Hello,
We are almost ready for a long awaited trip back to London. This time we are considering booking our Heathrow-hotel through Swiss Cottage or Ray Skinner as we are due in at 10:35PM and my husband travels by wheelchair. My question is as follows - will a folding wheelchair and 2 pieces of carry on luggage with a day pack fit in the trunk? We drive a Camery at home and are able to fit the above in our trunk. When I have called other companies, some have said that we need a mini-van and other say that an Estate Car will be able to manage our needs. Any experience with the size of the trunk of an Estate Car?

Thanks!

Hi Gynna

An "estate car" is a station wagon.

ask for a "people carrier" and you'll hopefully get a minivan. Most estate cars- ie station wagons- are much smaller than the American ones.

highledge is correct, they are smaller. That being said tho' if it is a folding wheelchair it should fit OK. I have taken 2 friends with my small rollaboard, their two MASSIVE suitcases and two hard sided golf bags on a 3 week driving trip in a medium sized estate and we did fine.

I've used a Peugeot estate with a wheelechair, a zimmer,(I think you call them walkers), two large suitcases and 4 lrge adults. You'll be fine.

A people carrier- what you would call a van- has teh advantage of being higher off the ground. The up side of that is the view. From bitter personal experience, the down side can be getting the diabled person in and out

If yuo go with a station wagon find out what kind it is before you reserve - some of the european models are minute. They gave us one in Lisbon - not what we wanted but the only car they had - and the back barely held two medium size suitcases.

I think Gynna is speaking of what sort of car to reserve from the car service - not one they are renting to drive themselves.

The car service may insist on a van for the extra fee they charge - but if not, an estate car will be plenty large enough.

Thank you everyone for your feedback! Ira, thanks! Highledge and nytraveler, a station wagon will do nicely, even if it is smaller than station wagons in the US - thanks for your responses. Yes, Janis, I was speaking of a car service and thank you for giving me an idea of what can fit. Sheila, thank you for sharing what was not a good experience with a people carrier as I had thought of renting one in Denmark, having never considered the obvious! The posters on this board have helped us tremendously in planning our trips - thanks to all!

It would depend on the model, I suppose (duh). What I am about to state is that there are estate cars (or station wagons) that are pretty fashionable, but do not sport an excessively large trunk. This in particular would be the Audi A4, Audi A6 (bigger than the A4 but still not primarily made for transport), BMW 3 series and BMW 5 series (just the same as for Audi).
A Ford Mondeo (which is popular with certain rental companies) should accommodate your luggage. The same applies for a Volvo V 70 (a Volvo V 40/ Volvo V 50 will not be sufficient). A Mercedes E- Class will likely do, Mercedes C- Class most likely not. A Volkswagen Passat Variant might be sufficient, too, whereas the Golf Variant might not work out, though its trunk is comparably large in relation to the size of the car.