Whether your dog enjoys long trips in the car on the way to the beach or they cower in fear when you tell them to jump in, we all want our pooches to be happy and safe on car trips. There are certain car features that can help with this.
Skoda Superb Estate
The Skoda Super Estate is an easy driver for both you and your pooch (no we don’t mean behind the wheel), it just makes for a smooth trip. The boot is big enough for any large dog, even if you have a few. Not only does it boast a large enough boot to keep your dog/s happy and relaxed during long car rides it also has a particular set of dog-friendly features that other cars can’t top. The Superb Estate really gives dog lovers everything with a dog safety belt that can clip into the regular seat belt mounts and even a dog ‘hammock’ which extends along the back seats. It also includes numerous dividers and a rubber floor for the boot to keep the humans happy too.
Skoda Fabia Estate
If the Skoda Superb Estate simply isn’t in your budget then you might instead consider the Skoda Fabia Estate. While it doesn’t come with quite the same dog-friendly range of features that the Superb does, it’s still wildly more dog-friendly than your average family car. It has a low and wide opening boot for even the oldest of dogs to jump in without your help and it also has a dividing guard to ensure your dog doesn’t jump into the front seats while you’re on the move.
By TuRbO_J from Adelaide, Australia – 2014 Nissan X-Trail ST, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38716688
Nissan X-Trail
The Nissan X-Trail is the perfect dog mover for those of us with medium sized pooches. It’s also a great car for humans with its third row of seating. Check out Nissan’s video showcasing how they made their car so dog-friendly. They’ve made is safer for pooches but they’ve also added a number of features to keep your pups happy, including an automated food dispenser, a fixed water bowl, a screen and speaker so your dogs can see and hear you better back there and they’ve even added warm air ducting straight into the boot to keep your fur babies nice and toasty on the road.
By GT1976 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61310419
Toyota Hilux
There’s a lot of contention around just how dog-friendly utes are, however if you have a hardtop, like on the Toyota Hilux Truckman GLS, then your pooch is going to be just as safe as in a wagon. There’s lots of room for a large dog and his mates in the boot and if you add rubber matting then you’ll have a much easier time cleaning it out than in almost any other car, no matter how dog-friendly it is. If you really want to keep your pooch feeling good on longer rides then make sure you get a hardtop with an interior light and sliding windows. You’ll also want to get some extras like a pop-up, rotating roof vent to give you additional ventilation to your Hilux’s load bed.
