PMK GRUPO – Kofferraum Organizer Auto Zubehör | Auto Organizer Kofferraumtasche Wasserfest Faltbar und Verstellbar – Orange (WHL #116)
Super quick update from my quest of finding a suitable car trunk organizer: I got a pair of “PMK GRUPO” branded units, and while I very much doubt the claim of them being waterproof, I think I might settle with these and add reinforced plastic bags or similar storage as needed during the trip.
That’s the one (mostly marketing images for today!) – bought for 13.95€ a piece in orange, also available in gray and purple for that price, or one Euro cheaper in all black. Currently the colored ones are on Black Friday sale at 9.95€ – and the Black one isn’t
Anyway, sizing works reasonably well for a Tesla Model S trunk, two of these connected with the latches on their short sides do fit the entire trunk width with ~5cm spacing in between. So once something is put into the side pockets, it’s a snug fit, just what I wanted.
They can also snap together on their long sides, maybe that’s an option when putting in a large suitcase site-by-side. But I generally prefer the organizers to be on the back side of the second row, and other stuff in better reach closer to the trunk lid (actually a hatchback in my case).
Regarding the four marketing notes on this picture:
*Stabile Griffe: Yes, the handles look durable, as long as the main fabric liner doesn’t rip apart, I don’t see these coming off any day soon.
*Schnallen zum Zusammenklappen: These are the latches; their third function is collapsing one of the compartments and securing it in place, see next photo
*4 Netztaschen, 1+2 Seitentaschen: That’s the four netted pockets on the long side seen here, plus the two enclosed pockets on the short side, and one full-width one (but open on the top) on the other. I generally don’t need these, but maybe they’ll come in handy one day.
*Wasser- und verschleißfest – we’ll come to the claim of being waterproof later. Wear resistant: Outside material yes, surely, inside is however linked to the waterproofing.
Full-sized pocket with no top cover can be seen on the right unit. It does fold flat nicely, much easier than with the Knodel organizer from last post as it is inherently more stable and also slightly smaller.
And some more marketing wankery image, you get the idea. I don’t think this organizer fits the chosen car model exceptionally well, but they also make no suggestions which models are a snug fit. Sure, they can of course be used when too small, but isn’t the job of such an organizer to maximize space and eliminate things rolling around in the trunk?
And now for the important bit: Is it waterproof? This organizer has a notably different bottom plate construction which seems odd at first, but works surprisingly well. From this perspective everything looks fine on the fully extended unit on the right, but where does the plate go in the partially collapsed one on the left? It doesn’t stick up, nor can it be still down somewhere.
Well, the bottom plate is actually fully removable and split into two parts. And the organizer has a fixed center divider. In normal (fully extended) operation, the plate is simply inserted there half-way (L-shaped), then moved underneath until it ends up lying flat on both sides. And for the partially extended mode, it could collapse with the rest, but it also can be removed from one side and used as an extra-strength two-layer plate on the other half. That’s what was used in this photo.
So, what happens if one adds water to the thing? This happens, photo taken after half a day of drying:
It doesn’t fully soak, and it never crumbles. But it does lose stability quite a bit (when wet), so I’m not really sure what is going on, and until I rip one of the open by mistake, I won’t know, these plates are once again sewn in. They’re easy to dry, though, as they’re just 1D plates and removable, so they can be put flat in an oven. If the entire thing gets wet, this very much complicates things as there are multiple layers that only dry slowly when collapsed – and they don’t fit the oven when expanded. The entire organizer gulps up around half a liter of water after really extensive dousing – much more than any reasonable heavy rain event would ever add on the way from the parking spot to your door (unless it’s at the end of the street, then YMMV).
While the dried bottom plate does come out in full strength, yet with a slight bowl shape that still works very well, I managed to crease the center divider in the very middle in the process. And while I don’t think this compromises overall stability significantly, it doesn’t fully fit the “Wasser- und verschleißfest” (waterproof and hard-wearing) claim of the ad images. Drying the entire thing takes well over a week with a couple hours of oven sauna per day, and let me tell you that this thing reeks of plastic just like the other one when warm – it’s fine when at room temperature, but oven drying isn’t something I would recommend to anyone. There’s no odour of wet recycling cardboard, though, so my money would be on some kind of resin-reinforce particle board mix, since a 100% plastic construction wouldn’t hold onto water for that long. The item description on Amazon just says “Oxford-Gewebe Stoff”, so Oxford cloth – German Wikipedia claims Oxford is always cotton (which this isn’t), English Wikipedia makes no statements on the material used for this weave. It’s some fully synthetic material, I don’t think there’s a single gram of cotton in this entire organizer.
Overall I’m happy so far, this looks promising and will be in use on my next trip. Construction-wise, I very much prefer this to the Knodel unit from the last post. Pricing-wise, I don’t think 14€ are too bad, and at 10€ currently it’s good value. I’ll probably give you an update on those first impressions a couple 1000km later, though… 
