Our last car was a 2001 VW Passat. It was virtually the same size as Scarlett except Scarlett is about 6 inches wider. Both cars have a rated trunk space of 15 cubic feet. I had thought this was quite generous, but did a little checking and it’s actually pretty average in a mid-size sedan. We do also have a frunk (front trunk), but it’s not very large.
Regardless, we easily packed two suitcases, three duffle bags, two backpacks, a camera pack, tripod, two pillows, a large box with our french press and coffee (essentials) and our window cleaning kit in the rear trunk. In the rear sub-trunk (below a panel where the gas tank would normally be), we had a 100 foot extension cord, our 110 and 240 volt charging cable/connector and a very large, bulky 240 volt extension cord (just in case).
We did use the window cleaning kit often. It’s a two-bottle wine carrier where I have a spray bottle of diluted alcohol-water as well as a number of cleaning rags. When you don’t go to gas stations, you have to clean your own windows. Alcohol doesn’t streak and cleans really well.
We also used the 110 charger at our hotel in San Francisco. It was valet parking only, we weren’t driving at all for a few days and Brenda noticed they had parked the car right next to a 110 outlet. Why not? We only got about 3 or 4 miles per hour, but we were there for three days. This allowed us to get all the way to 100% charge when we left. At no additional charge.
We saved the frunk for our sodas and cooler. We took a 12 pack of ginger ale cans (Brenda’s) and about 3 four-packs of Reed’s ginger ale (Bill’s) as well as a soft-side cooler to ice the sodas. The bummer is our cooler died about halfway through the trip and started leaking water everywhere. Frunk got wet and ginger ale cardboard holders disintegrated. We regrouped on that one and actually found a Big Lots, a very nice Igloo cooler on end-of-season sale so we bought it. It fits perfectly in the frunk. And it’s red. Geeky, I know.
Overall, the trunk space worked very well for us. Frankly, it’s about the same as the Passat and the rear seats fold down, if needed, too. The advantage is the frunk, but in reality, that’s almost more of a novelty. We were very happy and impressed with our Passat trunk and Scarlett does not disappoint. Good trunk volume and space.