The basic Suzuki Esteem like mine doesn't come with a trunk light so I made my own. I bought a 23 LED camping / tent light because it looked like it would give a good flood light from the outer LEDs since they have fairly flat lenses. I got mine from Princess Auto but they are available on eBay and other places on the internet (link).The light takes four AA cells so I used rechargeable Sanyo Eneloop NimH cells. Eneloop cells are low-self-discharge so they only need to be recharged every 6 months or so.
To attach it to the car I decided to use a magnet. That way if I needed to fit something in that needed every last millimeter of height then I could just move it out of the way. I attached the magnet to the back using double-sided foam tape.
The battery door is a square strip around the center so the magnet is attached to the main body of the light.The light has three settings (plus off) that you cycle through using the pushbutton switch. The first lights the 3 center LEDs which are fairly directional. The second lights the outer LEDs which give a flood light which is very bright due to the number of LEDs. And the third lights all the LEDs.
The photos below show the three settings. You can see the edge of the light near the top of the trunk photos.
Setting 1 (Center LEDs):
Setting 2 (Outer LEDs):
Setting 3 (All LEDs):
Initially I thought I'd search for a tilt switch to turn the light on when the trunk is opened. But now I've decided to just use the switch. That way I'm not running the battery down during daylight use.
Another idea was to modify the switch wiring to toggle between on and off. I may still do that if I get tired of all the clicking it takes to turn it off.
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