Cars

Minivans ranked by what actually fits in the back

We measured with a hockey bag, a dresser, four kids and a very large dog.

By Rosalind Two Bears · July 30, 2026

Every minivan brochure prints a cargo number measured by a machine that fills the cabin with foam blocks. Nobody hauls foam blocks. We drove six minivans, five off dealer lots between Greenfield and Springfield and one a used Dodge Grand Caravan from a lot in Chicopee, loaded the same four objects into each, and made four children and one enormous dog sit in whatever room was left.

Here is what we carried, measured with a tape before we started:

A goalie bag, stuffed, 40 by 20 by 20 inches, 34 pounds.
A five-drawer dresser from a Florence yard sale, 52 inches tall, 34 wide, 19 deep.
Four kids, ages 6, 9, 11 and 14. The 14-year-old is five foot ten and complains.
Ozzie, a Newfoundland mix, 128 pounds, in a wire crate 42 by 28 by 30 inches.

The dresser is the hard one. Standing upright it needs 52 inches of clearance behind the second row, and only two vans here gave us that. The rest had to take it on its back, which means it eats the floor the crate wanted.

1. Chrysler Pacifica

The Pacifica won on one trick nobody else sells. Stow 'n Go drops the second-row seats into wells in the floor along with the third row, so the whole cabin behind the front seats goes flat and you never carry a seat into the garage. Chrysler quotes 32.3 cubic feet behind the third row, 87.5 behind the second and 140.5 with everything down. Our tape put the load floor at 26 inches and the liftgate opening at 50.

The dresser went in standing, with the third row stowed and the second row still up, and the tailgate shut on the first try. Fold the second row too and the dresser lies flat with Ozzie's crate beside it and daylight around both. The cost of the trick is the seats themselves, which are thin because they have to fit in a hole in the floor. The plug-in hybrid Pacifica keeps Stow 'n Go only in the third row, because the battery lives where the second-row wells would be. If the flat floor is why you are buying it, buy the gas van, which starts around $42,000.

2. Honda Odyssey

The Odyssey has the deepest third-row well here and the highest maximum, 144.9 cubic feet, against 32.8 behind the third row and 88.8 behind the second. The well swallowed the goalie bag standing on end with the tailgate shut and nothing touching the glass. Load floor 26 inches, so the dresser goes in without a second person.

The Magic Slide second row is the reason to pick this one for people. The two outboard seats slide sideways on their tracks, and we ran them out to their widest and got the 9-year-old and the 11-year-old far enough apart that the drive back from Belchertown was quiet. What keeps it out of first is the second row. Those seats come out by hand, they weigh about 68 pounds each, and once they are out they live in your garage until you need them at 7 on a Sunday morning.

3. Kia Carnival

Biggest single number in the test. Kia claims 40.2 cubic feet behind the third row, six more than anything else here, and the well under the folded third row is real and square. The goalie bag went in flat with room next to it.

Then you get to the second row and the Carnival stops. Those seats do not fold into the floor, and on the upper trim with the reclining lounge chairs they do not come out at all. Our dresser rode on its back, the crate went behind row two, and that put us down to five seats with six people standing in the driveway. Prices start around $37,000 and there is a hybrid now.

4. Toyota Sienna

The Sienna is hybrid only, no gas version, and it returned an indicated 36 mpg on our Greenfield loop with four kids and a dog in it. All-wheel drive is about $1,700 more and worth it here. Cargo behind the third row is 33.5 cubic feet and the third row folds into a well without a fight.

The number that drops it is 101, the maximum with everything folded, and the reason is that the second-row seats do not come out. They slide almost two feet, they are heavy, and Toyota does not intend for you to take them out. So the dresser lay flat, the crate would not fit beside it, and we made two trips. This is the van I would actually own and it lost this test. Both things are true.

5. Dodge Grand Caravan, used

Ours was a 2018 with 104,000 miles for $9,400, and it did everything the Pacifica did. Stow 'n Go in both rows, 33 cubic feet behind the third row, 140.3 with the floor flat. The dresser stood up. The crate fit. The 14-year-old had legroom and found something else to complain about.

What you are buying at that price is eight winters of Route 9 road salt, so get it on a lift before you sign and look at the rocker seams and the brake lines. For ten thousand dollars, a flat floor is still a flat floor.

6. Volkswagen ID. Buzz

Best looking vehicle in the test and the worst one at the job. Cargo behind the third row is 18.6 cubic feet, less than half the Carnival, and the goalie bag had to go in sideways with the crate on top of it. The third row slides and folds, but it folds onto itself and sits on the floor, leaving a step you load over. It comes out in two halves. We took them out once, put them back once, and would not do it again on a Saturday.

The load floor is 30 inches because there is a battery under it, so the dresser wanted two people and then would not stand up anyway. Maximum cargo is 145.5 cubic feet, and getting there means two seat halves against your garage wall. The kids voted for it unanimously. It is about $61,000 and goes roughly 230 miles, which covers Hadley to Belchertown forever and makes Boston a conversation.

What we would actually buy

The Pacifica, and it was not close. The second row going into the floor is the whole thing, and once you have loaded a van that does it you notice every van that does not.

If a dealer tells you the third row folds flat, put your hand on the folded seat back and slide it toward the front of the van. You will know in two seconds.