Small on the outside, but big inside
TOP NINE SPACIOUS INTERIORS: Today’s new compacts offer more room per square metre than ever before
The ideal long weekend vehicle is one that is both fuel- and space-efficient. But that isn’t always easy to find as compromise often must be made in the name of one for the other.
Thankfully, through modern engineering techniques and the expanding use of lightweight materials, today’s compact cars offer more room per square metre than ever before.
As proof, alphabetically, here are nine new vehicles that are small on the outside but surprisingly big on the inside:
1. 2015 Chevrolet Trax/ Buick Encore
Using height rather than length to their advantage, the $20,880 (all prices are starting MSRPs) Chevrolet Trax and $29,645 Buick Encore small crossovers are incredibly roomy for the amount of space they take up on the road. They ride on a wheelbase that’s only a few centimetres longer than the subcompact $19,494 Chevrolet Sonic five-door hatchback. Yet you’ll find 108 more litres of rear cargo space in the Trax/Encore front- or all-wheel-drive, four-door, five-passenger crossovers than the subcompact hatch they are based on.
2. 2015 Fiat 500L
The subcompact, two-door, $14,495 Fiat 500 — or Cinquecento to its friends — is already a relatively space-efficient city car. But, comparatively, its big brother, the frontwheel-drive, $20,495 500L fourdoor wagon, feels like a gymnasium inside. Fiat says the extra “L” stands for loft, as in its raised roof. The extra height blesses the 500L with about 20 per cent more interior volume than a $29,950 Mini Countryman and about 30 per cent more rear cargo room.
3. 2015 Honda Fit
A piece of origami packaging magic, the new, third-generation, subcompact, front-wheel-drive, fourdoor $14,575 Honda Fit hatchback continues its space-efficient ways just like the two previous versions. For example, the Fit’s rear seats offer the same amount of rear headroom and more rear legroom than a $24,050 Honda Accord mid-size sedan. Plus more rear cargo capacity with all the seats in place. Better still, the Fit’s rear bench seat bottoms flip up, allowing tall items to stand behind its front seats.
4. 2015 Kia Soul
It only takes one glance at the $16,995 Kia Soul to see its box-on-wheels styling creates plenty of space despite the small shadow it casts. Based on the subcompact $14,695 Kia Rio platform, the front-wheel-drive, five-passenger Soul uses its tall stature to offer more rear legroom and 261 more litres of rear cargo space than the Rio, and also more rear legroom than the $24,795 Kia Optima mid-size sedan.
5. 2015 Mazda5
New car buyers have gone crazy for crossovers — mostly because, in theory, they appear to offer more room than conventional cars. But a mini-minivan, like the frontwheel-drive, six-passenger $21,995 Mazda5, is measurably more space-efficient than the five-passenger $22,995 Mazda CX-5 compact crossover. The proof? Despite being similar in overall length, the Mazda5 offers more interior volume, and of course, a seat for one more passenger.
6. 2015 Mercedes-Benz B-Class Sports Tourer
The B-Class is the least popular of the new family of front-wheel-drive-based compact cars from the German automaker. Yet, like the Mazda5, the $31,300 five-passenger, four-door B-Class tall wagon uses its height to great advantage. Compared to its $37,200 GLA-Class SUV sibling, the B-Class offers 16 per cent more room with the rear seats down, and 20 per cent more space with rear seats erect — all within an overall length that is about five centimetres less.
7. 2015 Nissan Versa Note
Taking a cue from its roomy Fit rival, the $14,298 Nissan Versa Note front-wheeldrive, five-passenger, four-door is one of the more space-efficient small cars you can buy. Like the Honda hatch, the Nissan hatch offers mid-size sedan room in a subcompact hatch space. On top of offering more rear seat legroom than a $23,798 Nissan Altima sedan, the Versa Note goes one better by offering more rear cargo room than the Fit.
8. 2015 Scion xB
The original Scion xB was a veritable wheeled telephone booth, and today’s second-generation model continues that vertical theme. The $19,310 front-wheel-drive, five-passenger, four-door Scion is not only roomier than most conventional compact hatches, compared to Toyota’s $24,010 midsize Camry and $38,185 full-sized Avalon sedans, the xB offers almost 100 millimetres more rear headroom and over four times the maximum cargo space when you fold down its rear seats.
9. 2015 Toyota Corolla
Toyota designers practised some kind of space efficiency magic with their bestselling compact sedan. The lone, three-box design on our list, the $15,995 front-wheeldrive, four-door Corolla is one of the roomiest compact sedans you can buy. Like its Scion sibling, the Corolla offers more rear seat legroom than the larger Camry and Avalon sedans, plus its trunk space is only 16 per cent less than the Camry.