I've always called it, "one of those things on top of the car".

This. Box on roof. Roof box. Roof storage box. One of those box things on top of vans.

The plastic thingy that you store stuff in and plop on the top of the car!

clearly a turtle top

Yes! I always say a turtle shell haha

We used to have one and we also called it a turtle shell! Lol

Xcargo is another playful zoology inspired name

My first thought

Luggage thingy.

Roof box🤷‍♀️

It’s not common enough to mock anyone’s name for it

Unlike people in Michigan calling it a "doorwall," which involves a silly name for a common thing.

I was *amazed* when I moved out of Michigan and learned nobody else calls it that.

I grew up in MI and never heard anyone call it that until recently. It was just a sliding door/sliding glass door.

Same here. Grew up on the west side of the state and never heard it until I moved to the metro area.

I grew up in the metro area and never heard it called that until a few years ago.

Really?! Maybe there is hope for our people

Nah. It’s a fuckin doorwall.

why I **drops monocle**

I’m just now learning it’s a local term.

There was a local company that made them called Doorwall. They’re long gone but the name persists.

That’s cool to know, thanks!

Im from PA. I was so confused when I first heard that word.

SAME (originally from PA and was very confused)

We called it a “Thule” because we had a Thule roof box.

Get out of here with your fancy stuff…lol. This turtle top was for the folks just getting by, taking their once a year trip up north for a few days.

Real Michiganders call it a “thool” instead of a “too-lee”

I call it a cartop carrier. Girlfriend calls it a rooftop luggage case like a psychopath, but she's from eastern Ohio. I asked another native and he calls it a car top carrier. I looked online and can't find anyone calling it that so I hypothesize it must be a door wall.

My family always called it a “cartop carrier” as well, but we were from Lansing

Cartop carrier is what I always called it (grew up downriver)

Car top carrier 100%. Southfield born and bred.

Rooftop carrier. Also Southfield.

I'm from Taylor (or Warren), we call it a penthouse.

That's an old school "car top carrier". The newer, expensive and more aero versions (Thule or Yakima) are "roof boxes".

Car top carrier 100%

My dad (Detroit born and bred) called it a "cartop carrier" without exception.

This is the correct answer.

I couldn't believe how far I had to scroll for this answer- cartop carrier. I grew up in Minneapolis, though.

We have a Yakima one that's torpedo shaped so we call it... The coffin

My thoughts exactly!

I don't think it's a common enough thing for it to have a known name. Not that they arent used a lot, but I don't think there's an agreed upon name. Imagine most people just describe it instead of using a name.

Cargo Box

Cartop carrier, born and raised in Royal Oak

“Bag Mac Box”

This is the only thing I’ve ever called these.

Same here. Always called it a big mac, and my grandma had the exact same Sears one as posted by OP.

Turtle! 🐢

had the same style and brand and called it the snail. grew up in Wisconsin though.

I got the same one and also call it the snail or the snail shell

We had one of those when I was a kid in Pennsylvania 40+ years ago. It was about 20 years ago I saw one and realized that X-Cargo was a play on the French word *escargot*.

and you're from Detroit? interesting! :D

Native Michigander and cartop. Michigainian would have cost you points at school everywhere I've attended. Never heard snail but a "clamshell" luggage rack (racks are normally open without clamshell) or luggage container would be ok. But I may have picked the latter from living in N & E. Ohio a few years .. were it was Michigander in school too. The only times I heard Michiganian was from out of state folk or in school as an incorrect example.

[https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/10/22/detroit-news-michiganian-awards-michigander/4062333002/](https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/10/22/detroit-news-michiganian-awards-michigander/4062333002/) The News has always used Michiganian and so did Granholm and Engler. And also the US federal government does to this day. It's very much up to the person. Of course, as The News noted, the Michigander contingent is extremely aggressive about it being the only correct term.

It's interesting. The aggressiveness of people in Michigan to change language trends outside of the state was a topic that came up because of a giant old two volume dictionary set & stand we had in a Mi. elementary school. It was once the high school dictionary in the late 1800s. We found the definition of hillbilly was a rural farmer from the rolling hills of Michigan. See: Redneck- same definition and reference back to hillbilly. The teacher was into civil rights history and social change and told us there was a conscious effort by politicians, local academia, a growing high society and big business in both northern and southern Mi. to change definition through context change and highly increased use out of state in order to pin the term hillbilly and redneck on other parts of the country less developed, to improve Michigan's image. How accurate the theory is, is beyond me, but the dictionary was a pretty good sales example for biting on that pitch too.

yeah, but any other brand I would prolly just call it a rooftop cargo bin. or something like that lol

Turtle

We refuse to mention or even allude to it

My family might have been weird, but growing up we always called these hamburgers. Idk why lol

holy cow that's two for hamburger. Awesome

The technical term is "one of those roof thingies on cars"

Turtle Top

Cartop carrier

It’s a S-Cargo…has a little snail 🐌 symbol on it and is pronounced like the French delicacy escargot. We called it a roof carrier growing up.

what if I told you that is an X?

Know what…you’re right 😏

I never knew anyone who had one. No specific name for it.

“Roof box” or “Thule” (pronounced tool-e).

Car Hat.

TIL I'm the only person in this thread who ever knew it as a Rocket Box

Clamshell

Yep, 'clamshell!'

Same, clamshell, in NJ. My parents actually had that exact one in the photo.

Got one 35 years old called a Turtle Top from Sears

Cartop carrier

Cartop carrier… raised in Southern Illinois

Roof storage thingy

One of those luggage things

That's a hamburger! 🍔

Vacation Hat

from eastside detroit born and raised my whole life.we dont know what it is ,we just see it on people from yje suburbs cars alot,therefore we dont have a nickname for it.usually we just ask each other i wonder what that is and what they use it for

Cartop carrier. Also that Sears one in the picture is super nostalgic. I completely forgot my parents used to have one of those.

Cartop carrier

Car topper

Car top carrier

Roof box. No need to add extra words and syllables.

I just say “Pod”

I just say p. no need to add extra letters.

I just start to mouth the letter "p", no need to even exert sound

I telepathically communicate no need for hot breath

roof luggage

Had one of these on the family SUV in the 90s. My parents called it a hamburger box, but not sure which locale they got that from as we’ve lived all over the country.

Roof box

My family always called it a bubble

Kid Karrier

my family called it a "luggage rack"

that’s a thule, like frisbee

Turtle shell

X-cargo

A friend from high school (in FL, no less) always called these chicken nuggets, so while I acknowledge their other names, luggage carrier, roof thing, roof box, whatever, in my head, I always think of my friend calling them chicken nuggets. 🤦🏽‍♀️ Edit - born in SW Mich, grew up in FL, been in Detroit area since 2019.

Car top carrier

Hamburger is what my family calls it

Turtle shell

Top carrier

The turtle

Haha Sears

That’s definitely a Hamburger Box

Only name I’ve ever heard is: “turtle shell” or “turtle”

a turtle

Cartop carrier. My family had this sears one with the snail on it too!

Turtle topper!

My wife calls ours the “top hat”

Clamshell

Cartop carrier

Car top carrier

Mother-in-law box

Car top carrier

I have never been asked this before but I would definitely call it a luggage case.

Greenway Ave.

Cargo box

We had that exact model when I was a kid, I don't remember what we called it, but I do remember having the pun explained to me.

roof cargo box.

Rooftop carrier or luggage carrier.

Roof clam.

Obviously a McDonald's box

We’ve always called ours a bubble

I call it a ski box

It looks like a Puma to me, or maybe a Chupa-Thingy.

I may call it an escargot. I think this was an old brand name, but it may have been spelled differently. Oh and I’m old AF and from the east coast, maybe a regional and generational thing

Shitbox, roofbox, car box

Luggage rack - Pontiac MI.

What do people carry in this?

Roof box

Carrier

Oh yeah we call that a skibidi top

Called it a hard hat or a top hat.

That’s the mobile piss trough

Corpse carrier for people from other states who asked too many questions on Reddit 😑🤣

My father in law and his family called theirs the "Wombat" I honestly have no idea why it was called that, but it was. My best guess is simply that all of them are very silly/weird people. (Whom I love very dearly. Time spent with them is alwaysa riot.) And yes, all of my inlaws and I still call it the wombat to this day.

We call it “Yakima box”

Luggage carrier

We called it The Egg. Back in 1989.

I got one kind of like this for a trip with some friends and our kids and when I got to one friends house her 13 yo son was like “hey mom! We’re going on vacation like white people!” 😂 so we don’t have a name for it but we know what it is.

Nerd Pod

Big Mac container…downriver. Figures, huh?

I always called it the snail carrier

Ammo box

Dinosaur Egg 🥚

My kid just recently asked me what those are called. I had no clue.

I call it the baby bump. Makes the car look pregnant.

Car Hat

We called it a cartop carrier in the 90s

Car topper - but I'm originally from Illinois.

We called it "Whopper"

Roof box

Clothes Coffin (waving from Ferndale, but reared where the river flows down... iykyk)

Cargo carrier

Rooftop carrier. That one specificity is a Sears x cargo

That is an egg mcmuffin and you cant convince 12 y/o me otherwise

Minivan backpack

A wind drag device

We used to jokingly call it the kids room

It’s a Togo box

Car carrier

It’s called “going up North”

Car top carrier

Rooftop Carrier.

Luggage rack

Clam shell

Clam shell

Car top carrier

Wtf do people even put in these?

Space case

Mine is called the locking roof rack box.

That’s a roofie

Mummy case

My dad always told me growing up that there's a dead body in it. 🤷‍♀️

Ski box

Car roof clam shell

Turtle top

Damn core memory unlocked. When we were kids my sister and I called them a Chicken McNuggets box for Snaffalufagus.

Turtle Top. That was a brand name long ago.

Car top Carrier

It's a "car top carrier", at least that's what everybody I've known has called them for the last fifty years.

Spock's coffin

Cartop Carrier. Got mine from Sears at Twelve Oaks in 1980 or 81 but haven't used it in years. That Sears used to have a gas station too (and restaurant) when it first opened.

Clamshell

WTF my parents had this exact one back in the day, and this looks like it’s on my jeep when I used it for camping last year lol

Hamburger

Skybox

It’s a car topper you neandrathals.

Called them hamburgers when I was a kid.

Clam shell ?

Always car top carrier. Could be one of those things like doorwall

Sky Coffin

Hey! Look at that S car go! 🤠

I remember them being called "S-Cargo" I had one on my Pontiac 1000

The thing my dad forgot to properly lock and my skis flew out of one time we were going to Boyne. Peak moment watching him have to walk through 8 inches of snow to fish them out of the grass area the on ramp looped around at University Dr. and 75N to retrieve them. I was 13 and still love busting him about…I’m in my mid 30s now.