Although it’s easy to observe at least one new car category managing to establish its own space among all the others every year, adapting to so many changes of the demand has made most automakers phase out from their lines what used to be one of the best-selling segments until twenty years ago: the station wagons. Despite still having a great number of fans, they have lost space first to minivans and lately to crossovers. So how exciting results to know the current Honda Civic will end up with not one, but two SWs?
Selling automobiles became so much harder since this century’s beginning. Discussing this topic can easily lead to dozens of explanations of that, but it’s also possible to affirm they all derive from at least one common root: basically, the public stopped to adapt to the automakers’ offers and started to make them adapt themselves to its wishes, using the ever-efficient tool of rewarding the ones who followed that with bigger sales. In other words, the old situation of the customers trying to fit their wishes into one of the few existing categories gave room to having the automakers wanting to meet almost every particular group of needs with a specific vehicle. The SWs make a perfect example of that because their fame came from concentrating several abilities: they were stylish enough to please young drivers, spacious enough to take bigger families, big enough to look imponent but not so big to look like a truck, and sporty enough to satisfy specially male parents without a second car. Therefore, when the market received more options of sportbacks, minivans, crossovers and shooting brakes, it turned very easy to share the station wagons’ public among those categories. The following reaction couldn’t be different of having the automakers produce fewer SWs.
Fortunately, Honda has always been more conservative than revolutionary. It does offer modern crossovers such as Crosstour, but it’s much more famous for selling traditional cars, like Accord or Civic, in traditional options of body. The latter has always had at least sedan and a hatchback, although sometimes with particular designs, but in some generations these were also followed by a station wagon… just like Civic Tourer concept, which is very close of hitting the streets. But when the Jade concept was showed in Shanghai, the question marks raised once again. And what would be their answer? Honda will have two Civic-derived SWs this time. Tourer will focus on Europe and Jade on China, and this is what explains much about each one. Jade turns very interesting because it’s an MPV disguised as an SW. The automaker did an excellent job at the entire car, but the windows deserve the biggest applause: being taller than usual enables them to flee from what’s being used on almost every other car, while increases the visibility (which is always desirable for a family car) and also masks Jade’s 1,5-m height. Besides, the overall design doesn’t differ from the current Civic’s trend, but these smooth and elegant shapes end on an impressive rear fascia: the graphics formed with the lights simply can’t be compared with any other SW or MPV’s.
Jade’s interior can maintain that mentioned disguise or destroy it, depending on at which side you look. There’s a very stylish console, once again with elevated digital dashboard and using chrome accents in a very attractive combination. But any sportier intention will be forgotten when looking at the six seats (some trims come only with five). This is when this vehicle reveals its true colors, actually: the materials have great quality, the 2,76-m wheelbase gives plenty of space for everyone and the CVT or automatic transmissions ensure a comfortable and efficient driving – a cheaper trim with manual gearbox is being considered, too. Jade’s intention of being a high-standard MPV is followed by the equipment list: there will be two EXi and VTi trims, the first with CVT and the second with automatic gearbox. Each pair will be composed of five or 4+2-seat options, and the most expensive will include automatic climate control, ECON drive assist, GPS, heated leather seats, infotainment system, LED lights, multimedia audio system, rearview camera, six airbags, sunroof and all the passive-safety systems. When it comes to the powertrain, there will be a 16-valve 1.8L engine, with 140 hp. This car will start at 150.000 Yuan.
