First time poster and recent MX5 owner. (MK3, Stormy Blue 2.0 Sport Tech (2010)
Absolutely love the car and my wife and I are going to be taking it to Wales in August to hike up Snowdon.
I am looking at various options for the luggage and would really appreciate any advice, recommendations from the experienced MX5 owners on the best options.
I’m looking at the 3 piece Roadsterbag luggage set or the waterproof boot bag, both from MX5 PARTS.
I’d prefer the 3 piece option that is made to fit the boot space but am not convinced that they would take two people’s luggage for a week away. (My wife does like to make sure she’s covered in the clothes department)
The waterproof Boot Bag looks big enough, (plus we’d have the boot) but does seem to be a bit more hassle.
Another option is a boot rack that would take some luggage along with the boot.
Would love to hear any thoughts, experiences of the above mentioned options.
Looking forward to learning more and participating on this forum.
In 2019 we did the Giants Causeway trip with Scenic Car Tours and the O/C and tagged another week on the end of it for a trip around Ireland with just the two biggest of those three bags in the NC boot, twelve nights in all because of departure time from UK.
The key point was one of the accommodations about halfway through had a washing machine and a tumble dryer we could use. We arrived home with still some clean clothes.
The NC had room for walking shoes, umbrellas, cameras, laptop, tablet, phones, chargers etc, extra coats, extra puncture repair stuff, EU road safety stuff, and we could still put the lid down.
It does all fit, if one is careful with the advance planning.
We went on an 8-day trip to Wales in the MX5 and got ourselves a 50 litre boot bag from https://boot-bag.com/. Like you, my wife likes to be well prepared in the clothes department but it worked out very well. We tend to use it whenever we go away in the car even if it goes inside the boot as being soft and squashy it fits to the available space. If I remember right we got a discount as MX5OC members.
One downside of the boot bag is that it does restrict your rear vision. Also, I assume that you have a soft top - I don’t think that you can raise/lower the top on a PRHT with a boot bag fitted?
Rather than using rigid cases I use soft luggage bags which can then be molded into the boot without wasting space. They can be overlapped slightly leaving more boot space. We spent 15 days doing the NC500 with all that we needed in the boot. See Amazon page attached:
Another yes for the BootBag, worked fantastic for me on last trip to Le Mans for a week. Really waterproof, no problems at all on journey. After a few years had a buckle go and BootBag sent a new one straight away. Great product.
Our almost 3 week trip around Scotland we didn’t need extra capacity just the boot space. You can utilise the space in the cabin too, behind the seats for jackets hats, stuff you can tuck away. The boot space we had a large holdall (the Mx5parts one when it was on sale) a smaller holdall and a small backpack. They all fitted in nicely and we packed stuff in and around them like walking boots and shoes, camera etc.
With careful packing and keeping things simple we had enough clothing to last the trip, even bought some clean clothes back unworn.
We didn’t want to be travelling from place to place (sometimes only a one night stop) with a boot bag or rack stuck on the boot and having to faff with that each day. We could just lift the smaller holdall out each stop over for clothing the next day. If you are stopping more than one night at a place we tended to lift all bags out to take in with us and certainly more valuable stuff.
We did exactly that before our first long trip around Northumberland, for 10 days.
That was a learning curve, I mean I took 3 types of coat, a small jacket, lightweight waterproof and a thicker heavier waterproof and that’s together with a jumper and fleece. The heavier waterproof and small jacket I never wore. The next trip it was light weight waterproof jacket and a fleece type top and a thin jersey.
Most of the time we spent sight seeing and walking and of course driving in-between so you wear relaxed clothing.
We toured europe, basically drove to the Swiss Alps and back…
We just used the boot as a rolling wardrobe, we had a few bags.
One with clean clothes, A bin bag for dirties.
When we arrived at our destination, we would just transfer clean clothes from the clean bag to a ruck sack, then the dirties in the morning to the bin bag.
Taking the clean bag in and out every night/morning wasn’t difficult, but was a PITA re-arranging the boot everytime, so we just went with a rolling wardrobe.
Mine is a folding hard top.
I looked at the 3 piece luggage set.
Quite expensive for what it is and would be a pain in my opinion…
I have soft bags bought off ebay.
2 small ones (that go under the seat size for aircraft).
They go right and left of the boot.
2 others that fit in the middle (long ways).
Pink for the lady and black for me of course.
Also, another bag the size of the well for shoes.
Been to Croatia (3 weeks) and other places and easy and works a treat.
Also have a BootBag for mad moments when we pop off camping!!
Well unless your wife plans on taking evening gowns and Manolo Blahniks, the boot should be fine for 2 weeks away if you wash your clothes halfway through.
We’ve done two weeks around Europe a few times now and our basic luggage is two large soft bags that both fit in the boot, and are easy to squeeze in being soft. They were only cheap bags as well, and in themselves quite light. One his and one hers. Nothing on a boot rack and only a bag with maps and documents in the cabin behind the passenger seat. Other small bits can squeeze in odd spaces in the boot as well.
We have toured extensively in Europe in all three of our mx fives .
In our current NC I have found the best solution to date is using 2 Eastpack cabin sized cases
( 42 litre ) these fit side by side in the boot leaving plenty of space along the sides for boots and shoes with room on top for coats and jumpers.
To allow space for these I relocate the pump repair kit into the small locker behind the passenger seat.
On longer trips in the NA I used to put the spare wheel behind the passenger seat ( my wife is 5’ 2’) this made significantly more space in the boot .
When touring I have always liked to have everything in the car , luggage mounted on the boot always looked vulnerable when parked up.
I have tried to post a picture of the cases in the boot but it looks as though I have failed!
Layout on your bed what you think you need to take.
Put half it back.
The tailored luggage set is very good, if expensive (unless you luck out a used once set for £80!) as it maximises use of the boot space and minimises the number of “carry in” bags. I hate endless trips from the hotel room to retrieve individual items like shoes…
