Honda Civic Tourer SR 1.6 i-DTEC

No matter what I do, I just can’t reach the Civic Tourer’s limits. And before you worry I’ve turned into Diesel Car’s less talented version of the Stig, I’m actually talking about filling the Honda’s boot. No matter how many times I head off on work trips, take a holiday, or have a clean out and swing by the local tip, there’s always room to spare in the gargantuan 624 litre boot. Even when the boot is nearing its limits (very rare), you can flip up the rear bench seat to expose even more storage room beneath Honda’s ‘magic seats’. If even this won’t satisfy your needs, folding the rear seats completely flat liberates 1,668 litres. There is so much space, the Civic Tourer would suit some kind of boot sharing scheme whereby you could extend a helping hand to city car owners. Of course, this would effectively make the Civic a van, which it is most definitely not. No vans I’ve driven are fitted with heated leather seats, a precise, short-throw manual gearbox and the ability to return 58mpg every month I drive it. The fact it only costs £20 each year to tax also defies belief.

I do have just a few issues with how some of this boot space has been achieved, however. You may or may not know that the Civic’s fuel tank is found under the front seats, helping liberate all that rear space. But, this packaging does mean you can’t sit as low as you can in many rivals, including the Golf Estate. Being 5ft 11, I don’t quite bang my head, but I still instinctively try and drop the seat, before realising it won’t go any further. Taller drivers may struggle. When fully brimmed, you can also hear the fuel faintly sloshing beneath you, which takes some getting used to.

After having a precautionary engine sensor swap as part of an official recall, the Civic has been just as reliable as ever. I’m a big fan of the 1.6-litre i-DTEC engine, which has plenty of power to accelerate the Tourer, even with a full load on board. Like all smaller diesel engines, it does require you to be in the right gear to access the power band, but feels more flexible than the engines we’ve tried from its key rivals. It’s also commendably smooth at low revs, when some motors can start to grumble.

So, as you’ve hopefully gathered, the Civic Tourer has plenty going for it, but I’ve not seen too many out in the wild. Hopefully this is because it hasn’t been on sale long, and the styling update announced at last year’s Paris motor show will hopefully boost sales. The facelift boasts a sharper set of headlights and a new Android-driven touch-screen infotainment system that should strike a chord with buyers. If not, it may simply be the case that the estate car continues to be a hard sell. It seems that while having oodles of space is useful, it may not be all that fashionable, as buyers flock to SUVs like the CR-V and its rivals, as well as crossovers, including the soon-to-be-released Honda HR-V.