Honda Civic Type R

Don’t panic! While it might look like I’ve had a front-end crash in our long-term Honda Civic, this picture was taken during a scheduled trip to the workshop. What prompted such major surgery?

Well, cast your mind back to the Honda’s debut at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show. The stunning concept car wore neat ‘Type R’ decals just ahead of the rear wheels, but the stickers aren’t standard on production models.

I spotted them on the firm’s excellent online configurator. The package includes a pair of stick-on logos and grille badge – and it’s this last item that causes such grief.

As you can see, you have to remove the front bumper to attach it, which is a complex job that takes more than half an hour – and goes some way to explaining the kit’s hefty £130 price tag. With all three logos in place the result is subtle, but there’s no excuse for mistaking our Type R for a lesser Civic.

The Honda has also been to the bodyshop for a sill repair after being damaged by an urban width restrictor. Then our road test team took it to Anglesey, in Wales, for our Greatest Drives, where it finished a superb third. The Type R’s pin-sharp handling and high-revving engine are a constant pleasure, and life with the Honda is proving very easy. There is plenty of room for four adults in the cabin, and despite the frenetic power delivery, it makes a decent fist of both long-distance journeys and short urban trips.

The firm ride isn’t universally popular, though, particularly with my pregnant wife, and the long autumn nights highlight the poor throw of the standard dipped headlamps. We’ve also heard from a reader experiencing problems engaging third gear in his Type R.

We highlighted the need to be positive with shifts in our earlier report, but as the miles have racked up, ours has improved. Self-inflicted woes have been a kerbed front wheel and an alloy gearlever which is easily scratched. But on the whole, the Type R is bearing up well as we pile on the miles.