Verdict on supremely spacious British-built Honda
Civic Tourer diesel estate
Verdict
4 Stars out of 5
The Honda Civic Tourer feels like a step forward over the standard hatch, in terms of refinement and ride comfort. And not much can match this new Honda when it comes to outright space. It’s certainly not perfect, though. The boot could do with some extra functionality and the price needs to be a bit lower to attract value-conscious family buyers.
The Honda
Civic Tourer feels like a step forward over the standard hatch, in terms of
refinement and ride comfort. And not much can match this new Honda when it
comes to outright space. It’s certainly not perfect, though. The boot could do
with some extra functionality and the price needs to be a bit lower to attract
value-conscious family buyers.
The Honda
Civic Tourer was designed and developed here in the UK, so we’ve been looking
forward to the chance to try the diesel on home turf.
Our test
model is powered by a 1.6-litre i-DTEC diesel, which delivers 118bhp and a
healthy 300Nm of torque. In the standard hatch, we’ve criticised this engine
for being a little unrefined, but in the Tourer it’s nice and quiet, and it
takes the car from 0-62mph in an impressive time of 10.1 seconds.
And
although you’ll be shifting up and down through the gears to keep it in the
power band, the six-speed box is so accurate that this is never a chore.
The
suspension and steering have been tweaked over the hatch’s, while our top-spec
EX Plus also comes with adaptive dampers fitted to the rear axle. Set these to
Comfort mode, and the Tourer has a really supple ride – it’s up there with the
best in this class.
The Civic
is a class leader for boot space as well, with a huge 624-litre capacity.
That’s not far off what you get in Mercedes’ cavernous E-Class Estate, and it expands to 1,668 litres if you fold the seats.
Alternatively, the seatbases in the rear flip up, cinema-style, if you need to
stand something up in the footwell.
It’s all
very clever, although there are no easy access handles in the boot to fold the
rear seats and, unlike in the SEAT Leon ST, no shopping bag hooks. Up front, the Civic’s design looks a
bit cluttered and chintzy compared with the understated, classy cabin of the
latest VW Gold Estate, too. You’d get used to it, but
it’s nowhere near as user-friendly.
At least
this car will be cheap to run, promising 72.4mpg fuel economy and 103g/km
emissions. The Civic’s problem is that you can buy a similarly efficient Leon
ST – based on our Car of the Year and with similar kit to our EX Plus model,
bar leather seats – for over £3,000 less.
Key specs
- Price: £27,460
- Engine: 1.6 4cyl turbodiesel
- Power: 118bhp
- Transmission: Six-speed manual, front-wheel drive
- 0-62mph/top speed: 10.1 secs/121mph
- Economy/CO2: 72.4mpg/103g/km
- On sale: Now
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