Category: Hot Hatchbacks 
Price Range: No data available
Fast, good steering feel, great fun to drive, relatively subtle styling.
Not a lot, just the irritating split rear tailgate glass and poor rearward visibility.
Hot hatch masochists and keen track dayers might be disappointed with Honda's decision to make this Type-R a little easier to live with. For the rest of us, however, it's a very welcome development.
Honda consistently scores very well indeed in reliability and quality surveys, the lack of any serious complaints about the last-generation model bearing this out.
This latest-generation Civic - built in Swindon - is doing well so far, too, with only a couple of reports of minor problems with fit and finish of tailgate glass and headlamp lenses - early-build glitches that should be sorted by now. Honda also claims that there are no known cases of failure of its VTEC engines.
The worst thing likely to happen is that more demanding drivers may well get through tyres and brake pads quickly, but that's par for the course with a hot hatch.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Honda Civic Type-R
wrote on 04 06 2008
wrote on 28 02 2008
wrote on 06 01 2008