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.
For a hot hatch of this power, not bad. It's not really going to make sense as a company car - not with carbon dioxide emissions of 215g/km, incurring hefty tax penalties - but private buyers will, at least, find the 31mpg reasonably manageable.
Insurance will be expensive - Group 16E for the standard model and 17E for the GT - but cheap(ish) compared to, say, an Impreza WRX or an Evo.
There's good news on the residual value front, though: industry analysts predict the Type-R GT will return 50% of its value after three years/60,000 miles, making it a better long-term investment than the Golf GTI or Focus ST.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Honda Civic Type-R
wrote on 04 06 2008
wrote on 28 02 2008
wrote on 06 01 2008