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Ahead of the Frankfurt show, Honda revealed their Europe-only Civic Tourer, a wagon version of Honda’s bread and butter compact. Notable features include a Fit-style “Magic Seat” (that can be folded in multiple ways for maximum cargo carrying) and a tailgate that swings up extremely high – something that will likely be an issue in low underground garages. The Civic’s rivals include established players like the Skoda Octavia, Ford Focus and Volkswagen Golf. But Honda is hoping that class-leading cargo capacity and distinctive styling will be enough to entice new customers.
49 Comments on “Honda Civic Tourer Debuts For Europe Only...”
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I like wagons, but I don’t like this one. It looks like a better effort at a wagon than the CrossTour, but I’m not a fan of how the body widens to make the rear quarterpanel glass even smaller.
I can see that this one has more space than the Civic Sedan, but with how much the rear swoops down, how much more?
The rear doesn’t drop down that much. The upper line on the rear quarter glass is a design element that makes it seem like it does. Look closely at the actual roof-line and you can see that, although it does taper down, it doesn’t as much as the design language suggests.
Personally, I’d prefer a slightly bigger rear quarter glass as I like big greenhouses, but that seems to be the opposite of where all car design is headed – high beltline, small glass.
i’d agree – this isnt that cool but its ok as far as hondas go
theres a heap of cool looking wagons that the euros get
try the 2013 skoda octavia vrs wagon
The new Honda Civic Tourer. Styling by Stevland Hardaway Judkins.
Because YOLO.
Honda is in trouble. They’re out of good ideas.
The first thing I thought when I saw the photos of this vehicle was ‘CrossTour Part 2’.
Make an Si version with lowered ride height and I may be sold.
The back seat options are pretty neat, but they could probably include that in the sedan, too.
They don’t because the sedan has a very different rear suspension; it’s fully independent versus the Fishlake torsion beam in the wagon.
Our Civic is generally a better car in every way excepting cargo space, versus the European model
That’s not exactly correct psarhjinian – “on paper” you might label the sedan as better than the hatchback, but 5 minutes driving one and you’ll realise there are many differences.
The European Civics have a much higher quality interior, they also have either a stiffer body, or higher quality suspension components and sound-proofing. A European Civic hatch feels significantly more solid. It is also more space efficient, with a completely different floorplan (clever rear seats etc – in the new tourer the load height is incredibly low).
That said, the JDM and US sedan has fully independent rear suspension and is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper. I don’t know US exchange rates, and local taxes etc, but what the entry level civic in Canada is $19k (after taxes, delivery etc), in the UK the entry level hatch is $27k.
I wonder which customers Honda is hoping to entice, former dust-buster van owners perhaps?
That is one incredibly ugly car. Hello wildly overdone fender flare lines! And the driver’s legroom looks more cramped than a Stratos.
Important facts:
Station-wagon – check.
Standard transmission – check.
Small (and larger) capacity diesel engine – check (1.6 and 2.0).
That’d seal the deal for me. Things not so good:
– Available in Canada – nope.
Things commentators will care about:
– Available in AWD – nope.
– Available in brown – nope.
Sorry Honda Europe – a near miss.
Me likey.
If they ever import it to USA as an Acura….I’m in.
http://www.hotink.com/wacky/05_ani.gif
The packaging is nice. Only a BMW designer could love the styling though.
Chick car…
I get it… Asian insect motif.
This should slip through tiny gaps in traffic and parking lots like a roach through compost. Sleek and skittery.
There’s a Youtube video for this but it doesn’t embed
Its funny how many times I see a new car and think “hmm, it could be nice if they only got rid of all the cladding and styling crap”. The same thing here…it’s just over-styled for no reason. What’s the point of all that crap? I don’t care about having enormous rear fenders. I care about things like rear-visibility…which in this case is almost nonexistent.
I agree, the rear visibility looks awful.
You know, I kinda like it. In a “I don’t dislike it” sort of way. Sure, too many things are clearly off, including visibility. But they’re trying something here, other than the traditional station. Squished Mazda5 comes to mind. They’re reaching out. Yep, I’m glad they did it.
I told my friends that calling it the “Honda Civic Blindspot” would be fitting.
I am not sure how the styling will translate to the real world. The Crosstour and the current Odyssey didn’t work well in my opinion.
I wouldn’t mind it if it had rear side glass. This is a panel van, not a station wagon.
The overstyled, oversized wheel arches… well, I guess I could forgive those.
I think it has rear side glass. The first pic looks like it’s a painted steel panel, but if you look at the exterior pic with the hatch open, you can see it’s glass. At any rate, the rear windows are way too small.
They couldn’t bother to give us rear glass?
Lazy.
That is about the ugliest wagon I have ever seen. Rising belt lines may make sense on a sedan where they are trying to visually transition to a higher trunk deck, but on a wagon or SUV it is unnessesary and flat out ugly. In contrast, google… 2014 Honda Jade. A very atttractive small wagon with a great greenhouse.
I googled the Jade.
My God, son, how can I apologize for my generation screwing up so badly that you now think that’s a “great greenhouse”?
I don’t know which is more insulting with these f-ing squashmobiles… cervical vertebrae compaction or claustrophobic occlusion.
Bah. That may be the best looking car ever built with the Chinese market in mind.
If you’re referring to Jade images on Google, the only positive thing I see is that the slime-green color is wise for a market where you’ll be collecting the hockers from the driver ahead of you.
I like the current UK Civic 5-dr, minus the blacked-out nose, of course. This is essentially the Fit Shuttle treatment for the Civic, but yeah, the Fit does it better.
It’s not exactly pretty, but I could see opting for the wagon over the sedan.
Oh my. This is one time when I’m glad we don’t get everything they do in Europe.
This will be a European market model. Station wagon, micro minivan really do well over there. The US market won’t buy these station wagons or the micro minivans.
With a little bit of Photochop work we could see what a new Civic hatch would look like. And think that’s the whole problem with this design. It’s begging to be a two door, much shorter vehicle. More along the lines of a Veloster.
The first picture looks like the rear quarter glass was a body colored panel in which case I was excited as a simple circle window via the aftermarket could have revived a long dead and great concept in the Pinto Touring Wagon style but alas, it is just a crappy wagon you can’t see out of.
Yup, this one must have the biggest blind spot this side of the Ford Transit Connect.
…and a tailgate that swings up extremely high…
That is so nice! Not that I’m 6 ft 10, but after 20 years the gas springs don’t have enough oomph to raise the tailgate high enough and then I bump my head.
Talk about picking nits…..if you own a car for 20 years, you’ve saved enough on car payments to be able to afford the $50 for new gas springs for the hatch.
With the ninth-generation Accord not coming to Europe, the Civic Tourer (and the CR-V) will be the biggest vehicles in Honda’s range over here.
I can’t imagine it’s much fun being a Honda dealer in the UK or Europe at the moment.
Well they never had the “Accord” to begin with – pretty sure they always had their own model, which was a TL over here. Much more expensive than our US Accord.
There was a European Accord. It was(is?) sold here as the TSX. The TL is based on the larger US Accord.
They still have the Accord in Europe (for now) and it is the TSX over here – http://www.honda.co.uk/cars/accordsaloon/
This is what happens when you put a Toyota Venza that is supposed to be washed and dried with the delicates, through on “Cotton-Sturdy” instead.
Why can’t Japanese design have the decency to die off like British electricals? Japanese quality is to John Lennon as Japanese styling is to Yoko Ono.
That’s awesome.
The styling is as cool as Paul Mccartney.
Honda is floundering in Europe with sales on a constant downward trajectory. They have been forced to lay off employees in their UK manufacturing operations. This new Civic has already been dissed on Pistonheads, with people wondering why Hondas have such awful interiors, yet cost so much, and have no real performance. With sales so poor, Honda doesn’t have the money to produce Euro only models with decent interiors, leading to what looks like a vicious cycle.
So Honda, in its wisdom, has decided to waste money on producing Formula 1 engines again, presuming that the Europeans along with everyone outside North America will be so impressed by their engineering prowess that the average buyer will once again see them as desirable cars. The reality is likely to be no change in sales whatsoever. The cars need to offer better value, something Honda may realize but seems unable to do anything about, or more likely are so self-proud that they are unwilling to change, much like their blind obeisance to the Acura beak grille.
Don’t know what it’ll take for Honda to wake up fully because its been years that they’ve been stuck staring at their own bellybuttons like little children caught being bad who sullenly refuse to admit anything.
Their one shining light has been that manufacturing quality has held up so far. The rest is a bit of a shambles.
^^^^ What he said.
I was a Honda man in Europe, had a 98 Civic and a 99 Accord. Designed and built in the UK – bulletproof and if not class leading, then close to class leading in how they drove (the Accord was the class leader imho). My parents had three civics and a Jazz (Fit), my sister has a Jazz, my other sister a Civic. When looking at new cars now Honda does nothing for them – they’re all converting to Skoda mostly. If I was still there I’d probably find myself in a VAG car.
In North America – Honda still aren’t performing like I think they should. I’ve been totally underwhelmed by the new Civic, the new Odessey and some of their other offerings. I’ve not driven the new Accord though. Mazda have replaced them for my “scrappy little Japanese car maker that’s fun to drive”, and I’d buy Nissan, Mazda or Ford over a Honda.
They really need to figure out what they’re doing. In my humble, honest and completely ignored opinion of course ;)
I very much agree, I was really impressed visually with the Hondas I saw in Ireland. Here they look plebeian and “beige”.
This looks like Inpsector Gadget’s car.
It looks like a Prius variation. I want to see Honda incorporate some of the design themes from the Gear Concept into their production models, especially the front end.