My recent experience with the 2016 BMW X3 has piqued my interest in vehicle cargo capacity. The X3 had a spacious and easy to load truck which easily swallowed my family’s weekend luggage. Just how much of that gear would have fit into my M3 or Focus RS’s hold? Determined to find out, I filled my arms and loaded my back with bags and baby gear and headed for the garage. Determined not to look like too much of a wacko to my neighbors, I made the trip well after dark.
Here is what we’d packed in the X3: one compact stroller, one baby hiking backpack, one large beach umbrella, one large suitcase, one carry-on suitcase, one Pack-n-Play portable crib, one picnic blanket, and some children’s sand toys. I schlepped all of this, minus the sand toys, to the garage.
I started my loading experiment with the M3. The BMW’s trunk is quite deep and wide but not terribly tall. The beach umbrella—the longest item present, 3 feet or more in length—placed left to right along the mouth of the trunk, snuggled in as close to the rear bumper as possible. (It is quite a boon that the width of the trunk is long enough for this umbrella, placing it diagonally would have made everything else more difficult to load.) There is enough depth left to the trunk that the Pack-n-Play and large suitcase are swallowed when laid fore-to-aft in the trunk. The compact stroller stacks on top of the big suitcase, the picnic blanket on top of the crib. (If the big suitcase had been bulging with clothes, the stroller would not have stacked.) The carry-on suitcase fits in the remaining width of the trunk when placed on its side. Finally, the huge baby carrier stuffs (side-to-side) into the remaining space at the mouth of the trunk.
The X3’s rated cargo capacity of 27.4 cubic-ft is 128% larger than the M3’s rated 12 cubic-ft, so I am a bit gob-smacked that the M3 holds the same load! Yes, the M3 has plenty of room left for the missing sand toys. I don’t know where the extra space was in the X3; there was no way the SUV could have taken double the load.
The Focus RS is next up, and immediately there is a problem. The trunk is not deep enough to swallow any of the longer items: The umbrella, baby carrier, crib, and large suitcase must lay side-to-side or be left behind. I manage to pack the two suitcases, crib, and picnic blanket before I run out of space under the privacy shield. I guess we’ll be carrying the baby in our arms, as the stroller and baby pack did not make the cut! I’ll pack sunscreen, too, as the beach umbrella is still on the garage floor.
Ditch the hatchback’s privacy shield, and I can fit 80% of the load. I am still forced to choose one of the following large items to leave at home: stroller, baby carrier, or crib. Again, cargo capacity specifications are misleading! The RS is reported to have 20 cubic-ft cargo capacity vs. the M3’s 12 cubic-ft, but there is no way the RS will outhaul the M3 with the seats up, especially with bulky items like I have today. (Is the assumption that the privacy shield is ditched and the car is filled to the roof? That will prove unwise at the first hard stop.) The most practical improvement one could make in the RS’s boot is to remove the underfloor accessory tray. This should add a substantial 3” or 4” to the depth of the trunk. (To be fair, the M3 can also remove its tray for a similar gain.)
What is the takeaway here? First, the reported cargo capacity numbers don’t tell the full story and especially should not be compared across open and closed trunks. (I found some helpful information about the differences in how enclosed and open-space trunks are measured here on cars.com.) Second, if you pack large and inflexible items, you may be constrained in unexpected ways. The RS proved to be not nearly as versatile as its hatchback classification would suggest. The M3 proved that its 12 cubic-ft enclosed trunk is a lot closer to a 27 cubic-ft open trunk than I’d ever have believed.
Mike's Steering Column 