Currently reading: Frankfurt motor show 2013: Honda Civic Tourer
Honda's Civic Tourer to be unveiled at Frankfurt Motor Show, ready to hit UK showrooms in 2014

Honda’s new Civic Tourer will go on sale in early 2014 after its public debut at today's Frankfurt motor show.

The new model was developed in Europe specifically for the EU market and has retuned chassis settings and the unusual option of automatic adaptive dampers on the rear axle.

Despite the car’s sporty, low-roofed appearance, Honda says that the Tourer has the best seats-up luggage capacity in its class: an impressive 624 litres with the tonneau cover in place. 

The Honda also has the significant advantage of a completely flat and notably low load floor. That’s thanks to the Civic’s unusual floorpan design, which sites the fuel tank under the front seats, freeing up space beneath the rear seats. The extra room, combined with the compact torsion beam axle, makes the car’s rear floorpan much lower than in rival cars. 

Like the Jazz supermini, the Honda Civic’s ‘magic’ rear seats — which have a 60:40 split — have folding and pivoting squabs, which can be raised with seat backs upright, allowing tall objects to be carried upright in the rear. The squabs can drop into the rear passenger footwell, allowing the backs to fold low and flat.

However, one thing that the Tourer doesn’t share with the Honda Jazz is a fold-forward front passenger seat. The upshot is that its maximum loadbay length is just under 1.8m.

Although the Tourer shares its wheelbase and height with the five-door Civic hatch, Honda has extended the rear floorpan to give the Tourer a 1040mm overhang, 235mm longer than the hatch’s. 

The loading lip has also been dropped on the Tourer by a significant 137mm, something designed to appeal as much to dog owners as load carriers.

Prices are expected to be £800-£1000 higher than the equivalent Civic hatch. So the entry-level Tourer will be a 140bhp 1.8 i-VTEC petrol costing about £19,200. A 118bhp 1.6 i-DTEC diesel is the other engine option. The Tourer is expected to account for one in every four Civic sales. 

Click here for more Frankfurt motor show news.

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icchedzey 14 August 2013

Civic Estate

Just occasionally turning a saloon/hatch into an estate doesn't work. I'm afraid i think this is one of those occasions. I think it looks like a Civic with a ruck sack on it's back. Was it designed by the same person that came up with the Ssangyong Rodius.

fadyady 11 August 2013

The only thing I like ...

The Civic has a spacious boot therefore we can expect the estate's boot to be cavernous. The only thing I like about this car is the magic seats.

scotty5 11 August 2013

Magic seats

Has anyone had any practical experience with those magic seats?

The manufacturer claims it enables tall objects to be carried upright in the rear, but to my mind, doesn't that raise the centre of gravity of that object? How secure is it standing upright in the rear? Can you 'buckle it in' or secure it during transportation? As far as I can see, you slot in the kids bike or whatever you're carrying, brake sharply or whatever, and the bike smashes against your front seat back.

Surely I assume wrong?

 

Maxecat 11 August 2013

Civic Magic Seats

scotty5 wrote:

Has anyone had any practical experience with those magic seats?

The manufacturer claims it enables tall objects to be carried upright in the rear, but to my mind, doesn't that raise the centre of gravity of that object? How secure is it standing upright in the rear? Can you 'buckle it in' or secure it during transportation? As far as I can see, you slot in the kids bike or whatever you're carrying, brake sharply or whatever, and the bike smashes against your front seat back.

Surely I assume wrong?

 

 

I own a 2009 Civic and the magic seats are very useful to me since I took up camping.

Unlike a Golf, Focus, Astra, etc the Civic hatchback has the fuel tank under the front seats not the rear. This makes the space under the rear seats available to carry stuff when the magic seat cushions are folded up.

If you load any hatchback or estate with the seat backs folded then everything in the back can "smash" into the rear of the front seats so having magic seats reduces the amount of stuff that can "smash" into the front seats not increases it.

I find the magic seats handy as I load the boot, the Honda Civic has the biggest boot of any similar hatchback, up with fridge, 20 litre water container, gas bottle, sleeping bag, mattress, etc leaving the huge space created by the magic seats free for the 25kg tent, 3 chairs, 4 tables, cooker, windbreak plus all the clothes and food.

Of course it makes the car into a 2 seater but so does folding down the seat backs in any hatchback or estate.

 I do wish Autocar would use the correct terminology for describing car seats. 

The bit your bottom sits on is the cushion, the part your back rests upon is the squab.

scotty5 12 August 2013

Why only Honda?

Maxecat wrote:

If you load any hatchback or estate with the seat backs folded then everything in the back can "smash" into the rear of the front seats so having magic seats reduces the amount of stuff that can "smash" into the front seats not increases it.

Thanks for the reply. The text / manufacturer claims you can place tall objects in the rear with Hondas seats. If however you place them flat on folded rear seats, whether it be an estate or a hatch, a lower centre of gravity means they are safer, less likely to move. Take a bike for example - place it lying flat in rear of hatch with seats folded, no problem. Place it upright in Magic seats and it's unsecure - I'm thinking hitting seat backs everytime you touch the brakes?

The other comment I'd make is that in case of my past estates, I had a net built in to the rear seats...  so when they were folded flat, that net provided a barrier between the seat backs and the roof to stop objects being thrown forward. I'm assuming the 'magic seat' option doesn't have that?

Obviously you have practical experience but I'm just wondering if these seats are another sales gimmick. Other than easier loading access, can't quite see the advatange of this design.