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Honda Civic Type R

Fitting a new grille badge to our Honda Civic Type R is far from simple – it includes removing the front bumper! Thankfully, life is less stressful with our car day-to-day...

Avg. savings
£2,092 off RRP*
Pros
  • TUNEFUL ENGINE: The Type R is one of the few modern cars that genuinely doesn’t need a stereo. Its VTEC unit sounds fantastic, so if you see one being driven around with the windows down in the middle of the winter, now you know why. <BR><BR>PRACTICALITY: Although the Type R comes only as a three-door, there’s plenty of space in the rear. The boot is also a decent size, with a useful storage compartment beneath the floor. <BR><BR>GLOVEBOX: It’s not exactly what you look for in a hot hatch, but I’m a big fan of the Type R’s huge, air-conditioned glovebox. It was the perfect size for transporting a home-made cake on a lengthy trip from London to Suffolk.
Cons
  • DOOR HANDLES: The plastic used for the metal-faced door handles creaks nastily, which is very unlike Honda. It’s not what you expect when you get in the car, and is at odds with just about everything else.
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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.

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Honda Civic

Honda Civic

RRP £33,795Avg. savings £2,092 off RRP*Used from £21,976
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Toyota Corolla

RRP £22,725Avg. savings £3,685 off RRP*Used from £11,188
Honda Hr-V

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Mazda 3

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* Average savings are calculated daily based on the best dealer prices on Auto Express vs manufacturer RRP
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