Perfect fit for a petrolhead

Honda: Small engine, but this sedan is light on your pocket and amazing to boot

- Jim Freeman

Who remembers the sedan, that humble four-door family conveyance with a petrol or diesel-burning engine at one end and a separate luggage compartment — in South Africa we call it "the boot" — at the other?

Far from being the common sight on our roads that they were as little as a decade ago, they seem to be going the way of the dodo; supplanted by all and sundry that is a vehicle manufacturer by hatchback SUVs (sports utility vehicles), cross-overs and their ilk.

Small SUVs and compact crossovers in particular strike me as ridiculous when it comes to going on road trips. It's all very well designing a vehicle that can comfortably transport five people but for every cubic centimetre gained in leg-room and headspace, so commensurately luggage space is lost.

How do you transport mom, dad and kids from Gauteng to the Garden Route for an end-of-year holiday when your vehicle can't accommodate the family's clobber and junk?