A production Honda Civic Tourer managed to set a new Guinness World Record for lowest fuel consumption crossing all 24 contiguous EU countries. The car covered a distance of 8,387 miles in 25 days, averaging 100.31 miles per gallon, corresponding to 932 miles per tank.

That means the fuel bill for the entire journey was just £459. Driven by two members of Honda’s European Research & Development (R&D) team, the record-breaking Honda Civic Tourer was powered by a 1.6 i-DTEC engine which has quoted efficiency of 74.3 mpg. Of course those guys were professional hypermilers who could better that figure by 25 percent. But even if you get something like 70 percent of the quoted figure, that is still pretty good for a spacious and practical estate car.

Leon Brannan, Head of Cars for Honda (UK) comments: “This is an incredible achievement and the team should all be very proud of the efforts that they have put in to set this new GUINNESS WORLD RECORD. Driving the equivalent distance from their home in the UK to Australia in just 25 days is a huge challenge very few would take on. The fuel economy figures are remarkable – particularly when you consider that this is not a small car, but an estate with class-leading load space and vast practicality.”