First Drive: Honda Civic Tourer
Matt Joy puts the Honda Civic Tourer through its paces
You can’t stay in sports car all your life, as much as you might like to. This is something I’ve discovered the hard way, but mainly because the kind of family car that ordinarily wouldn’t appeal has suddenly become highly desirable.
The Honda Civic is a sharp-looking and thoroughly modern machine but it’s the hatchback that you as a stylish twenty-something would want to buy, right? Estates are for people with dogs, children or antiques to haul about.
I’m certainly guilty of two out of the three but far more relevant is that modern estates aren’t just vans with windows, which is why I’m happily taking the plunge with a Civic Tourer for the next six months.
Looks and image: For starters, it’s certainly in the running for the best-looking estate on the market. It has curves and lines that you just don’t expect from something with a big luggage area at the back. Partly this is to achieve excellent aerodynamics but it’s also very easy on the eye. It’s only when you stop and give it a real going over that you realise just how radical it is.
Space and practicality: But this is still a Honda, so sensible comes as standard. The Tourer offers up 624 litres of boot space with the seats up, and with the seats down and packed to the roof this goes up to a mammoth 1,668 litres. That’s not the whole story though. For starters there’s a very sizeable under-floor area (117 litres to be precise) that should prove extremely useful. And because the Civic’s fuel tank is under the front seats rather than the rears, the seats fold almost perfectly flat in an instant.
Behind the wheel: It’s the same story in the cabin itself. Like the hatchback the layout is a little unusual with the digital display at the top and the analogue instruments below, and there’s an information screen up the top while the infotainment system sits in the middle. It all makes sense when you’re sitting behind the wheel – time and miles will prove whether it makes sense to live with. There’s plenty of storage too and lots of connections for all sorts of devices I don’t even own, but I’ll be sure to ask the kids what I need to buy.
Specification-wise I’m fortunate enough to have the EX-Plus version which has the figurative kitchen sink included as standard. Keyless entry and go is a nice luxury to have and the electrically adjustable lumbar and side supports will no doubt come in useful given the amount of time that will be spent in the hot seat.
In the engine room it’s a bit of a no-brainer. The petrol option is a fine thing but with an official combined figure of 72.4mpg is too tempting to resist. It’s only the bigger wheels on the higher-specification versions that stops it sneaking under the 99g/km of barrier, so hopefully fuel station visits will be few and far between.
The Tourer will have to deal with kids, a dog, my other half’s propensity to treat gloveboxes and door bins as an extension to her make-up bag and a lot of hacks up and down the motorway. I suspect long-term tests don’t come any tougher than this.
This car summed up in a single word: Honed
If this car was a…: Kitchen gadget, it would be a multi-purpose blender that can do everything but also look good on your worktop.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
Honda Civic Tourer 1.6-i DTEC EX Plus manual, £27,960 as tested
Engine: 1.6-litre diesel unit producing 119bhp and 221lb.ft of torque
Transmission: Six-speed manual gearbox driving the front wheels
Performance: Top speed 121mph, 0-62mph in 10.5 seconds
Economy: 72.4mpg combined
Emissions: 103g/km of CO2
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