Choosing a suitable roofbox for your car

Here are a few things you should probably consider

Some of these suggestions are obvious, like checking how much extra space you need and how often you|ll want to load and unload your roofbox, while others are important but not so obvious, like checking distances between your roof rack bars before you buy a roofbox.

We hope you find the guide useful.

Width

Before you go for a full width box, have a think about whether you'll also want to load cycles or kayaks on the car roof as well. If that's the case, you'll need a narrow car roofbox - depending on the size of your car of course.

Length

Check if you can change the distance between the bars that go across your car roof. Make a note of the maximum and minimum distance you can achieve and this will make sure that you don't select a roofbox that's too short.

Remember ! If you've fixed up your roofrack to suit some cycle carriers, you might have to keep the distance between the roof bars the same and take more care choosing your roofbox.

Capacity

All the car roofboxes on sale show their capacity in litres, but thats not much help if you don't know what for example 420 litres looks like, or what it will hold in terms of luggage.

The best way of getting an idea is to compare with the capacity of your car's boot space (or a similar car). Here's a table of popular car boot spaces to help; these are all from standard models, no sports versions, seats up. If in doubt, look up the capacity in your car specifications.

  • Renault Clio, Fiat Seicento, Ford Fiesta, Fiat Punto: all around 250 litres
  • Peugeot 207: 325 litres
  • VW Golf: 340 litres
  • Renault Megane: 370 litres
  • Ford Focus: 396 litres
  • Nissan Primera, Peugeot 308, Peugeot 407: around 430 litres
  • Ford Mondeo: 453 litres
  • Renault Laguna: 481 litres
  • Vauxhall Zafira, Mercedes C/E Class: around 510 litres
  • VW Sharan: 623 litres

As you can see, you only need to buy a mid range car roofbox to be close to doubling your luggage carrying capacity; for instance something around 320 litres does it for a small to medium car.

( Remember: in terms of luggage, 1 child = 2 adults or 3 grannies; 1 woman = 1.5 men; 1 teenager = 0.5 or 2 adults, depending on age. Plus you'll always fill your roofbox, even if you think you won't ! )

Aerodynamics

We know you won't be racing around Brands Hatch in your car with the roofbox attached, but if you do a lot of travelling, bear in mind that the top models are designed to be more aerodynamic and will therefore contribute less to fuel consumption.

That can add up to quite a bit if you're motoring across Europe or similar.