Video: Discount-Club Challenge: Compact Cars

We're not gonna just look at cubic feet we're gonna fill them up with a shopping trip from our local discount warehouse store. For our sample shopping trip, we got a lot of those big bulky items that you routinely get at one of these discount stores, Namely toilet paper, paper towels, a pallet of drinking water, stuff like that. We also got a 26 inch flat screen TV to kind of illustrate that impulse buy that sometimes happens at these stores. Now we're going to see if it all fits in our first car, which is a 2010 Kia Forte, and we're going to start with it because it's the biggest car. And then we're going to work our way down to the smallest. It has a trunk that's 14.7 cubic feet, which is quite big. So let's see how it does. (upbeat fast paced music) So you can see the Forte handled almost everything besides the TV. And there is still room here for even more stuff if you had it. Now, a lot of people say, well just throw the TV in the backseat, but we're trying to illustrate that if you had a family and you had three people in the car, you wouldn't need to fold down the seats for more room. Next up is a Ford Focus. Actually the Coupe here, but the Coupe and the Sedan have the identical trunk space, 13.8 cubic feet. Now this model has an upgraded sound system. So the subwoofer takes up some space out of your trunk. It's a good illustration of what happens when you upgrade. You can take some practical utility out of the equation. Let's see if everything fits anyway. (upbeat fast paced music) So once again, everything fit just fine in the Focus besides the TV. And there is room on top of some of the boxes and a little room right here to fit stuff, but it certainly doesn't feel as big as the Forte did. Next up is a Toyota Corolla. This is the best selling car in the class. Everyone knows a Corolla. It's trunk is 12.3 cubic feet, which is smaller than the Focus in the Forte obviously. But check it out. It's much wider than those trunks were, just not quite as deep. So this is practical space, not just cubic feet we're dealing with. So we're going to see how everything fits in this type of opening. (upbeat fast paced music) So as you can see again, Toyota Corolla fit everything just fine besides that TV. There's also plenty more room for other items and I'm kind of wondering, will everything fit in the last car? Last up is a 2010 Mazda 3. It's been completely restyled this year. So it was kind of crazy looking, but you give them some utility for those looks. It's trunk is only 11.8 cubic feet. And I tell you what, it looks considerably smaller than Toyota Corolla. So let's see if everything fits. (upbeat fast paced music) So everything still fit in the smallest trunk we have. I was a little concerned about the tissue paper. It's kind of wedged up here against the top of the roof. And there's still a little bit of space right here, but that's it. So what do we kind of say here? Well, everything fit in even the smallest trunk, but obviously if you have more people and you go on a bigger shopping trip, that Kia Forte, and it's extra two or three cubic feet add up to a lot more space. <v Announcer>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog KickingTires.net.