The question really is an individual person's perception of a medium sized car. The dimensions of the cases also enter into the equation.

I drive a Mondeo and there is no way I could put four of our suitcases into the boot.

Personally I think my opening comments apply equally to the booking agent as well as yourself.

Did at any time you or the agent actually identify the model of the car before booking it?

As a former manager of a vehicle hire operation I often had similar questions asked of me. It was not unusual for someone collecting a vehicle finding it not suitable due to someone else "guessing"

The external dimensions of a car are no indication of the size of the boot. Modern cars trade boot space for more passenger comfort and space.

I am not trying to be negative but trying to view your problem from a practical viewpoint which is what a court would do.

fwh

The Dollar web site indicates that an intermediate car could accommodate up to 5 adults and 2 suitcases.

I think it would be wishful thinking to get four full size suitcases in the boot of an intermediate car and perhaps in hindsight and thinking about an intermediate size UK car such as an Vauxhall Astra or Ford Focus, or even a large car like a Ford Mondeo - would four suitcases fit in that boot?

That said, if you are unfamiliar with the types of American rental cars and hadn't rented a car in the US before, you naturally would take advice from your travel agent. I would be inclined to certainly write to Como Street Travel again and see if they will perhaps look at compensating you in some part for your additional expense but I suspect it may be a case of your word against that of the sales agent and having never even heard of Como Street Travel I'm not sure what their customer service levels are like.

fwh can type faster than me and bet me to it with the same point on the boot size of a UK car!

Hi and thankyou to the two previous messages, I agree that car boot sizes can vary on different models and we looked at all the cars that were offered to us. eventually i asked the question to the people on the Dollar desk which was. " Is there an intermediate car that would accomodate 4 adults and 4 cases plus minimum hand luggage and the reluctant reply was NO. but I had been allocated the car size that we had booked and if we wanted to get all and everything in the car we would have to upgrade."
After about an hour of trying to convince the car hire company we paid up and decided to take it up with the travel company upon our return to the UK.
Our cases are not excessively large, 23 kgs is the allowed weight for each case so just how much space is in 23kgs.? not a lot as you will find if you travel abroad. so the theory of our cases being too big is a complete joke and insult to our intelligence.
So anyone travelling to the USA Beware !!!! American cars are NOT as big as you think? which is intentional I think because that way they will take more money off you.
Anyone out there with a photo of an intermediate car with 3 or four suit cases in the boot.??
please let me know.
Thanks again

What make/model car were you allocated originally?

You, me, and for that matter my wife all have different ideas of a medium size car is. We are actually discussing changing the one we have.

Weight does not equate to size. Cubic capacity of a car boot does not mean it is all usable. As a point of interest cars adverts used to say how many cases they would accommodate - what they did not tell you was that the luggage in the ads was custom made for the advert.

Most cars will accommodate five adults even the smallest - you do answer your own question when you say Dollar indicate only two suitcases in a medium car.

Myself and Traveller are trying to assist but we have vague details. Please do not dismiss our comments out of hand. We are experienced travellers also.

fwh

One of the most recurring problems during my years as a rep was clients luggage. Often members of parties would travel independently to the airport, not considering that it all had to fit in the one car they had hired on arrival! This is a small island, so my hire companies would often accommodate clients by taking the "excess" cases to the villas in their own cars. Not so possible in USA!

However, I booked a fly/drive holiday to Florida about 8 years ago, and remember seeing in their brochure very explicit details as to exactly what luggage would fit in which car. Is that not done any more? We booked the car purely on the luggage capacity.

Sorry, not much help this, just a comment!

Hi Thanks for your comments, Yes we discussed this part of our holiday in some depth with the travel companies rep on the phone as we were booking the holiday, We had heard aboput this happening and didnt want it to happen to us with with 3 different destinations to travel to and two elderly people, The travel company rep assured us that the Intermediate car would be large enough to take all our luggage (at least 4 cases) and 4 adults. On his advice this is the size we ordered.
Which is why we were and am very upset about this matter.
Regarding the information from the car hire company on size and capacity we also looked at that too and it seemed that yes the intermedaite size would accomodate us all. Thinking that the Americans always have cars which are bigger than ours we had no concerns at all and trusted all the advice and info.
They dont appear to have station wagons and or hatchbacks available at the car hire company as these would have been the obvious and safe choices.
The cars on offer in the intermedite size all had very little boot space until you went up to the large size and people carriers.
Looking back it seems that the car hire companies deliberately tout these intermedete cars knowing that you will have to upgrade when arriving generating another type of cash flow. My friends have been to america many times and had no trouble when only two of them went, when they took some friends he like us made sure that the car would be large enough for all.

Like us too he had this problem and argued the point for over an hour with the car hire desk people. The americans are very good at handling this problem and seem to get away with us having to pay in the end. When you have travelled for hours and hours and 1000s of miles you dont want to be arguing the 1st time you put your foot on American soil do you. So we the English give up.

So to answer your question yes we looked at all the info about the cars capacity and confirmed all this with the travel company before we booked.

I hope someone has a photo of their luggage in an intermedite for me. I think this highly unlikely.?????

Hi we have a Citroen Picasso people Carrier it has a large boot, but you would not get four suitcases in it.
I think you were being a bit naive if you thought four suitcases would fit into an intermediate sized car.
I feel you would have been better with a large people carrier if you were doing a lot of driving both for the comfort and space.

Yes I agree maybe niave but trusting too on the info given to us. We all think that the American cars are alot bigger than ours when in fact they are not.
I am not exagerating when I say that the boot wouldnt take 2 cases.??? I only got one and a holdhall inside it was tiny. and yet it stated on the leaflet on the counter 5 adults and 3 cases for that model vehicle.?? so you tell me who is kidding who??
They do expect you to use up the 5th passenger space to accomadate any other luggage but 3 cases in the back seat with our elderly people is a bit much dont you think.?

for 4 adults and 4 medium cases you really should have been recommended a " standard SUV or Premium saloon/waggon"

many Brits like yourself think America big cars.. but over recent years they have been downsizing to European/Japanese sizes & types [it doesn't matter what they are called] not only for fuel economy but also reliability

wiz

Exactly right, which brings me back to the orginal problem which was that Como street travel ltd should know what they are selling and recommending to their customers and in my opinion they sold me a fly drive holiday with a car that was unfit for purpose
As far as I can see they didnt fullfill their promises.
so why are they arguing that my cases were the problem and not the car size.????

Surely they must be accountable for their mistakes not the customer.

strange one i suppose never having been to the USA, [but i work for GM] it only took 2 seconds to call up a couple of hire web sites and find the link to car sizes/capacity.. unless they used a booking agency and did not know who the final hire company was..

Exactly Como street travel ltd should know what they are selling and recommending to their customers and in my opinion they sold me a fly drive holiday with a car that was unfit for purpose
As far as I can see they didnt fullfill their promises.
so why are they arguing that my cases were the problem and not the car size.????

I rather think you are getting into a bit of a hole with this.

First the travel agent is just that. He books a holiday and ancillaries as requested. They are a bog standard travel agent - not a specialist

He does not know the physical dimensions of your cases - as I said before weight is nothing to do with it.

He is not an expert on cars - If he had suggested a "hummer" you would have said no way. But it would have carried all your luggage.

There is a tendency for people to assume that the agent or TO are all seeing. They are not. There is a duty of care on both sides. You need to be specific with the instructions you give to enable him to meet your requirements.

He sold you a vehicle hire - what exactly did you specify? The dimensions of the cases would need to be specified by you at time of booking - in which case you would have a valid complaints.

Saying suitable for four people and luggage is not enough.

The car was not unfit for purpose it just was not large enough for your personal requirements.

You still have not told us the size of your cases. What you consider small may be large in the eyes of others.

fwh

I would actually like to see what type of car would hold 4 large cases, not many I expect. The first time we hired a car in Florida they gave us a 3 door Hyundia Scoupe for 2 people. The boot would only hold 1 case and it was a devil of a job getting the other one in the back seat. We just assumed the car would be big enough for two.

Another time we hired a large car, can't remember the make of it, as we were meeting up with a family who hadn't hired a car and taking them to the parks. The boot held our two 28-30" hard-bodied cases, but no way we would have got 3 in there.

The largest car we've ever owned was a Nissan Primera which had a really large boot. However even it would only our 2 cases and one smaller one. There were 4 of us travelling and the fourth case was in the middle back seat between the passengers.

luci

Perhaps another solution if you were staying in the Orlando area would have been for a couple of your party to take a taxi from the airport, with a couple of the case, to where ever you were staying whilst a couple of the adults took the rental car and the remain luggage. The same process for the return journey to the airport. That would have been cheaper than the £233 upgrade cost.

Hi Traveller
As per my previous reply We were visiting 3 destinations in Florida so your comments regarding the taxi would be very impractical indeed.
but thanks for the idea.

sorry - missed that.

I don't understand why dego still hasn't given us the actual sizes if the cases.
I have 4 cases that can all take 23 kilos in weight .2 medium size & 2 large size
I prefer to take the 2 larger cases because clothes get less squashed in them .
But they would take up alot more room in a car boot.
So dego : 1) what make / model was your intermediate car when you arrived ?
2) what are the measurements of your four cases ?
( I assume you must have at least two of them at home )

Hi Hovis
To answer your question the cases were a standard size the largest being 30 x 19 x 11 (23kgm) and other 26 x 19 x 10 (20kgm) These are are the soft fabric material type and not the hard and rigid plastic type.
and I couldnt get these two cases in the boot. The elderly couples cases were the same.

regarding the make and model of the car? who knows,?? you are not given this information till you arrive and go look for the car you have been allocated.
It certainly wasnt a hummer as fwh sugested earlier cos I would have taken this model with out hesitation ,have you seen the size of these great motors.They are awesome. So fwh is wrong when he sugested that i would refuse this model out of hand.