Passat is a far far larger sedan than golf is a hatchback. Any magazine indicating golf has more capacity is doing deceitful apples and oranges - I assume golf with rear seats down (a two seater) vs Passat as full five seater.
Jetta is the sedan version of golf (roughly) and as a five seater it is full 50cm longer than golf. Passat is another 25 cm. It's just more car than golf.
(mind you, I'd always get a golf over Passat but that's precisely because I want a small car and don't need a cargo carrying boat :)
It's 17.4 cubic feet with rear seats up, 53.7 with rear seats down. The Golf is surprisingly roomy! I moved across the country in one (granted, before I owned any furniture, but with several suitcases and large plastic tubs full of stuff...)
That's astonishing to me! My sister has golf and her husband a Jetta. I love the golf but Jetta is, as designed, a bigger car. There are definitely loads that will fit golf and not Jetta due to different trunk entry ways, but I'm still surprised to hear that in terms of sheer volume, golf wins with seats up :O
Oh absolutely; it just always felt like what Passat gained horizontally offset what it lost vertically. Again, not that I'd go for a sedan over hatchback personally... and if it can't even make up the lost cargo space, the point of long sedans is even more lost on me.
A problem with renting any non-sedan car in the US is that the rental companies tend to remove the back shelf, leaving the contents of the trunk exposed. This means you can’t realistically stop anywhere and leave even small luggage hidden in the car. For this reason, I tend to refuse SUVs and hatchbacks, and insist on a sedan.
Jetta is the sedan version of golf (roughly) and as a five seater it is full 50cm longer than golf. Passat is another 25 cm. It's just more car than golf.
(mind you, I'd always get a golf over Passat but that's precisely because I want a small car and don't need a cargo carrying boat :)