Our Fleet Test Drive: Honda Civic – 2nd report

There’s something that’s been bothering me about the Honda Civic Tourer since I took it for its first photo session.

It’s the front end profile – it begins with a plateau beneath the windscreen before curving downwards, which makes it look detached from the rest of the car rather than part of a coherent whole, while the sharp curved lines above the wheel arches don’t help matters.

A straw poll of the BusinessCar office reveals that I’m not alone in having reservations about the car’s exterior looks, although I have more concerns than most.

My view of the exterior, however, is balanced by my liking the cabin design, particularly the convex curve at the top of the dashboard, the way the driver is enclosed by the line that runs up and around the instrument dials behind the steering wheel, and the gentle, stepped ridges on the dash in front of the passenger seat, which seem to serve no purpose other than to enhance the aesthetics.

Oddly, in a reversal of opinion, the other members of the BusinessCar team aren’t quite as taken with the inside as I am.

We’re at the start of our time with the Honda estate, so it will be interesting to see whether it will be a car that will continue to divide opinion.