .

A Mondeo IV estate has a big, tall, square boot that I could imagine is well suited to dogs. The new shape Passat is the same, from memory. I had a Mondeo IV estate for 3 years, very good car. I test drove the new Passat and it seemed to have similar virtues.

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Wed 11 Jul 2012 18:49

VW Passat estate - Do estates cars loose vertical space in the back? - RT

In the olden days, when "Motor" did road tests they used to include the size of the biggest rectangular box that would fit in estates - Volvo's with almost vertical tailgates did well but anything remotely sporting didn't.

The OP said no SUVs but the 2wd version of some modern crossovers might suit.

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Wed 11 Jul 2012 19:18

VW Passat estate - Do estates cars loose vertical space in the back? - Avant

The downside of a near-vertical tailgate is that the aperture is narrower top-to-bottom. Years ago I managed to get a large kettledrum into my Renault 20: it wouldn't fit through the tailgate of a Volvo 240 estate.

But in some cases the stylist has been allowed to have his head too much: rear visibility is compromised as well as space because of the need to look trendy.

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