Concept
The trunk (North American English) or boot (British English) of a car is the vehicle's main storage or cargo compartment, often a hatch at the rear of the vehicle. It can also be called a tailgate. In Indian English the storage area is known as a dickey (also spelled dicky, dickie, or diggy), and in South-East Asia as a compartment. The trunk or luggage compartment is most often at the rear of the vehicle. Early designs had an exterior rack on the rear of the vehicle to attach luggage trunk. Later designs integrated the storage area into the vehicle's body, and eventually became more streamlined. The main storage compartment is normally provided at the end of the vehicle opposite to which the engine is located. Some mid-engined or electric cars have luggage compartments both in the front and in the rear. Examples include the Porsche 914 and Boxster as well as Toyota MR2. The mid-engined Fiat X1/9 also has two storage compartments, although the rear one is small, easily accessible, and practically cuboid in shape. Rear-engined cars like Volkswagen Beetle or Porsche 911 have the trunk in front of the passenger compartment. The Volkswagen Type 3 featured a rear engine design that allowed for a shallow conventional trunk in the rear as well as space in the front for luggage. Sometimes during the design life of the vehicle, the lid may be restyled to increase the size or improve the practicality and usefulness of the trunk's shape. Examples of this include the Beetle redesign to the 1970s 'Super Beetle' and the pre-war and 1950s post war Citroën Traction Avant. The door or opening of a cargo area may be hinged at the top, side, or bottom. If the door is hinged at the bottom it is called a tailgate, particularly in the United States. They are used on station wagons and pickup trucks, as well as on some sport utility vehicles (SUV). Traditional drop-down station wagon and pickup tailgates can also serve as a mount for a workbench. Traditional U.S.
