Thank you. I understand now.

You're welcome.

It's fitted to some estate cars. A Tonneau is a roll up cover which is used to cover the contents in the load area of an estate cover, so they can't be seen from the outside.

The cassette it's mounted in usually clips in position behind the rear seat (at the top of the back cushion), then the cover is pulled towards the rear of the load area and clipped in to locations at the rear of the car. The cover is just below the window height.

The cassette has a spring return system so the cover auto retracts, when released.

Hatchbacks have parcel shelves instead.

That is one possible explanation, and could be the case here. But I've never personally heard the load cover on an estate car being referred to as a tonneau cover.

As far as I am concerned, a tonneau cover is something you get on convertibles or roadsters. You put the hood down them put the tonneau cover over it (usually buttoned in place) to keep it nice and tidy looking.

If the tonneau cover is for a Honda, it is probably for an S2000.

I had thought that it only referred to the cover for open top sports cars (as on my old MG Midget) until I got a Honda CRV which did refer to the luggage space cover as a tonneau cover. Had to be careful when retracting not to let go as it would snap shut very quickly.

One disadvantage of a tonneau cover over a parcel shelf is that being flexible you can't put anything heavy on it, but that's not really a good idea anyway, as it could become a dangerous projectile in the case of a crash.

Edited by RichT54 on 17/12/2017 at 14:19