This is a more habitable Type R, as Honda promised, with notable compliance in the way it rides at low speeds. You still feel the bumps and holes in the road surface, but there’s enough elasticity that they rarely thump too harshly into the cabin. Although this ability continues as the speeds rise, there’s quite a lot of body movement that goes unchecked, as if the springs and dampers aren’t quite working in tune.
There’s no escaping the fact that the Civic lacks the chassis sophistication you find in rivals like the Focus ST and Golf GTi, which is another way of saying what we’ve feared all along: the switch to a torsion beam rear end has had a detrimental effect.
You turn the wheel and the car follows your chosen path resolutely and with plenty of outright grip, but the sensation is of the back obediently following the front rather than working to induce some mild oversteer to help turn the car in. On a circuit, you can use the brakes on turn-in to adjust the attitude of the car, but on the public road this is less of an option, so the car doesn’t feel as alive to the driver as some rivals.
You'll either love or hate the exterior design, but we think it looks suitably sporting. In the cabin, the Type R additions are well judged. The sports seats are superb, the steering wheel strikes the right tone, and there are drilled alloy pedals and a metal-finish ‘R’ gear knob.
Our concerns lie with attributes inherited from the standard Civic. Visibility is poor, with obstructive A-pillars and limited over-the-shoulder sight lines, while the view aft is severely restricted by the wing that bisects the rear window.
The Type R is one of the cheaper hot hatches, but it’s not the bargain its sub-£17k predecessor was. The GT model tested here, with fog lights, curtain airbags, auto lights and climate control, is £18,600 (a Focus ST2 is £18,795). At least the Type R should continue to have strong residuals, and it should prove far less thirsty than the Focus.
