endrop - for all your online needs

General 500 boot space

Currently reading:
General 500 boot space

Maybe the Panda's not such a great idea then....

As for the Multipla - I'm afraid that my wife's periodic dalliances with kerbs would become a full blown love affair in something that wide.
 
jrkitching said:
The current Panda in standard form is only a four seater and is so described on the V5C. To carry five, you need to specify a 5th seat belt as an optional extra when ordering the car, and then you will get a V5C showing it as having five seats.

Carrying five normal-sized folks would still be a challenge & would have similar comfort levels to travelling on First Capital Connect out of St Albans at 8am on a Monday morning. Luggage with 2 adults + 2 kids is possible if you could do the same trip on Easyjet with carry on baggage only...
Click to expand...

On the current car I have it can take 5 put it only has 4 seat belts. The option to have a 5th seat involves ordering the split seat option at the start at a price of £450. According to the dealer is cannot be retrofitted or it could be a case that they don't want to do it.
In the Marea I have a problem with the middle 5th seat belt not working and it failed at the NCT (MOT) last February. So I fitted a lap belt (advice taken from the tester) and it passed.
With the dealer I mentioned I probably could fit a lap belt on the 'current' car and he mentioned that the insurance guys wouldn't like that but if the Gardai stopped me I would probably get away with it.
On balance I wouldn't be carrying a fifth person in the car. The thoughts of a lap belt in a crash are to awful to even think about.
Yesterday the paper mentioned about a new seat belt for rear passengers becoming an air bag i.e. the seat belt 'blows up' and cushions the passenger from injury since they can be more effected than front seat passengers who are protected by proper air bags.
Going back to the Panda and the 3 seats in the back IIRC the seats cannot be split seats (please correct me if I'm wrong on that).

RobinPJ said:
I'm starting to think about replacing my BMW 3 series estate (whioch has to go as my wife hates it) with a new shape Panda. Whatever replaces the BMW has to have (i) five seats and (ii) enough bootspace to deal with a family of 4's suit cases for a fortnight's holiday. This is making me think the Panda might work...
Click to expand...

I can think of a car that is stylish (to some), has 5 seats standard, has a multi-air 1.4 engine with a low boost turbo, comes with TCT (better than although more expensive than dualogic), has 350 litres of boot space, will do about 50mpg, is a hatchback and just misses the 120grs/km producing 121grs/km and it is made by 'Fiat'.

loveshandbags said:
...
If you had to hazard a guess at the load capacity on a 500 what figure would you give ?
[URL]https://www.fiatforum.com/abarth-500/290379-couple-questions.html?p=2936201[/URL]
Click to expand...
Going back to the boot space / load capacity in the 500 I would now hazard a guess that load capcity is between 680 litres (MINI) and 775 litres (Panda). It would be interesting if Fiat500USA could explain where they got their 849 litres figure from (maybe the US500 is bigger ?). If 'someone in the know' could PM them - that would be great.
 
Last edited:
I consider the boot space of my 500 just fine. Of course, it always depends on your needs. Even if i'm a single girl with not any children or pets, i had a serious problem with my New Beetle's boot space.

photo.php
 
Last edited:
Chrisilda said:
I consider the boot space of my 500 just fine. Of course, it always depends on your needs. Even if i'm a single girl with not any children or pets, i had a serious problem with my New Beetle's boot space.

photo.php
Click to expand...

Wow! that boot space looks even smaller than our old MX5! Is there room for a space saver wheel in there somewhere? Or is the spare strapped underneath, or doesn't it get one?
 
frupi said:
Wow! that boot space looks even smaller than our old MX5! Is there room for a space saver wheel in there somewhere? Or is the spare strapped underneath, or doesn't it get one?
Click to expand...
:yeahthat:
Looks like the size of a boot that will cope with getting to the beach and back providing you had no beach umbrellas or chairs or large cool boxs ...:)
 
Last edited:
RobinPJ said:
I'm starting to think about replacing my BMW 3 series estate (whioch has to go as my wife hates it) with a new shape Panda. Whatever replaces the BMW has to have (i) five seats and (ii) enough bootspace to deal with a family of 4's suit cases for a fortnight's holiday. This is making me think the Panda might work...
Click to expand...

If the new Panda doesn't quite work out you might want to keep an eye out for the new facelifted Punto when it comes out.

The current offers in France and Germany are from €8,990 and €9,990 respectively for a 1.2 Punto Easy (which comes with aircon and BlueandMe as standard):

http://www.webfactory.fiat.fr/lesoffres/nouvelle_punto-easy

http://www.fiatangebote.de/Promo.aspx/Punto-Easy/Punto-Angebot

Of course the offers differ from country to country but you would imagine something not too dissimilar will crop up in the UK before long. Not personally sure about the 1.2 engine in a bigger car, but if the prices are anything like that you can't go too wrong really!

PS just spotted they are both 3-door, but you get my point!
 
Last edited:
Super Uwe said:
If the new Panda doesn't quite work out you might want to keep an eye out for the new facelifted Punto when it comes out.

The current offers in France and Germany are from €8,990 and €9,990 respectively for a 1.2 Punto Easy (which comes with aircon and BlueandMe as standard):

http://www.webfactory.fiat.fr/lesoffres/nouvelle_punto-easy

http://www.fiatangebote.de/Promo.aspx/Punto-Easy/Punto-Angebot

Of course the offers differ from country to country but you would imagine something not too dissimilar will crop up in the UK before long. Not personally sure about the 1.2 engine in a bigger car, but if the prices are anything like that you can't go too wrong really!

PS just spotted they are both 3-door, but you get my point!
Click to expand...

I would be dubious about a 1.2 60-69bhp engine will have enough 'get up and go' in the larger bodied PE 4 up with luggage. If you're looking to stick with a PE the multi-air 135bhp would be a better bet despite the extra cost. If you 'up' the engine size to a 1.4 it's the same on juice as a boosted equivalent in this car size.
There's a trend now in Europe for individuals to rent cars. My in-laws 'in-laws' who are based in Paris have a city runabout but hire a car for a 'home trip' when the hubbie visits his folks back in Amsterdam.
 
RobinPJ said:
I'm starting to think about replacing my BMW 3 series estate (whioch has to go as my wife hates it)
Click to expand...

i'd just get rid of the wife for hating the 3-series, cheaper long term option :)

very lucky mrs w criteria for cars
 
loveshandbags said:
The figure quoted is 775 litres and 206 on the boot
http://carleasingmadesimple.com/bus...anda-hatchback/49867/technical-data/?4810N787

which compares with 550 litres and 185 on the same site for the 500. I was disputing the load capacity figure but not the boot. The MINI gets a figure of 680 litres which seems to be consistent with other figures.

With the links on that thread on the Abarth side is the Fiat500USA site giving an incorrect figure of 30 cubic feet (equivalent to 849 litres) ?

Also I find it hard to believe that you get twice as much shoppiing in your Panda compared with the 500 with the seats up. :)
Click to expand...

Hi,

I just saw this thread. The 30 cubic feet is listed on my site as:

EPA second row interior volume, cu. ft. (cu. m) 30.2 (0.854)

It was provided by the manufacturer.

This is how it is calculated:


Rear seat volume is calculated for vehicles within a rear seat equipped with rear seat belts (as required by DOT), as product of:
  • Effective head room-second
  • Average of shoulder and hip room-second, if hip room is more than 5 inches (130 mm) less than shoulder room; Shoulder room-second, if hip room is not more than 5 inches (130 mm) less than shoulder room
  • Minimum effective leg room-second
The luggage volume is listed on my site as:

EPA Luggage Compartment Volume, cu. ft. (cu. m) 9.5 (0.269)



Hope that helps.;)
 
Fiat500USA said:
Hi,

I just saw this thread. The 30 cubic feet is listed on my site as:

EPA second row interior volume, cu. ft. (cu. m) 30.2 (0.854)

It was provided by the manufacturer.

This is how it is calculated:




Rear seat volume is calculated for vehicles within a rear seat equipped with rear seat belts (as required by DOT), as product of:
  • Effective head room-second
  • Average of shoulder and hip room-second, if hip room is more than 5 inches (130 mm) less than shoulder room; Shoulder room-second, if hip room is not more than 5 inches (130 mm) less than shoulder room
  • Minimum effective leg room-second
The luggage volume is listed on my site as:

EPA Luggage Compartment Volume, cu. ft. (cu. m) 9.5 (0.269)

Hope that helps.;)
Click to expand...

Many thanks for the response Fiat500USA. (y)

http://www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm
185 litre 6.53 cubic feet
9.5 cu. ft. 269 litre

Looking at the 'EPA Luggage Compartment Volume' if this refers to the boot capacity it seems to differ from 185 Litres of the European 500.

Going back to the Load capacity of the 500 something isn't right on the 30.2 cu. ft. (equates to 855 litres) since the Panda has been 'reported' to be bigger than the 500 and it's quoted figure is 775 litres. It might come down to the way that it's measured.
 
Last edited:
loveshandbags said:
Many thanks for the response Fiat500USA. (y)

http://www.onlineconversion.com/volume.htm
185 litre 6.53 cubic feet
9.5 cu. ft. 269 litre

Looking at the 'EPA Luggage Compartment Volume' if this refers to the boot capacity it seems to differ from of 185 Litres of the European 500.

Going back to the Load capacity of the 500 something isn't right on the 30.2 cu. ft. (equates to 855 litres) since the Panda has been 'reported' to be bigger than the 500 and it's quoted figure is 775 litres. It might come down to the way that it's measured.
Click to expand...


The US 500 does have a different trunk (no lower compartment) so that *may* be the difference. It also could be due to how it is measured.

The rear seating area measurement is a calculation done by the U.S. EPA and, again, could be different than how it is done in Europe.

The EPA uses these figures for classifying if a car is "Sub-compact, Compact, etc."
 
grimwau said:
Michael, I managed to find out that the boot capacities are as follows:

Seats Up = 185 Litres/6.5 Cubic Feet

Seats Down = 550 Litres/19.4 Cubic Feet
Click to expand...
:yeahthat:
I've dragged this posting out of the Abarth section and to clear up the Load capacity of the 500 it is 550 litres. I 'tripped' over this in looking at prices of 'new' 500s from this site. So Tony....:worship: :)

I have to accept that you can get more into a MINI (680) than a 500 but at least the Panda (775) can 'save the day' particularly with the ease of being able to remove the rear seats (ack. to JR).

P.S. Don't 'look' at the turning circle for the TA in the attachment - looks like the one off the 1.4 :)
 

Attachments

  • 500 TA specs.jpg
    500 TA specs.jpg
    119.6 KB · Views: 78
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Technical Fiat 500 (2011) Boot lock failure to open
2
Replies
20
Views
301
John202020
John202020
P
General Boot help
Replies
9
Views
668
chris3234
C
T
General Leaky boot
2 3
Replies
56
Views
4K
Jockstrap
J
O
Technical Boot Release Misbehaving (two faults??)
Replies
8
Views
547
jrkitching
J
5
General 500 explorer
Replies
3
Views
273
steveras57
S
Back
Top