Honda Civic 1980 News

Family size and frugal manners boost Honda's chances of success with its new Civic Tourer wagon. But Australia has shown little interest as the Tourer - a five-seater wagon based on the Civic hatch - aims its credentials at Europe. The UK-built wagon goes public next month at the Frankfurt motor show and on sale in Europe from early next year. Almost fully reflecting the Tourer concept shown at this year's Detroit motor show in January, the wagon gets Honda's 1.6-litre turbo-diesel engine as fitted to the Australian Civic hatch, or a 1.8-litre petrol engine. It has the same 2595mm wheelbase as the Civic hatch but adds 235mm of rear overhang for extra cargo space - and gets a lower cargo floor than the hatch - down by 137mm - to ease loading and unloading exercises. Honda says the Tourer gets the company's "Magic Seats" design - also used on the Jazz - to claim boot space of 624 litres with the rear seats up, or 1668 litres with the seats folded. The Tourer also gets ZF Sachs' new electronically adjustable rear dampers that can be switched through three modes: Comfort, Normal and Dynamic. Honda Australia has dismissed the Civic wagon, saying the Australian small car wagon market is small. Six carmakers sell small-car wagons on the Australian market - Hyundai, Holden, Peugeot, Renault, Toyota and Volkswagen. This reporter is on Twitter: @cg_dowling  

 Apart from European hot-hatches such as the Renault Cleo Sport and Peugeot 206 GTi seldom have we seen any manufactures brave enough to bring 3 door hatch variants into our market.  Sure you can get an entry level 3 door Yaris but what about a nice 3 door Corolla Sportivo, um… sorry they don’t come in 3 door in Australia.This pattern seems to have started in the late 80s with the introduction in droves of mass produced front wheel drive hatch backs.  Remember the Pulsar SSS?  Yep that came in 3 door hatch in Japan.  How about the Corolla GTi, or Mazda 323?  Yep 3 door again overseas.At one stage in the early 90s even the iconic Golf GTi was only available in 5 door in this country.  For years Australia has been denied many of the accessories and engine options that are prevalent in Europe, the US, and even the rest of Asia, but they are happy to throw in an extra 2 doors for nothing.  There are some companies that have bucked the trend like Honda, but even they gave in to with the “5 door hatch only” Civic model a few years back.  And now it looks like the Europeans have caught on to this trend.  We are missing out on the 2 door BMW 1 series hatch it seems…Though through the gloom comes the news that Australia will shortly see the new 2 door VW Polo.  A brief hint of fun in a sea of practicality it seams.I really can’t see any reason why the Australian market seems to be so against the 3 door hatch… especially when it comes to the performance market.