A load of boot space

I received a complaint recently from a female reader who said that she cannot make any sense of the ‘boot space’ figures in car reports.

‘I find it difficult to comprehend why boot space is given in litres because I want to pack shopping bags in the back, not take in a bubble bath in it’, was her words.

Her moan got me thinking and I decided to write an article explaining how volume is measured in cubic litres and that 1.0litre = (10 cm)3 = 1000 cubic centimetres = 0.001 cubic metres.

Unfortunately, I have the mathematical competence of a rock hyrax, so I will only end up confusing myself and other innocent people.

Let us rather take a look at what people load in their car’s boot, and from there try to put its capacity into perspective.

If you are a compulsive shopper, like I suspect the reader is, then boot space will make sense to you if measured in bags and boxes.

The capacity of an average sized hatchback is 200-litres, which is not cavernous, so I suspect if you are going to the mall with the intention to max out your credit card, best then to let the seats down, which will double the space, and then the car will be able to hold approximately 15 shoe boxes, 13 bags of clothing and 11 hand bags.

If you are a serial killer and your impedimenta include lifeless bodies, a hatch will not do, because you cannot let the seats down, for obvious reasons.

You would be better off going about your pursuit in a sedan.

Last thing you want is drawing suspicion with bloody limbs all over the back seat.

An average sedan has discreet boot space of around 450-litres.

That should be sufficient to hold three people, and with some light hacking and sawing maybe even four.

If holding your rod in one hand gets you worked-up, and by some stroke of luck you hook Free Willy, it is perhaps best to use an SUV.

For starters a hatch with fishing rods on the roof looks awkward.

Most rods are long and you end up looking like you are driving around in a cable car.

SUV’s are also better suited to tackle the dirt road to your favourite fishing spot.

They have big boots and the added bonus of letting two rows of seats down.

Willy can then be accommodated quite easily with monstrous 2000-litres available.

But inevitably something will smell fishy for some time afterwards.