I am not going to tell you how why the all new Honda Civic Tourer is just the practical
alternative to the Civic hatchback.
I am going to tell why I think is actually the better car.
The Honda Civic hatchback is a bit of a marmite
car, you either love the sharp angular design or you hate it, and I am afraid to say I am
in that latter group.
But while I think the hatch looks a bit warped to misshapen, the Tourer works for me for
some reason.
The flowing body indents that run over the rear arches make the car look bold and assertive
while the window lines stoops down at the back of the car to reduce the square effect
you get at the back of most Estates.
The roof line itself doesn't drop away though, and there's heaps more head room in the back
than the hatchback.
And this fin shaped antenna really appeals to the nine year old inside me.
Look at me, I am a shark.
Inside its very much the same story as the Civic hatchback.
There are few things that I don't like.
The seating position is too high.
I am only five foot seven and I have to have it in lowest position, the sat-nav is positioned
too low, so I have to look down to see it and when you got all the functionality like
cruise control, the steering wheel is too cluttered with buttons, there are nice soft
touch plastics around the top of the dash, a chunky steering wheel and the driving position
framed by the door panels and the centre console bracket.
But what are the things that make the Tourer better than the hatchback?
well all the improvement when starts from here backwards.
Firstly, there is no rear spoiler across the back window in the hatch, this is a part of
the rear light cluster, but all it does is completely restrict rear visibility.
The second reason is the boot.
It is quite frankly enormous.
When the Civic concept was first launched at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show,Honda 's said
they wanted it to have class leading boots space.
That all fine and good, but at the same time Volkswagen unveiled the Mark 7 Golf Estate
with a whopping 605 litre boot.
Honda's managed to beat that with a 624 litre boot.
You can fold the rear seats completely flat and this expands the capacity to 1668 litres.
It is a van.
The big boot capacity is achieved in part by the extended body length by 235 millimetres.
But Honda's also kept the fuel tank position under the front seat and the torsion beam
rear suspension from the hatchback.
This suspension takes up less space but compromises comfort and performance however Honda's acted
on this by introducing a rear adaptive damper system with three settings: comfort, normal
and dynamic, but does it make a big enough difference when driving?
In short not very much you supposed to be able to adapt the rear suspension to the driving
environment.
But in comfort mode, when you hit a bump, it bounces afterwards and in dynamic mode,
it's just too firm.
At all times, it's quite a lot of noise from the suspension as well.
It's very crashy and very bangy.
It's certainly not as refined as a Volkswagen Golf Estate and you got to remember the adapted
dampers are only available on the two higher spec models,so what about the engines?
Well there are two choices: there is a 1.8 petrol or there is 1.6 diesel.
We are driving for small diesel engine there is actually a good spread of power, quite
a lot of low-down grunt and in forth and fifth gear, the engine feels flexible.
The only problem is it's noisy, and noisy at all times, and it gets even worse when
you are accelerating hard.
But that's said it should be efficient.
It's got claims of 74 miles to the gallon and 99 grams per kilometre of CO2 emissions.
We'll have to wait until we get in our labs to test these claims.
In terms of handling, it's pretty much the same as the hatchback.
Because the wheelbase is the same, it doesn't turn in any quicker or any slower, and you
don't really feel any advantage or disadvantage of having the additional length at the back.
One good thing Honda's done is retuned the steering.
Now they've made heavier at the centre point, so it actually feels a bit more involving,
feels more attached to the front wheels, but it's still not as involving to drive though
as a Ford Focus Estate.
If it was my money, I would forget the hatchback and just go straight to the Tourer it solves
some of the fundamental problems with the Civic but also has so much more practicality.
And because it shares so many of the same parts as the Hatchback, it should have the
same level of reliability but there are still some problems with Civic Tourer, that diesel
engine is noisy, the ride comforts till too bumpy and even through there is more headroom
in the back, there's still not that much legroom.
But the question is, is it as good as it's latest rival, the Mark 7 Volkswagen Golf Estate
and the new Seat Leon ST?