Used cars ranked by practicality: Compact SUV-crossovers
Used cars ranked by practicality: Compact SUV-crossovers
By Martin Pretorius
Practicality is a very important consideration when shopping for a car. It determines the car’s usefulness when going about its job, and should be evaluated alongside the car’s purchase price and running costs. We’ve taken a look at 10 used compact crossovers listed here on AutoTrader, and ranked them from the least to the most practical. For the purpose of this exercise, we’ve used luggage space (with 5 seats in use, as applicable) as the yardstick, because most offerings in this class are mostly similar in size, and offer roughly similar cabin space. Luggage volumes are as claimed by the manufacturers.
There can be very little doubt that the Mazda CX-3 sells on its driver’s appeal and cute styling, rather than on its practicality. With a rear-seats-up luggage space of only 264 litres, you won’t be able to fit very much into the cargo area. There’s also not much rear seat space available, with severely limited leg-, head- and shoulder room. Matters improve when those seats are down, however, when the CX-3 moves into the middle of the pack.
There’s a good reason why the Subaru XV (in both of the generations we’ve received locally) has a luggage volume of only 310 litres, and that’s because the rear differential and intricate suspension gobbles up some of the load space. But, when you drop the seats, it ends up among the more spacious of the cars in this group, which might make it ideal for people who seldom travel more than two-up.
Due to its diminutive size, the EcoSport struggles a bit in the freight-carrying stakes. It has plenty of cabin room (thanks to its tall profile), but its short overall length restricts the cargo area to a wide and deep but short compartment, measuring only 333 litres. Even with the rear seats down, there’s only 705 litres at your disposal, making the EcoSport one of the least practical small crossovers around.
The right-sized Suzuki compact SUV-crossover strikes a fine balance between people space and cargo room, with its load volume measuring a solid 375 litres. Its boxy shape also helps it with the seats down, when it scores a mid-pack ranking in spite of its compact dimensions.
This one is a real surprise. How did Renault manage to get such a large luggage compartment in spite of the Captur being essentially just a Clio on stilts? We’ll never know, but its seats-up cargo volume of 377 litres is mighty impressive nonetheless. There is a trade-off in the limited rear-seat legroom, however.
It qualifies as a compact SUV because it’s smaller than a Tucson, but that doesn’t mean that the Hyundai Creta is in any way cramped inside. Its squared-off shape helps it to a top-5 finish in this list, with a luggage volume of 401 litres.
Yet another relatively compact vehicle with a lot of loading space, the current-generation Qashqai has a very useable 430 litres available behind the rear seats. There’s a price to pay in people space, however, as the rear seats don’t offer a lot of leg room, which suggests that the designers prioritized cargo space over cabin room.
It’s difficult to understand how Audi managed to cram so much space into the compact Q3, until you realize that it’s actually not all that compact. Nonetheless, its cargo volume of 460 litres is very impressive indeed, and even more so when you consider that there’s room for an AWD system and a full-sized spare wheel back there as well.
The new Duster has only been available for a few months, but some used examples have already found their way onto the market. However, even the old generation Duster has a massive and very practical luggage area, which is only slightly smaller than the new model’s 478 litres cargo volume. This is where it pays to be slightly bigger all round, see!
This entry shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, because the BR-V is really just a small MPV (Multi-Purpose Vehicle) in hiking boots. It’s minivan-like proportions gives it a massive cargo area of 691 litres with the third seating row folded down but the middle row in use.