With the rise of EVs, we’ve talked before about how the word “frunk” is becoming part of our vocabulary, yet while this change is happening there’s another historic shift occurring within the automotive world.
Cars with traditional trunks are disappearing. The Chevy Malibu is the last gasoline-powered American sedan you can buy with one, and it’s going off to live with its SS454 great uncle up in the sky very soon. The shift to crossovers has relegated the traditional trunk-equipped sedan to a small minority of vehicles, and even most of those have such sharp “fastback” rooflines that it’s only a matter of time before they’ll finally end up with the hatchbacks anyone can see they desperately need.
Hot take: I think the sedan has not breathed its last. I do, however, think that in the future it’s going to be very different, and I’m not entirely happy about where I think it might go.
Give ‘Em The Boot
It’s sort of hard to believe how long cars have had trunks. The whole idea seems to date back to cars from a hundred years ago with an added-on box stuck to the rear of the passenger compartment for luggage; car design seemed to just integrate that into the basic form of postwar cars and it just stuck.
From a logical standpoint, a two-box shape vehicle can hold so much more than a three-box, yet there are benefits to a traditional trunk which people still like. Anything you put in there is protected from prying eyes. Smelly wet golf clubs won’t spread their odor into the passenger compartment. Road noise from the rear tires is typically cut down. Your Uber driver can stuff luggage in there without giving you a chill that an open SUV hatch would.
Back in the seventies, hatchbacks were briefly a popular thing until manufacturers released versions of the same cars with traditional trunks that just cleaned up in the sales department. General Motors famously offered hatchback-looking sedans (that weren’t hatchbacks at all) which the public soundly rejected; once they put normal-looking trunks on the back instead sales skyrocketed.
After launching the three-door hatchback, Honda later offered a notchback four door Accord. This thing was an instant, runaway success that dealers marked up to absurd levels; it would ultimately outsell the hatch and push it out of the lineup a decade later.
At about the same time, Volkswagen stuck a trunk onto the back of the world-beating Golf/Rabbit and called it the Jetta. Like the Accord, it eventually put paid to the hatchback models that spawned it.
History doesn’t always repeat itself, but it seems to happen just when you least expect it to, and in ways you wish that it didn’t.
Trunkenstein
Car design seems to be influenced by functional advancements (like aerodynamics) as much as pure aesthetic trends (tailfins, those stupid weird shapes on “C” pillars of current cars) in a desperate effort to be “different”. Sometimes it’s a bit of both. If you look at the way pickups and crossovers are used today, as well as how they tend to appear very similar, that points to a possible odd trajectory in their future.
First, let’s look at most pickups you see on the road today (at least in urban areas). The vast majority keep it classy by having the cargo bed totally covered. At the same time, most crossovers provide a “privacy” roll-out cover that’s almost always closed to hide the contents from passers-by. This all points to a desire for making a more secure area for cargo in these vehicles, but it’s not like you’d make a pickup with a regular trunk in back, right? Who would even think of doing that? Brazil, apparently. Ford trucks in this South American nation were subject to some very bizarre modifications from independent contractors.
From 1979 to the late eighties, Ford of Brazil sold the F-1000; this was essentially a Fifth Generation 1967-72 American Ford F-series reborn with odd attempting-to-look-updated trim details (c0mposite headlights! grey lower cladding! black window trim!). Coachbuilder SR Veículos Especials made this already bizarre machine even stranger by converting it to the F-1000 Deserter SR XK. At first glance, the Deserter looks like an AI image created from typing in the wrong prompts, but it’s a real vehicle. That’s a car-like trunk lid stuck on the back over the short bed.
For whatever reason, they didn’t make one or two Deserters and then had to crush them out of shame. No, they must have found enough takers that later another outside fabricator named Tropical Cabines took a big Ford F-250 truck, chopped the tail, and added a trunk lid and taillights that appear to have been taken off of a Focus sedan. Once again, I don’t know how many Ford F-250 Tropiclassics were actually created, but the answer appears to be “a hell of a lot more than you would think”.
Surprisingly, there were some “trunked” trucks and crossovers sold here in the US many years back, though they didn’t catch on. The funky two-seater Suzuki X-90 featured a trunk, and earlier generations of the Subaru Legacy Outback offered a standard sedan version alongside the much more popular wagon.
Naturally, this was a few decades ago, and much has changed in that time; the term “crossover” didn’t even exist back then. Also, back in the nineties, people would likely find it unthinkable that anyone thirty years later would be drawn to a jacked-up sort-of-truck “coupe” with a fastback for no particular reason, yet here we are. People actually buy these:
Why do people put these strange-looking conveyances in their driveways? My guess is that they’re trying to escape the “station wagon” feel of a typical SUV and somehow appear different. If that’s the case, will trunk-backed crossovers be next? I had to get a glimpse of just how bad this could be. Get ready for some Sport Utility Sedans, or SUS; I can’t think of a more appropriate name in this case.
Trunk In The Junk
We could certainly search for various SUVs or crossovers that might, maybe, lend themselves best to the add-a-trunk treatment. On the other hand, we could just get whatever utes I can find pictures big enough to Photoshop and proceed. Let’s absolutely do the latter.
The Nissan Rogue fits the “average crossover” wallpaper appearance norm pretty well, so it’s a good one to start with. We’ll lower the roof a bit over the tops of the doors, move the rear backlight forward, and somehow try to make this thing work. Taillights have to move down lower on what is now the trunk lid, and I’ve increased rear overhang just slightly.
Whoa, the Toyota Grand Highlander “sedan” looks a bit odd, but then again with that massive grille and blocky fenders, it’s not like you’re ever going to turn it into a Series III XJ6 any time soon. The extra mass of the rear cargo area on the standard Highlander sort of helps balance the heavy front end and…nah, you’d need a two-story building on the back of it to “balance” out that big face. Honestly, the grille-for-days part of this thing is far more objectionable than the roofline ever could be. Woof!
When I think “Buick” I always see a sedan. I know they’re trying desperately to dispel the image of a handicapped tag hanging from the mirror in a Cracker Barrel parking lot, but if there’s any brand that could use cars with trunks it seems like Buicks would be first in line to get fitted with one. Let’s try one of the little sport-utes, the Envision (full disclosure: such is my disinterest that I had to go back to the website twice to remember what these things were called). More overhang, moved the backlight, lowered the roof. I didn’t even move the taillights:
Here the larger (and soon to be replaced) Enclave gets the same treatment; the fender bulges work surprisingly well. I mean, it still looks ridiculous, but better than I expected, like the equivalent of a fender bender and not a near-fatal car wreck.
Yes, I’ll stop now, but you get the idea. I actually spared you from a few that were even worse. You’re welcome.
Get The Trunk Out Ma Face
Years ago, our parents saw someone with slightly flared jeans, and then within months some of them were wearing pants that made them look like elephants. Dynasty came on around your bedtime; your mom watched it religiously and weeks later she was wearing blouses that made her look like an American football player. The quest for the “next big thing” and “being different” can take us in odd directions.
Look, I don’t like this any more than you do, but at some point buyers will hanker for a vehicle that isn’t a five-door SUV or a pickup truck. Minivans were once The Thing To Have but then over time became social albatrosses when they appeared everywhere; it’s easy to believe once-cool “outdoorsy” crossovers and SUVs will do the same thing. The escalating heights of new cars mean they can’t go back to a sedan with traffic towering above them (or so they think), so it’s possible that these odd Frankensteins could become a thing.
Prove me wrong. Please.
A Daydreaming Designer Realizes The Dream Of The SuperFrunk – The Autopian
Here Are Some Outside-The-Box Ways To Use The F-150 Lightning’s Enormous Frunk – The Autopian
A Pickup That Turns Into An SUV Via Your Phone: Our Daydreaming Designer Imagines How – The Autopian
I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. This is just awful. Solid work, Bishop.
That Buick just made me throw up a little bit.
I really hate the S/CUV/truck-ification of everything on the road. I drive around in my sedan or hatchback (which you will pry out of my cold dead fingers) at the ride height God intended, but my sightlines are blocked in all directions by the teeming hordes of lifted off-road-ready-but-never-been-off-pavement UAVs.
In summary, SUVs with trunks does nothing to improve this.
I dislike SUVs.
I dislike these even more.
I don’t hate this anywhere near as much as I should. Then again, I grew up in the sedan era so maybe I just have Stockholm Syndrome?
I’ve been saying this for years! The coupe SUV was just the beginning, the crossover will just be a lifted sedan in the next few generations!
Call me weird, but I don’t hate these. That trunkified Envision might even get me back in an SUV.
Other things American cars should consider for new features:
I am officially calling upon the powers that be at this website to shut. This. Down.
NOW.
https://youtu.be/YZuMe5RvxPQ?si=xpfVFDXPxEbA2YEj
I hope they don’t make a comeback. No self respecting soccer mom is going to want to have limits on what can be taken to their kids afterschool activities, nor the limitations on what they can get from Costco. Men also appreciate the ability to carry their new 4K television in a weatherproof vehicle than the bed of a truck (if they have one).
WIth enough finagling and a cutting wheel, you can make anything fit in any car.
“Hon, have you seen the other half of my new pants I asked you to get at Costco?”
Hey! Why does my new PS5 look more like PS2-and-a-half?
I got a queen sized mattress into a trash can in a very similar fashion.
I am a man who loves a sedan and I bring mine to Costco all the time. With the back seats folded down, I can fit a heck of a lot of my bulk buys in there. And then when I’m not hauling around 700 rolls of toilet paper, I have a handy, self-contained storage compartment. Perfect automotive configuration.
You only buy 700 rolls at a time? What are French?
Note this is a joke nothing negative is meant to the French People, pets, art, language or any of the 15 different semesters.
Note the use of “15” sees was meant Asa joke. No negative animosity is meant to anyone or their identity designations.
I could see this, I’m reminded of the “coupe” suvs like the BMW X6 or the Mercedes XzHy (I can’t be bothered to remember the right letters). Everytime I see them I just think this is the worst possible middleground between SUVs and sedans. I try not to yuck people’s yum but I am always shocked that a human person with eyes and a brain chose to spend money on them.
The only things here that are acceptible are the Suzuki X-90 and the MK2 Subaru Outback Sedan.
NO. Please no.
I guess I’m in a minority here where rounding off the back of a car basically never has any practical implications for me. I’m not stacking groceries up 8 ft tall… I’ve carried 4 mounted tires in my MY and separately a 70 inch dresser… I think having a wide tall hatch is hugely important, but I love liftback sedans much more than hatchbacks 90% of the time.
The german rounded suv’s look stupid AF, but really people just tend to buy way more car than they need 99% of the time, and I can always rent a trailer if I’m really trying to push my carrying capacity.
I’m with you, for a very specific, perhaps silly to many, reason – I love the look of liftback sedans. Sleek and low does it for me, along with good handling dynamics.
(the very fact that I like sedans indicates I’m not really in this for practicality above all else)
My eyes now hurt.
No trunks! I am of the opinion that every sedan should be a hatch or wagon. We have been giving up useful space for decades simply due to some “popular aesthetics” Long live long roofs!
Also most people taking road trips now add on the hitch box, which is the new version of the old school actual trunk added on.
Hidden storage > a bit of extra space.
I have a truck if I need to carry something big.
Agree. I live in an urban area, so having a hidden storage area is absolutely worthwhile.
And I’m one of those guys we talked about last week that cares about driving dynamics, so…a sedan makes sense for me (even as I acknowledge it’s not for most).
I prefer a car over an suv, but when given the choice the Mazda3 hatchback is better then the sedan, and no driving dynamics are really changed, STI hatches were always cooler and more useful then the sedans.
Every hatch, wagon, and suv, I’ve owned comes with a cover for the cargo area. Some are roll out, some were solid shelf style. Also on like 95% of suvs sold the rear windows are tinted, as well as having a cover.
Not as clean, easy, or foolproof IMO.
If I had to have only one vehicle, then I see the argument. As it stands, I already have plenty of cargo space so adding a relatively small amount to another vehicle makes no difference to me.
To each his own. We have 2 cars total, so having 1 or 2 that can do almost everything is helpful. I used to have an 04 Mazda 3 hatchback as my only car. I worked at a restaurant at the time and would pick up their liquor orders. I could fit about 50 cases of wine/liquor(6 bottles each) in there.
Doesn’t keep the fumes of gasoline jugs from giving you, random non specific use of the word you, brain damage.
From our interactions in the past, I’m shocked you’re not currently in the trunk huffing those gas fumes.
Amazing how much we think alike. I always enjoy our interacting. It’s so boring when one person posts something and you get 150 posts just saying the exact same thing. It’s why I co.e here and sometimes post what I post.
A covered cargo area under a hatch means there is something good worth stealing.
A closed trunk is an unknown and usually not worth the effort.
My last 3 hatches (mazda3, Fiesta ST, e-golf) have the hard shelf covers. To infer there is something worth stealing just because of an almost permanent cover, is the same as saying a car with a closed center console must be hiding money. Its not a valid reason to not drive a hatch IMO. Crime is random, and more likely due to opportunity of the car being unlocked, not because someone may have something nice being hidden.
Yeah disagree, I live in an area with increasingly widespread car break-ins and permanent cargo covers do seem to help. My wife had the passenger front window on her small hatchback broken-meanwhile they ignored the cargo area which because she’s a packrat was actually full of a bunch of stuff the tweaker could’ve ripped off.
Just break the window to see your prize!
A trunk is vastly more secure.
Does your car have a trunk release button by the driver seat, or a pass through to the trunk/fold down seats? If so, 1 broken window also gets you the prize in the trunk.
Perhaps, but that’s extra steps and extra thoughts, not just some junkie walking by and wondering what you are hiding under your cargo cover.
I like a separate area for spare tires, canweget those back please, gasoline jugs, for emergencies or just gas for the lawn equipment, my box of tools complete with jumper cables etc so I don’t have to listen to the jingle jangle on every turn. I guess as people become less self reliant they don’t need anything like I do but aren’t we on here the ones or do this? Or are we the car version of soccer moms? Pretend we are car people but take our vehicles to the mechanic to check fluids and put air in our tires?
I take pride in the fact that when I take any of my vehicles to my mechanic he talks to me as if I knew what he was talking about.
There are some practical implications for having the cargo area being clearly separated from the cabin.
People are stupid, hatchbacks rule! My biggest complaint about my BRZ isn’t its lack of turbo but its lack of a rear hatch.
I’ve got an FRS. This is spot on. The mail slot trunk opening really limits. If it had been a “hatch” like the old Saab 900s had (or many modern Audi sedans) it would have been so much more useful.
Still love my car tho
I’m just bitter because my bike won’t fit through the trunk opening unless I take the pedals off. Meanwhile I could fit my whole bike in the back of my WRX hatch with pedals, and even wheels, still intact.
100%.
They are small cars for sure, but they wouldn’t feel as small if the damn trunk opening was just a bit bigger.
OK this is a real question. Why blame the car for not fitting the bike and not the bike design for not fitting in a trunk? Also why hauling the bike isn’t that like using the escalator or elevator to get to the 2nd story of your gym?
Okay that 2nd one was for humor.
I live in a large metropolis, when I get tired of the trails by my house I like to ride others around town. It wouldn’t be safe to ride the bike down the freeway to get to those trails.
That makes a lot of sense. I’m in rural areas. However thinking outside the box riding it on the streets of a city would probably get your speed up and give you a lot more excitement. Just saying?
Even if I stick to surface streets most have no shoulders and curb to curb potholes. Even if the streets were in good repair Houston drivers have limited patience for anything with pedals. I have done it in the past though but it’s nerve-wracking. You might remember the “rolling coal” kid from a few years back, that’s not far from here and is a common opinion of cyclists in these parts.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/Waller-driver-who-rolled-coal-could-face-16603437.php
Oh you are 100% right it is dangerous and stupid. But the risk is what kicks in the adrenaline. So pedal faster. Not that I’d do something that stupid. LOL
oh my god if they made the frs/brz/86 et al in a more usable body shape I would’ve already figured out how to buy one-here’s hoping the next generation gives up some style and gains some practicality via a hatch!
It’s not likely according to an old Subaru video discussing the engineering considerations of the car. They were obsessed with keeping the center of gravity low and apparently the hinges on a hatchback put the weight higher than the hinges on a trunk. The car will never have a sunroof or t-tops for the same reason.
But I don’t care, I’d sacrifice a little bit of weight balance for a hatch and T-tops!
On one hand kudos to them I love this kind of thorough engineering, otoh it’s like give me a break the car this isn’t a McLaren F1. But yeah, certainly seems worth it to me to get a more usable car I’d give up some performance, especially now that they have the 2.4 liter engine in there. Like it might be the difference between me getting one or not-a small sedan or at least an actual two door hatch would be much easier to justify than a tiny coupe.
michael_scott_no_no_no.gif
We really, really need images on this board.
They’re already here. They’re called crew cab trucks 😛
Also, the Lincoln Blackwood was ahead of its time, and I like the Blackwood more than I should.
pretty much correct, a truck with a tonneau cover and a bed divider is the best trunk possible.
I just have 1 link for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc
I agree with this well reasoned argument
I can see you are a man of taste.
Thanks, I hate it.
Ugh. People are broken. More minivans! More hatchbacks, and without the slopes! If we’re allotted some cube of space to work with, make the front aerodynamic and use the rest of the cube! Don’t cut the back corner out for “aesthetics”.
I don’t care about form; give me function.
Yeah so much is lost with the slope of the back windows- I saw somebody at the dog park getting their Great Dane out of the back of a small Lexus SUV- he looked squished in there, then my Schnauzers came out of the V70 where they practically have their own agility course
This reminds me of something I also forget when is a legitimate post. Maybe The Autopian can get their plane guy on it. Look at the 2 big airplane manufacturers. Both are really into fuel economy. But Boeing gives us a tube and Airbus uses a similar front end but a square body like it’s the Volvo of airplanes. Is one design more efficient, if so why aren’t they using it? If they are equal does it transfer to cars and if so why round off and eliminate space for nothing?
So you drive an old Volvo? I wish I did those things rule.
The Crown is nearly there and liftback SUV’s are totally a thing. People will do anything to get rid of the Utility portion of their fat car, so this really isn’t a stretch.
Yeah these drive me nuts. It’s like the designers are constantly yelling “MORE SQUIGGLES, MORE BENDS, MORE TRIANGLES, MORE PIANO BLACK MORE MORE MORE!!!”
Or do designers keep changing and adding or eliminating stuff to remain employed?
I just got a small car, and I was blown away how small I feel on the road surrounded by gigantic SUVs. It will be sad to watch our roads get incredibly dull with a sea of hideous SUVs everywhere
Don’t worry in a Sedan you will never see it.
It pains me to say that I could see this happening. The fact that crossovers have rear hatches is their single saving grace, so of course the average American car buyer will begin to take issue with that eventually.
This is wrong, and not the first time the mistake has appeared here recently.
https://www.cadillac.com/sedans
To respond to the actual article though, I could see high-riding sedans becoming a thing, but not with the awkward SUV styling.
AWD and the ride height are the reasons people buy crossovers, not because they’re in love with the beautiful or striking styling of a Rav4 or CRV.
I’ve always been a sedan guy. Maybe it’s because Aussies made kick-ass sedans.
I do have a second “car”… Caddy XT5. They call it a Crossover (Hence the X part).
Do I want it? Hell no.
But, due to my wife’s disabilities, she can’t get out of sedans. Hence the XT5.
So, yes, agreeing with V10…Ride Hight.. not for the driving, but for the entering and existing of the vehicle.
And bring back those rotating seats you could swivel to get in and out. I’m surprised no aftermarket manufacturers never started making a few universal versions.
I never can tell if you are Sarcastic or not.
/s
Lol.
Well probably go with yes but in this case those seats were awesome. Easier getting in or out of. I’m sure they disappeared with the use of the bench seat but now they would be great. But it’s sad with the desire to create new and better Noone ever looks back for designs ahead of their time. If we could attach stuff I’d look for that swivel seat.
I agree in fact if Subaru could build a reliable vehicle they would compete with Toyota and Honda. Well if they could match the cost too.
Forgot to add the “affordable” part, and if you’re referring to the earlier article the author there did not forget to add the “affordable” disclaimer. So don’t get mad at him- I’m the problem here.
The CT4 starts at $34,595, which is barely more than a Camry.
I realize calling that number “affordable” is a shock to some people, but it’s the way things are in 2024.