Honda Civic Tourer safety carries the same five-star rating as the regular Civic hatchback from safety experts Euro NCAP.

An addition to its solid NCAP rating, there is a collection of high-tech active safety systems available for the Civic Tourer.

These include Forward Collision Warning, which sounds an alert if you approach an obstacle quickly and the system senses a collision could be imminent, along with City Brake, an autonomous emergency braking system that uses ‘lidar’ (a mixture of laser and radar detection) to scan for vehicles and pedestrians ahead and apply the brakes in an emergency should the driver fail to react.

Also available is Lane Departure Warning, which alerts the driver if they stray out of lane without indicating, a Blind Spot Monitor, which illuminates a light in the door mirrors to warn the driver if there’s another vehicle in their path if they’re thinking about changing lanes.

A similar system is the Cross Traffic Monitor, which scans the road adjacent to the car when reversing out of a driveway, for example, to alert the driver of any unseen vehicles coming their way.

High Beam Assist is available too, which automatically dips the headlights from full beam to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic, as is Traffic Sign Recognition which uses cameras to detect and display reminders of road signs the driver may have missed on the instrument panel.

One thing safety tech fans may want to bear in mind is that if you want to order a Civic Tourer with adaptive cruise control (which automatically maintains a set distance from the vehicle ahead) you can’t have the City Brake system as well – it has to be one or the other.

This is what the Civic Tourer is all about.

The boot really is very large indeed and, if the optional spare wheel isn’t fitted, there’s an impressive hidden under-floor compartment that’s easily able to accommodate two travel bags of the type you’d fit in an aeroplane’s overhead locker.

Bear in mind that the quoted boot volume figures (624 litres to the window with the seats up and 1,668 litres to the roofline with the seats down) include the under-floor storage area without spare wheel.

A tonneau cover in the boot retracts with a one-touch action, and can be stowed out of the way in a special compartment if you need to remove it altogether.

Helpfully, the boot’s loading lip is low and there is no step between it and the boot floor.

Another boost to Honda Civic Tourer practicality credentials are the same ‘Magic Seats’ fitted to the hatchback. That’s Honda’s term for the ability to flip up and lock the rear seat bases in position, enabling tall items (such as a bicycle with the front wheel removed, for instance) to be stored behind the front seats.

A removable full-height boot net to prevent heavy objects sliding forwards under braking is standard on upper trim grades and a dealer-fit option on others.

In the pursuit of maximum load space, there’s no subwoofer in the boot for the stereo system on high-end trims as there is in the hatchback – the Tourer gets upgraded door speakers instead.

Underlining the attention to detail, the type of carpet fibres in the boot have been chosen as their shape makes them easier to clean when removing dog hairs, pine needles from carrying Christmas trees to the tip and so on.