Honda Civic Tourer 1.6i-DTEC EX Plus

Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-dTEC EX Plus

First, it’s probably best to get out of the way what could well become boringly regular (if effusive) praise for the Civic Tourer’s diesel engine. It really is a remarkably impressive and pleasant thing to use, with an effortless, stepless delivery and unflustered motorway pace that belies its relatively diminutive 1.6-litre capacity.

As the miles have piled up - all 2000 of them so far - the engine’s distinctive and slightly plasticky “donking” noise mentioned in the first report has softened a little, although the ghostly on/off-throttle around-town ‘wooing’ from the turbocharger seems set to stay. Good, I like it.

The interior of Honda Civic Tourer 1.6 i-dTEC EX Plus

Some of those miles were courtesy of a trip to Swindon. Like a sexually mature salmon battling upstream to its place of birth to spawn, the Civic Tourer braved the white waters of the M4 to visit the Honda factory whence it came. Stuart Milne was at the wheel and he enjoyed nearly every mile, with complaints restricted to the slapdash nature of the haphazard dash (you get used to it, honest) and the unnecessary complication of having to remember that the Civic perseveres with a fuel flap release lever (still gets me every time).

Stuart’s trip west was for a much more in-depth feature in a forthcoming issue, although it’s sad to note that since he visited the factory, Honda has announced that it’s cutting production there and job losses are expected, citing poor sales growth in Europe. It really is a shame, especially given that the Tourer’s excellent new 1.6 i-DTEC engine was conceived specifically to satisfy European tastes for downsized economical diesels and is easily as good as, if not better than, any small-capacity oil-burner made on the Continent. Fingers crossed for Swindon’s sake that it helps to give Honda the sales boost it was hoping for.

Honda Civic Tourer 1.6i-DTEC EX Plus Has a class-leading 624 litres of boot space

So anyway, the big boot has been coming in handy. We’ve already notched up a couple of trips to the tip to get rid of accumulated manky old furniture, bits of wood and other household detritus, one visit to Ikea for rattan chairs and an innovative Scandinavian toy-storage solution to fill the space left by the aforementioned tip runs, and a few trips to and fro by Stuart Milne (him again) to dispose of, or possibly collect, an old, or possibly new, fitted kitchen. Never mind the details; the Tourer swallowed the lot (although not all at the same time).

Finally, one of the first things I noticed, but have since got used to, is that the driving position is a bit high for my liking. Allan Muir borrowed the car and he complained, too. Couldn’t Honda engineer in just a little more downward seat adjustment? No, it couldn’t, and the other day it dawned on me why not as I listened to the quite audible sound of half a tank of diesel sloshing around right beneath where I was sitting: the fuel tank is mounted under the front seats, to help free up load space in the rear. You win some, you lose some.