Renault Put a Small Door Inside the Modus Tailgate for Tight Parking Spaces

Certain Renault Modus models had a smaller hatch within the main tailgate, known as the boot chute. It provided access to the luggage compartment without raising the whole rear door, making smaller items easier to retrieve where parking space was restricted.

Someone has parked close behind. Not quite close enough to block the car in, but close enough to turn opening the boot into a careful examination of clearances.

The shopping is inside. Moving the car would solve the problem, although it would be nice to put the bags down first.

Renault had an answer for that particular irritation. On suitably equipped Modus models, a small hatch opened within the tailgate. The rest of the rear door could stay shut.

Called the boot chute, it was one of those features that becomes easier to appreciate once its intended situation is described. In photographs, it can look like unnecessary complication. Between two closely parked cars, a smaller opening suddenly makes sense.

Renault’s 2004 Modus show-car announcement specifically mentioned restricted access caused by another vehicle parking too close. The arrangement also allowed owners to retrieve small objects without lifting the full tailgate. It subsequently appeared in the production car’s handbook as a double-opening tailgate. 

The feature suited the Modus’s broader character. This was a small, tall car concerned with making limited space useful. A second opening at the back belonged to that same way of thinking: take an everyday inconvenience and alter the hardware around it.

A smaller opening has its limits

Naturally, the chute did not make a suitcase any narrower. Bulky luggage still required the main tailgate, and reaching something buried beneath other bags could remain awkward. It offered another way into the boot, rather than an easier route to every object inside.

It also served a slightly different purpose from separately opening rear glass. Instead of reaching over the lower part of the tailgate through a window, an owner could use an opening lower down.

For anyone considering a used Modus, it is worth looking at the actual car rather than assuming the feature is included because it appears in a review. Where fitted, both openings should be demonstrated. Renault’s handbook notes that the chute and main tailgate cannot be opened at the same time. 

Age makes that demonstration useful for another reason. A clever feature is only helpful if its catches and operating parts still work properly. Trying it with an empty boot, before buying the car, is considerably easier than discovering a problem while attempting to extract groceries in the rain.

The boot chute was a modest idea, but a nicely observed one. Parking spaces do not have to be impossibly small to make unloading awkward. Sometimes all it takes is another driver deciding that the gap behind a car is more generous than it needs to be.