I can easily carry a week's worth of groceries (21 meals plus snacks) for my family of five in my old sedan. Even if the trunk is half full of junk just throw grocery bags in the back seat.

I even managed to fit enough lumber for three 4' by 10' by 6" raised garden beds in there, trunk to sticking out the front window. That was a little hairy though.

By far the biggest issue is fitting 3 kids in back now that they are bigger, especially if one or more are grouchy. I always take the bigger car if more than 4 people are traveling.

Yea it's possible to do it with a coupe/sedan but things are just easier and more situationally capable with a bigger car.

That's what estate cars / station wagons are for.

And that worked fine for decades (well, as long as your definition of fine includes traffic jams) using regular cars which cost and polluted considerably less. SUVs are bulky but as anyone who’s ever packed one knows they don’t have more usable cargo space unless you’re stacking stuff up to the ceiling since most of the volume is directed vertically to make them look tougher.

I notice this whenever we go to IKEA or Costco where our sub-$30k Subaru is loaded faster and with less hassle than vehicles costing twice as much.

But you can do that with a more traditional car. A coupe can have a plenty of space.

Even a small car can easily carry 4 people and a LOT of groceries. A LOT.