TubeNet

Anyone out there have a Jetta Sportwagen? I'm wondering if my hard case (45" long) will fit in the back with the seats up.

burningchrome wrote:Anyone out there have a Jetta Sportwagen? I'm wondering if my hard case (45" long) will fit in the back with the seats up.

I don't have the Jetta wagon, but it's similar in size to my Saab. I have the 9-5 wagon - 2001 model.
Based on my experience with my tuba, which just barely fits in the back with the seats up, I'm going to venture that my car will not fit a 45" case. It may be worth getting some measurements at a dealer if you're thinking of buying the Jetta. The problem dimension is the space between the wheel wells.

Side note - My dad owns a 40" tall tuba. He took it to the car dealer when he bought his car to find one that would fit the horn in a gig bag. No hard case at the time. You may get some funny looks, and your wife may someday re-tell the story to your kids, but it's worth it to get the right car.

I have a Jetta Sportwagen.

I have not tried the hard case in the back, but I can tell you that my Hirsbrunner 4/4 & my "regular-sized" F tuba can fit in the back very well in soft cases. Give it a try with your hard case, to see if it will work. Great car.

NCSUSousa wrote:. He took it to the car dealer when he bought his car to find one that would fit the horn in a gig bag. No hard case at the time. You may get some funny looks, and your wife may someday re-tell the story to your kids, but it's worth it to get the right car.

Agree 100%, I just bought a 2009 Honda fit (35+ mpg avg ftw) The dealership was only a few minutes from my home so on the test drive I took it by the house got all the gear I knew I'd need to fit in the car to take it to my next contract on the ship; big suitcase, 3b in a pro-tec bag, the York Master in an Altieri bag and the Monster Eb in an Altieri bag, seeing that everything fit, went back to the dealer bought the car. The dealer didn't think anything of my saying "I have a certain amount of gear that has to fit in this car or else it is worthless to me, let me take it to my house and make sure the gear all fits"

I agree that any tuba toter should take a look at the Honda Fit. I took my large Alex 163 case into the Honda dealer to see if it would fit in a Fit, along with many other things that needed to be stowed back there. The Fit is the leader of small cars in the cargo area. It's enormous with the back seats down, which fold up very flat and low to match the very low cargo area.

Until two months ago I had the Sportwagen, never tried to fit my hard case into it. It'll probably fit, but the problem would be closing the tailgate.

I know my 186CC in a Cronkhite case fits fine in the back of my Jetta Sportwagen, but it's tight. Don't know about a hard case. You can always put one of the back seats down and shove it through, but less security.

With some creative maneuvering, I've managed to fit two tubas in the backseat of a standard 4-door Jetta. One of them was a large old Martin, and one was a recording bass with a stupid large bell. But hey, my brother and I had to get to tubachristmas somehow! Jettas are much roomier on the inside than you'd anticipate (but I'm also a small person, so that might have something to do with it).