Video: Which Compact SUV Has the Most Cargo Room?

02:30 min

By Cars.com Editors

April 28, 2025

When we gathered seven popular models for our 2025 Compact SUV Challenge, we made sure to measure their cargo areas to see which one had the most space. Watch this video to see the results.

If you're shopping for a compact SUV, it can be hard to compare cargo areas based on the specs alone because automakers don't all measure cargo areas the same way. That's why Cars.c

om measures the space behind the backseat and any underfloor storage so the numbers we publish are comparable with any other SUV. So how much space do these SUVs have and which one has the most? Here's what we found. With 21.8 cubic feet of cargo space, the Tucson Hybrid had the largest cargo area overall, and rounding out the top three were the CRV Hybrid with 20.2 cubic feet of space and the RAV4 Hybrid with 18.6 cubic feet. The difference between the compact SUV with the most cargo room behind the backseat and the one with the least was a little more than five cubic feet. But some of the SUVs that had less overall cargo space performed well in specific areas that may be important to you. The Forester's 16.5 cubic foot cargo area was the smallest of the ones in our test, but the width of its cargo area, 43 inches, was the widest we measured, and it was two inches wider than the next widest SUV. The extra inches could mean the difference between your cargo lying flat on the cargo floor, or being perched at an angle between the rear wheel housings. With its Divide-N-Hide cargo floor removed, the Nissan Rogue's 24-inch-tall cargo space led all other SUVs, with the next closest Tucson Hybrid having a 23-inch-tall cargo area. These measurements are to the top of the rear seat backs, which is as high as we measure when determining cargo space because anything higher could become a dangerous projectile in an accident. The Equinox was the clear leader when it came to underfloor storage space, with its 1.9 cubic feet of space, roughly 1 1/2 cubic feet greater than the next closest Foresters underfloor storage. And of the SUVs in our test, four of them, the CR-V Hybrid, RAV4 Hybrid, Rogue, and the CX-5, didn't have any underfloor storage at all. Cargo space is just one of the things we test as part of our multi-vehicle comparisons. And if you wanna see everything else we evaluate as well as which one of these SUVs we thought was the best, check out the results video for our 2025 Compact SUV challenge.