With their four-door practicality, some extra ground clearance, and available traction at all four wheels, compact crossovers have become one of the most popular segments with new car buyers. One big reason is the utility afforded by a crossover’s raised roof and hatchback body style. So with a nod towards utility, out of the 20 compact crossovers on sale in Canada today, we’ve sourced out which models offer the most “trunk” space (behind the rear seats):
10th place: 2015 Kia Sportage
It’s hard to argue against the front- or all-wheel-drive five-passenger $24,660 (all base prices include freight and pre-delivery inspection fees) Kia Sportage for its stylish good looks. Yet the Kia’s swoopy styling sacrifices some rear trunk space. With only 740 litres of room aft of its rear seats, the fun-to-drive Kia just nipped the $41,690 2015 Lincoln MKC (712 L) for 10th spot on our list.
9th place: 2015 Mazda CX-5
Unlike the Sportage, the front- or all-wheel-drive five-passenger $24,890 Mazda CX-5 doesn’t sacrifice the Japanese brand’s traditional sporty styling for interior room. With 966 litres of available room behind its rear seats, the nimble and fuel-efficient Mazda crossover offers a lot of trunk space within its relatively small footprint.
Also read our roundup of seven budget family sedans with the biggest trunks
8th place: 2104 Mitsubishi Outlander
Like the Nissan Rogue and Dodge Journey compact crossovers, you can get up to seven passengers across the front- or all-wheel-drive $27,698 Mitsubishi Outlander’s three rows of seats. However, with a total of 968 litres behind its second-row of seating, the Mitsubishi crossover only offers two more litres of space than the Mazda.
7th place: 2014 Ford Escape
With its European-inspired road manners, the front- or all-wheel-drive five-passenger $26,149 Ford Escape is one of the nicer driving compact crossovers you can buy. But the sophisticated Ford is also one of the roomiest in the segment. Its 971 litres of cargo space behind its second-row seats puts the Ford right inline with its Japanese rivals.
6th place: 2015 Subaru Forester
Based on Subaru’s compact Impreza platform, the taller and larger all-wheel-drive five-passenger $27,645 Forester has become a stalwart of the compact crossover class since its debut in 1997. While fans of the Japanese brand swear by the Forester’s sophisticated AWD system and rugged dependability, its 974 litres of trunk space behind its rear seats also put it at sixth-spot on our list.
5th place: 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport
Like the first-place Dodge Journey, the front- or all-wheel-drive five-passenger $28,594 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport is one of the larger compact crossovers in the class. As such, it also offers plenty of trunk space — 1,003 litres, to be exact — clearly offering measurably more room than the likes of the Forester, et al.
4th place: 2014 Honda CR-V
There are plenty of good reasons why the front- or all-wheel-drive five-passenger $27,685 Honda CR-V is a perennial top-seller in the compact crossover class. The small Honda utility drives almost like a car, gets decent fuel economy, has a quality feel to its cabin and, if you need the space, the CR-V offers a generous 1,054 litres of trunk room aft of its rear seats.
3rd place: 2014 Toyota RAV4
Are you surprised that with 1,090 litres of cargo room behind its rear seats the front- or all-wheel-drive five-passenger $25,560 RAV4 offers almost the exact same amount of trunk space as its arch-rival Honda competitor? Neither are we. The relatively large trunk capacity makes the Toyota one of the more capacious small crossovers you can buy.
2nd place: 2014 Nissan Rogue
All new this year, Nissan has literally gone to extra lengths to make its front- or all-wheel drive five-passenger $25,128 Rogue more capacious than ever. Not only can you opt for seven passenger seating with higher-end versions, but the Nissan compact crossover also offers a generous 1,113 litres of space behind its second-row seating.
1st place: 2014 Dodge Journey
As one of the larger compact crossovers you can buy (you can option it with seats for up to seven passengers), it came as no surprise to see the $23,190 front- or all-wheel-drive Dodge Journey at the top of our list. With 1,121 litres of trunk space, the Dodge offers nearly three times the trunk space of the least-roomy compact crossover you can buy: the all-wheel-drive $39,085 BMW X1 xDrive28i and its measly 420 L of room.
