How Many Suitcases Can You Fit In A Minivan? (Interior Luggage Dimensions/Space)

Are you planning to go on a long distance trip, but you do not know if your luggage would fit in your minivan or not? Are you helping someone take many pieces of luggage to or from the airport and aren’t sure if they will all fit in your minivan with everyone else inside?

Well, you are in luck as I’m going to tell you if there is enough room to fit all of the luggage in or not depending on how many passengers you have or how many seats you have removed or folded down.

Below I will give you exactly how much luggage space is in a standard mini van. This is how many suitcases will fit inside of a minivan and does not include how many could fit in various luggage racks that could go on top of the vehicle.

You can fit the following amount of carry on bags in a standard minivan (Chrysler, Dodge, Honda, or Toyota)

• 10 behind the third-row seats (in the trunk area)
• 24 with the third-row laid down or removed
• 36 with all of the rear car seats laid down or removed 

You can fit the following amount of full size suitcases in a standard minivan (Chrysler, Dodge, Honda, or Toyota)

• 6 behind the third-row seats (in the trunk area)
• 12 with the third-row laid down or removed
• 20 with all of the rear car seats laid down or removed

The above numbers are based on luggage that is sized: 

• Carry on 24” long, 15” wide, and 10” thick 
• Large size 30” long, 19” wide, and 10” thick

Note: When I mention that the back seat or rear seats are laid down or removed I’m talking about everything but the driver and passenger seats including the middle seat. If your minivan model does not allow you to easily remove the second row of seats then you would want to go with the numbers with the third row laid down or removed.

Obviously if the suitcases you are going to put in your minivan are smaller or larger than the sizes above then you will have to adjust the number of suitcases up or down based on that.

If you have small bags you will be able to fit far more than the numbers that I listed above while if you have larger bags you won’t be able to fit in quite as many. The same thing goes for harder suitcases vs soft-sided bags (like duffel bags).

The softer and more malleable your small luggage and large luggage is, the more of them that you can fit into each location since there won’t be any wasted space.

Minivans are quite large and can fit a lot of luggage inside of them but how much they can carry really depends on how many passengers you are carrying along with the luggage  and the sizes of each suitcase. Rarely will all of the luggage be the exact same size so you might be able to fit more suitcases if a lot of them are smaller. 

Another thing that can cause the number of suitcases to vary quite a bit is whether all of the seats are removed/laid down or if they are simply folded forward. New minivans from Dodge or Chrysler all allow both the second and third row seats to be folded into the floor which in turn means that they can easily be entirely filled with luggage. 

Other models only have the third row that folds into the floor and the second row will slide forward which means you lose precious space or have to manually remove the seats which is a giant hassle.

In the rest of this article I will discuss some specific minivan models and how many suitcases you can expect to fit inside of each of them. 

All of the numbers in the rest of this article will be based on suitcase sizes mentioned above so again, if your suitcases are all smaller or larger than those then you will have to adjust the number that will fit. 

How many suitcases can you fit in a Dodge Grand Caravan or Chrysler Pacifica/Voyager? 

Both the Dodge Caravan (or Grand Caravan as it is now called), the Chrysler Town & Country, the Chrysler Voyager, and the Chrysler Pacifica are all designed with the exact same interior space so how many suitcases that you can fit inside of each of them will be the same. 

Both Chrysler and Dodge minivans will be able to fit the most suitcases of any model since the 2nd and 3rd rows of seats can fold into the floor. I personally did a luggage test with my own Chrysler minivan and this is how many suitcases I was able to fit into it.

For carry on size suitcases you can fit in:

• 10 behind the third row seats 
• 24 with the folded third row
• 36 with both rows of seats laid down or removed

For full size suitcases you can fit in:

• 6 behind the third row seats
• 12 with the third row laid down or removed
• 20 with both rows of seats laid down or removed.

Please remember that this is based on the suitcase size mentioned earlier so you will have to adjust these numbers based on the size differences of the exact suitcases that you have. 

To figure out how many of your specific suitcases you can fit inside of a Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Pacifica, or Chrysler Voyager (new model) you will need the exact interior dimensions of these models. 

The interior dimensions where you can put your luggage in these models are in the next section.

Although all minivans have plenty of space, if you are planning on taking a road trip with the family then renting (or buying) a Dodge or Chrysler minivan will be the better choice. This is simply because of the versatility of being able to fold different seats into the floor and change the configuration of the vehicle to get enough space is incredibly useful.

That versatility can also help you fit in more family members or a larger group of people with their luggage than you can in vehicles that don’t have as much space or as versatile of interior space.

Interior Dimensions of the Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Pacifica, and Chrysler Voyager (new model)

I will give these dimensions in inches and will separate them out by where you would traditionally put luggage in these minivans. 

Dimensions behind the third row

The dimensions for the Dodge and Chrysler models behind the third row seats are:

• 24”- 20” deep (gets shallower because of the curve of the rear door) 
• 49”-40” wide (again narrows because of the curved of the door)
• 49” tall (the same all the way across)

Dimensions behind the second row with the third row flat

The dimensions behind the second row of seats on Dodge and Chrysler minivans are:

• 40”-46” high (40” at the rear door, 46” inside) 
• 62”, 49”, 40” wide (62” above wheel wells, 40” at top of rear door, 49” everywhere else)
• 55” deep (from the rear of the second row seats all the way to the trunk)

Dimensions of the entire cargo area behind the two front seats

The dimensions for the Dodge and Chrysler minivans behind the two front seats with all of the seats laid down and with the two front seats all the way back are: 

• 89” long (measured from the rear of the driver and front passenger seats)
• 49”,40”, 60” wide (49” is at the floor of the rear door, 40” is the ceiling of the rear door, and 60” is where the sliding doors are)
• 40”-46” high (40 inches high is at the rear door 46” high is throughout the rest of the cargo area)

The cubic feet of cargo space in the Dodge and Chrysler minivans is as follows:

• 32.3 cubic feet of space behind the third row
• 87.5 cubic feet of space with the third row folded into the floor
• 140.5 cubic feet of space with the second and third rows folded into the floor.

If you are shorter, then you can gain a few extra inches in length by moving the driver and passenger seats forward, getting the cargo area up to 8 foot long. 

How many suitcases fit in a Toyota Sienna? 

If you have a Toyota Sienna you will obviously want to know how many suitcases will fit inside of it. The number of suitcases that will fit in a Sienna are: 

For smaller suitcases you can fit

• 10 behind the third row seats 
• 24 with the third row laid down or removed
• 36 with all of the rear seats laid down removed 

For large suitcases you can fit

• 6 behind the third row seats
• 12 with the third row laid down or removed
• 20 with all of the rear seats laid down or removed

Of course this will vary considerably based on the specific suitcases that you have but these are the general number of suitcases that should fit in this vehicle. 

Interior dimensions of the Toyota Sienna

Isn’t it annoying that everything online is in cubic feet and there don’t seem to be any real measurements anywhere? I thought so too so I decided to get some actual measurements of a Sienna.

That way you will know exactly how much room you have to put your luggage or other cargo. Below are those measurements in inches. 

Dimensions behind the third row

The dimensions in inches behind the third row of a Toyota Sienna are: 

• 20”-25” deep (gets shallower as you go up because of the curved door and reclining seats
• 40”-49” wide (its 49” wide at the bottom but as you go up the door narrows)
• 50” tall (inside the door frame) 

Dimensions behind the second row seats

If you fold down the third row seats in your Sienna you will have the following dimensions in inches where you can put luggage and other cargo: 

• 49” wide (again gets narrower at the rear by the door but is wider where the arm rests for the third row are) 
• 49” deep (from rear door to back of the second row of seats) 
• 46” high (height of the interior but is only 41” tall at rear door) 

Dimensions of the entire cargo area 

Lastly I will give the dimensions of the entire cargo area of a Toyota Sienna in inches. These are the dimensions with the second row seats entirely removed so if you just slide them forward then that will take up a good chunk of space. 

• 49”-61” wide (49” throughout 60” at the sliding doors. The top of the rear door is narrower)
• 92” deep (if the driver and passenger seats are all the way back. Partially forward even with the console would give you 96” deep)
• 46” high (again it’s only about 41” high at the rear door)

The cubic feet of cargo space inside of the Toyota Sienna is as follows:

• 33.5 cubic feet of space behind the 3rd row seat
• 75.2 cubic feet of space with the 3rd row seat folded into the floor
• 101 cubic feet of space with the 3rd row of seats folded into the floor and the 2nd row of seats pushed all of the way forward.

How many suitcases can you fit inside of a Honda Odyssey, Kia Sedona, Mercedes Metris, Nissan Quest, or Volkswagen Routan?

Almost all of these minivans have virtually the same interior space except for a few inches here or there where some models offer slightly more legroom than others. So that means you can fit a lot of stuff inside of each of them but there won’t be much difference between each of the models.

Even if one model is a couple of inches longer it won’t increase the number of suitcases that will fit inside of it since suitcases are larger than that. 

In general you can fit 10 smaller suitcases or 6 larger ones behind the rear seats,  24 smaller suitcases and 12 large ones behind the second row with the 3rd row folded or removed, and 36 small suitcases and 20 large ones with all of the rear seats folded or removed. 

The exact dimensions of each of the minivan models mentioned above or any new models that are released in the future will likely be very similar so unless they release a stretch minivan that is considerably longer then the numbers above will be accurate for not only these models but any other similarly sized minivans in the future. 

Final Thoughts

When you are ready for a long drive across the country you will likely want to get a minivan since they can fit so many people and luggage inside of them.

I hope that this article has been helpful in answering your questions about how many suitcases or other luggage you can fit inside of all of the different minivans as well as the specific dimensions of the most popular minivan models. 

Getting exact dimensions of a minivan  in inches can be difficult since the walls and doors all curve and change shapes. That’s why the car manufacturers give the space in cubic feet despite the fact that cubic feet isn’t very helpful when you are trying to figure out what luggage or people fit in a minivan.