Matt Kimberley

Some cars are worth more than the sum of their parts, and others less, but it’s far less clear-cut with the Honda Civic Tourer as reports.

the surface detailing is upset slightly by the bodywork-flush glass around the boot area that sits incongruously next to the door windows, which are naturally slightly recessed and edged by visible rubber seals. ‘Will the family man really worry about that?’ I ask myself. Maybe not. He’ll definitely worry about boot space though, so I lift the impressively wellassisted tailgate and peer into space. Literally. There’s 624 litres of it, which is class leading and 19 litres ahead of the Golf estate. What’s not immediately clear is that 117 litres of that is under the main boot floor in a separate, covered compartment. It’s an ingenious feature that saves cases, coats, bags and just about everything else you carry about in day-today life, from pinging about inside the boot like the plastic marbles in a game of Hungry Hippos. There are plenty of cubbyholes and storage solutions in the cabin, too, including a big central storage bin that doubles as the location for the multiple media input ports and one of the two 12-volt power sockets. Enough of the family man charade: How does the car drive? Firstly, the ride is very good. The suspension is a bit loud at times but the overall experience is great, and the second thing is that the wide, soft seats are comfier than my own sofa. The petrol engine is smoother and quieter than the gutsier and more frugal diesel, so you’ll need to do the maths on whether the fuel economy and road tax savings – it’s free for the diesel – are enough to overcome the near-£1,200 price hike.