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Estate Car Boot Space Compared: Which Model Takes the Most Luggage?

Superb, Passat, Octavia, E-Class and more compared. Boot sizes in litres, real suitcase counts, and how much space plug-in hybrids lose.

The Skoda Superb Estate and Volkswagen Passat Estate have the biggest boots of any estate car on sale in the UK, at 690 litres each with the rear seats up. In real-world testing the Superb takes one more suitcase than the Passat, which makes it the best estate for luggage overall.

Litres only tell part of the story, though. A car with a smaller boot on paper can carry more cases than a bigger one, and plug-in hybrid versions of the same model can lose a large slice of space to their batteries. This guide compares the estates you’re most likely to buy, or to drive away in when you rent an estate car, using manufacturer figures alongside independent suitcase tests.

Table of Contents

Estate Car Boot Sizes Compared

Figures are for petrol, diesel and non-plug-in hybrid versions with the rear seats up, measured to the load cover. The suitcase column shows how many carry-on cases What Car? fitted in its own testing, where that figure has been published.

Model	Seats up	Seats folded	Carry-on cases (What Car? test)
Skoda Superb Estate	690 litres	1,920 litres	11
Volkswagen Passat Estate	690 litres	1,920 litres	10
Skoda Octavia Estate	640 litres	1,700 litres	9
Mercedes-Benz E-Class Estate	615 litres	n/a	10
Peugeot 308 SW	608 litres	n/a	n/a
Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer	597 litres	1,634 litres	n/a
Toyota Corolla Touring Sports 1.8	596 litres	about 1,600 litres	n/a
Toyota Corolla Touring Sports 2.0	581 litres	about 1,600 litres	n/a
BMW 5 Series Touring	570 litres	n/a	n/a
Peugeot 508 SW	530 litres	n/a	n/a
For reference: Kia Sportage (SUV)	591 litres	n/a	n/a
For reference: Nissan Qashqai (SUV)	504 litres	n/a	n/a

Sources: manufacturer figures as published by What Car?, Parkers, Carbuyer, Carwow, heycar, Motoring Research and Vauxhall. “n/a” means no reliable published figure was found.

Two things stand out. The first is how far ahead the two Skodas and the Passat are. The big-selling premium estates, the 5 Series Touring and E-Class Estate, both have smaller boots than a Skoda Octavia. The second is that a good estate beats a family SUV comfortably: the Octavia Estate has more space than a Kia Sportage, and the Superb has 186 litres more than a Nissan Qashqai.

Why Litres Don’t Tell You Everything

European boot figures are usually measured using the VDA method, which fills the boot with rigid one-litre blocks measuring 200 x 100 x 50mm and counts how many fit. It’s more realistic than filling the space with liquid, but it still rewards nooks that a suitcase can’t use. That’s why What Car? counts carry-on cases as well as quoting litres.

The suitcase results show where the litres mislead. The Superb and Passat share the same 690-litre figure, yet What Car? fitted 11 cases in the Superb and only 10 in the Passat, because the shape of the Passat’s boot stops the 11th case going in. The E-Class Estate, with 75 fewer litres than the Passat, matched it at 10 cases thanks to an underfloor compartment that holds two small cases.

If you’re comparing an estate with a car from the US, check the measuring method. American figures are often quoted in cubic feet using the SAE standard, which measures differently and usually produces a bigger number for the same space. That matters if you’re comparing a UK estate with a station wagon or SUV spec sheet from the US.

How Many Suitcases Fit in an Estate Car?

What Car?’s test case measures 560 x 350 x 230mm, roughly the size of a standard airline cabin bag. That gives about 45 litres per case. A large checked suitcase is typically two to three times that volume, so as a rough guide you can divide the carry-on count by two to three to estimate large cases. By that measure, a Superb Estate should take four or five large checked cases below the load cover, and an Octavia Estate three or four.

That’s our estimate rather than a tested figure, and packing makes a big difference. Top Gear’s long-term Passat test found that typical big suitcases could be stacked lengthways one on top of another, leaving room for soft bags around them. Soft holdalls fill gaps that hard cases can’t, so a mix of both usually gets the most in.

Boot Length and Width

For long items like pushchairs or golf bags, floor length matters more than total volume. Published floor dimensions with the seats up:

Model	Boot floor length	Boot floor width
Volkswagen Passat Estate	1,150mm	1,050mm
Skoda Octavia Estate	1,090mm	1,000mm
Toyota Corolla Touring Sports	1,067mm	1,055mm

Sources: BootSized (Passat, Octavia) and Parkers (Corolla). Measurements vary slightly by method.

With the rear seats folded, every estate here takes much longer loads. Toyota says the Corolla Touring Sports can carry a bike with a 29-inch frame without removing its wheels or saddle. Parkers describes the Octavia Estate’s 1,700-litre folded space as big enough for a small wardrobe, though its rear seats don’t fold completely flat unless you have the adjustable boot floor.

Plug-in Hybrids and Electric Estates Have Smaller Boots

Batteries usually sit under the boot floor, and the space penalty can be large:

Model	Petrol/diesel boot	Plug-in hybrid or electric boot
Skoda Superb Estate	690 litres	510 litres (PHEV)
Volkswagen Passat Estate	690 litres	510 to 530 litres (PHEV, sources differ)
Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer	597 litres	516 litres (PHEV and electric)

A plug-in Superb or Passat loses around a quarter of its boot and ends up smaller than a petrol Octavia Estate. The E-Class plug-in hybrid also loses the underfloor compartment that helps the standard car’s suitcase count. If luggage space is your main reason for choosing an estate, check which powertrain you’re getting.

What This Means If You’re Hiring an Estate

Rental companies group these cars by size class, and the class tells you roughly which boot you’ll get:

Intermediate estate: cars like the Octavia Estate, Corolla Touring Sports and Astra Sports Tourer, with roughly 580 to 640 litres.
Standard or full-size estate: the Superb and Passat, with 690 litres in petrol and diesel form.
Premium or luxury estate: the E-Class Estate and 5 Series Touring. More comfort, but not more boot space than a Superb.
Plug-in hybrid versions in any class: expect roughly 80 to 180 litres less than the petrol or diesel equivalent.

Hire companies rate luggage in bags, and their ratings are cautious. Enterprise UK lists its Octavia-class cars at three bags and its E-Class class at four. Those ratings also cover hatchbacks and saloons in the same class, which is why checking the body type matters. Our Car Hire Codes Explained: What “Or Similar” Really Means shows how to confirm you’re booking an estate rather than the hatchback version.

Estates No Longer Built, but Still on the Road

The estate market has shrunk as buyers moved to SUVs. The Ford Mondeo estate and Vauxhall Insignia Sports Tourer have both ended production, the Ford Focus Estate and Volkswagen Golf Estate have left the UK line-up, and Volvo has discontinued the V90. You’ll still find them used and in some older hire fleets. For a practical used estate, a previous-generation Superb Estate had 660 litres and an older Octavia Estate 610 litres, both still class-leading figures.

Estate Boot Space FAQs

Which estate car has the biggest boot?

The Skoda Superb Estate and Volkswagen Passat Estate share the biggest boot figure at 690 litres. In What Car?’s suitcase test the Superb fitted one more case, 11 against 10.

How many suitcases fit in a Skoda Octavia Estate?

What Car? fitted nine carry-on cases below the parcel shelf. In large checked suitcases, that’s roughly three or four.

Is an estate boot bigger than an SUV boot?

Usually. A Skoda Octavia Estate has 640 litres against 591 litres in a Kia Sportage and 504 litres in a Nissan Qashqai. To match a Superb Estate you need a much larger SUV: What Car? fitted 11 cases in a BMW X7, the same as the Superb.

Do premium estates have bigger boots?

No. The BMW 5 Series Touring (570 litres) and Mercedes E-Class Estate (615 litres) both have less boot space than a Skoda Octavia Estate.

Why is my plug-in hybrid estate’s boot smaller?

The battery sits under the boot floor. A plug-in Superb Estate has 510 litres against 690 litres for the petrol and diesel versions.

How This Guide Was Researched

Boot volumes are manufacturer figures as published by independent reviewers and, for the Astra, by Vauxhall directly. Suitcase counts come from What Car?’s own testing, which uses a standard 560 x 350 x 230mm case and measures to the load cover. Where sources gave different figures for the same car, we’ve said so. The large-suitcase estimates are our own calculation from those tests and are labelled as such. We review this guide at least [every six months] and when new models arrive.

Sources

estatecarhire.co.uk 2026