Honda reveals the Civic Tourer

Load-luggers of the world, we give you the new Honda Civic Tourer. Yes, we know what you're thinking. "That's a normal Civic hatch with a bit more bolted on to the back!" Well, you're right. An extra 235mm to the back to be precise - but Honda has been clever in how it's gone about making this extra space.

Honda claims that the Tourer has the best seats-up luggage capacity in its class - 624 litres - and a fridge-worthy 1,668 litres with the seats down. That's more than a Focus Estate, and all packed within the same height, width and wheelbase as the five-door Civic. They gained the extra space through a trick layout: the driver and front passenger sit on top of the fuel tank, freeing up space in the rear. This gives a low floorplan (137mm lower than the hatch) and with Honda's ‘Magic Seats' (multi-adjustable, not lined with Paul Daniel's hocus-pocus), plus loads of cubbyholes under the floor, it sounds an incredibly practical car.

And whatever you do decide to carry in the back, you'll have three different choices of comfort. Honda has applied the first-ever optional Adaptive Damper System that works just on the rear axle so that you can either firm up, or soften, the back depending on what's in the back. If you don't spec it, it'll ride differently to the hatch anyway, as the suspension and steering have been slightly re-tuned.

The car will be built in salubrious Swindon and is available with either a sub-100g/km of CO2 1.6-litre diesel, or a the 1.8-litre petrol. The diesel is only available as a manual, so if you can't drive stick, you're stuck with the petrol.

You'll see the car officially unveiled at the Frankfurt motor show next month, and on the road early next year. Probably on the way to the local tip.