How to know how much junk you can fit in a rental car trunk

Daniel Fink of Beverly Hills says he likes driving small cars in Europe. Given the cost of gasoline, that makes financial sense.

But will everything fit in the trunk?

His wife wants to take a 24-inch suitcase. Will that work?

The rental car websites said “370 cubic liters (that translates to about 13 cubic feet) or had little icons of midsize and small suitcases, but didn’t say how big those suitcases actually were,” Fink said in an email.

He said he thought two 24-inch suitcases, two backpacks and two rolling carry-on bags might fit -- but that there wasn’t room for error.

It’s a “bad idea to leave luggage visible when traveling,” Fink noted.

The solution: a site sponsored by the Research Institute for Consumer Affairs, or RICA, in Britain. It provides consumer information for elderly and disabled people, Fink said.

“The website has detailed dimensions including for vehicle entrance and exit (door sill height, opening size, etc.) and ‘boot’ [trunk] space,” he said. “Converting the centimeters to inches, I told my wife that we could take the two 24 inchers.”

If you want to convert metric to U.S. Customary Units, as our system is known, try Online Conversion.

Follow us on Twitter at @latimestravel