Car dog guard/divider or cage?

[BeanInMyBelly]

We currently have a 3 door Corsa, and our GS travels in the boot (which even though it looks tiny fits her bed which is about 3 times the size of her). She loves travelling and is more than happy to jump in the boot.
We have our first LO due early March, so needed to upgrade. We are picking up a brand new Zafira at the weekend. Obviously I'm sure she'd love having the entire boot to herself but the reason we went for a Zafira is that the boot looks big enough to be spilt into 2 - we measured half the boot space of the Zafira and it matched the Corsa size (although obviously the Zafira has a lot more head room).
We are now deciding whether to get one of those 'dog dividers' that literally splits the boot in half - that way she can go in one side and we can fill the other side up with luggage. The advantage I can see from this is that we can fill the luggage side up to the top as the dog guard on the back seats would stop the risk of anything falling into the back seats. And the dog gets lots of head space in her side.
The problems with a divider which we are worrying about is how easy (if possible) they are to remove? As the Zafira is a 7 seater, we would like the option of being able to use the two boot seats on occasion, or at least one if the dog was still in the boot. Does anyone know if they are permenantly fixed to the car, or if its fairly easy to remove both the dog guard and the divider? If it is fairly easy, time to get it off would be brilliant if anyone knows this?

When it comes to cages, we've never had one for her before, so again any advice from those in the know would be appreciated. Having looked at the dimensions, and measuring them out (the dimensions being 40" x 34" x 30") I think it looks really small, but it says it fits up to a St Bernard so I think I'm just imagining it?
Obviously the cage would be a lot more easily removeable, right?

Any advice greatly received. x

I prefer a cage in a car for several reasons

1. The dog is kept safe
2. The dirt stays (mostly) in one place
3. easy to remove and clean
4. Dog is not hit by flying objects in the boot if there is an accident
5. Can be removed easily if you want to put something else in the boot
6. I go to agility shows and the dog can be left in the car padlocked so is safe and I can leave the boot open so the dog does not get hot.
7. If the dog is used to the crate in the car it will sleep anywhere in the crate so if going away just take the crate out and put into you hotel room - happy dog.
8. If you change your car hopefully your crate will fit into next car as it has to be big enough for the dog anyway

I also prefer to use a crate, however i drive a VW touran (simlar size car) and i am currently using a 32" crate, but this wont last my lab puppy much beyond 6 mths. ATM i dont actually have much room in the boot for other stuff, infact i can "just" squeeze my buggy in (baby jogger mini) which folds quite small. Long term wise i think we will also need to get a guard and divider, where have you seen the dividers? i have looked on the halfords site, seen the guards but nothing that will split the boot space.

We have a crate for our 2 dogs in the boot of our car.

One of the benefits I find from it is that I can open the boot without the dogs diving out before I have the chance to gather leads etc. My car has a boot about the same size as the Zafira actually and if I had a GSD rather than two medium-sized dogs (staffies) I would still probably go for a crate that took up the entire boot rather than dividing it in two.

Also expecting DC1 this month and the buggy we will be securing in the footwell of the back of the car.

Have a look on eBay if you go down the crate route. The following is a link to the one I purchased (the 40" crate). You will need to accurately measure the space you have but this one fits perfectly into my boot which is around the same size as the Zafira.

cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270531890032&var=570001890557&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

I have a zafira (2008) and the boot seats are permanently fixed to the car. I am sure you can get a boot cover for them but I don't have one which means you can see the back of the seats and also get your fingers between them when they are folded flat.

We have a crate which only just fits in our boot and I would consider it to be quite a small crate. Our 7 month old springer fits in it but there isn't a huge amount of space left for him. But he only sleeps in it with the door open so it's not an issue for us or him.
I'm not sure how you would fit a crate and luggage in the boot tbh. You can slide the back seats (middle row) forward a bit to make more boot space.
I do think crates are the best way to transport a dog.

Thanks for all the messages so far - looks like a lot of people have gone for the cages/crates but it doesn't seem to leave a lt of boot space. The dividers are on some specialist websites, and Vauxhalls websites also had them. It looks like for the guard and divider its about £200, where as a large cage (eg: pets at home) is about £80-£100, so the dividers are about double the cost but prehaps seem like they may offer more luggage space. We are picking the car up on saturday, so might go to Pets at Home on the way back and ask if we could try putting a large crate in the boot before buying. x

A cage is much safer, in the event of an accident it is less likely for your dog to panic and get lost. my 2 labradors travel in a cage with sloping front and rear sides behind 2 seats (slid forwards)of my vw touran, leaving one seat still usable by child or adult and space for shopping on the other 2 seats plus still room next to the cage.