Honda's new Tourer estate car will account for around a quarter of all Civic sales in the UK when it goes on sale early in the New Year.

Dealers start taking orders for the new model in December and prices start at £20,260 for the 1.8-litre petrol iVTEC and the range tops out close to £30,000.

In line with the hatchback, sales are expected to be split 70% retail and 30% fleet with the 1.6-litre diesel version expected to attract companies and user choosers with emissions of 99g/km CO2.

After a quiet period on the product front, the Civic is an important model for Honda, with around 20,000 sales a year in the UK and the mainstay of assembly at the company's Swindon factory.

Civic project leader Adrian Killham said: "The C-sector is important for us because it is still growing strongly and in terms of the estate; there is a lot of down-sizing from the D-segment going on.

"The Tourer has been completely developed and tested in Europe. The front end is carried over from the hatchback but everything from the B-pillar back is new. The wheelbase remains the same with an increased rear overhang. By extending the roofline we have also overcome the criticism we received with the hatchback over rear headroom."

Killham added that the adaptive damper system, standard on the two top grades and as an option on the lower one, had been applied to the rear only.

He said: “The rear is where all the work is being done and where the additional weight will be. There was no need for it at the front which also means we have been able to keep weight and price down."

The last time there was an estate in the Civic range was between 1998 and 2001, but it was dropped from the line-up as customers moved more towards SUVs and MPVs. Honda now says it sees an opportunity as estate car sales in this segment start to grow again across Europe.