Honda Civic Type R Review 2025: Price, specs & boot space

The new Honda Civic Type R is likely to be right for more people than the old one, simply because it looks less like the driver spends Saturday night revving it in a McDonald's car park - if you'll forgive the stereotype. 

The more mature looks don't mean a duller driving experience, as it's still a riot. Plus, it could genuinely be used as your only family car with a spacious cabin and big boot. However, if you spend a lot of time in wet and icy conditions a VW Golf R or Audi S3 is much more surefooted.

There's only one version of the new Civic Type R, and given the limited production run we're unlikely to see a more subtle 'Sport Line' version this time around.

Right now, you only have a choice of colours and option packs. The most significant one is the Carbon Pack which (you guessed it) gives you a carbonfibre rear wing and cabin trim bits. At £3765 on top of an already pricey car we'd say it's not worth it, though. 

Honda reckons the new Civic Type R competes with 'premium' hot hatchbacks like the Audi S3, Mercedes-AMG A35 and BMW M135i. It's certainly fast enough to do so, but the lack of four-wheel drive makes it less of an all-rounder and the badge won't appeal to as many image conscious buyers. 

It's closer in spirit to cheaper (but slower) models such as the VW Golf GTI Clubsport, Ford Focus ST and Hyundai i30N, however. All of these are fun front-wheel drive models and a fair bit more affordable, but they aren't as impressive to drive. Perhaps closest in terms of the driving experience is the Renault Megane R.S, which is certainly fun but is compromised in ride comfort and cabin quality. 

The last Type R was hardly flimsy inside, but the new model pushes fit and finish to new levels. It seems like Honda spent as much time and money making sure the Civic felt premium inside as it did on making it drive well. 

That means you get plenty of soft-touch finishes where you want them to be, impressive panel fit and a solidity to everything you poke and prod. Even switchgear like the climate control knobs that click beautifully as you turn them, and the air vent control stalks that feel substantial, show the attention-to-detail put in.

The optional carbon trim is pretty nice, too, but we're not sure it's worth the extra cash. And although the red front seats and rather bold bright red carpets look distinctive, they'll likely show up dirt a lot more quickly than black ones. At least Honda has trimmed the back seats in black fabric so your kids can't mess them up in minutes.

The previous Honda Civic Type R's biggest weak point was the infotainment system, which was dated and user-unfriendly when it launched and is well off-the-pace now. Happily things have improved a great deal with this generation of Type R.

While not as slick-looking as BMW's system, the new 9.0-inch touchscreen is intuitive to use and quick to respond. It's definitely better than you'll find in a hot VW Golf, while physical shortcut buttons make it a doddle to switch between menus. You also get wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, alongside USB ports and a wireless phone charging pad.

Having a physical, separate climate control stack is also a nice touch in the days where many brands cram it all into the screen. It's so easy to adjust the temperature or fan position that you barely need to look away from the road. 

Every Type R gets a 10.2-inch digital dial display that's pretty clear and configurable, if not to the same degree as Audi's system and lacking the same sat-nav map detail. We love the shift lights that come on as you near the rev limiter, however.

There's no beating around the bush: the Honda Civic Type R is rather large for a hot hatchback. Its dimensions are 4594mm in length, 1890mm in width and 1401mm in height, which makes it over 30cm longer and 10cm wider than a VW Golf R, although it is a fair bit lower.

While that doesn't help when parking or placing it on a narrow road, it certainly pays dividends when it comes to cabin space. Six footers will have no trouble at all up front, and even one of our 6ft 3in testers with a bulky crash helmet on for track work found no issues at all. 

Similarly, the rear is pretty cavernous. You'll have legroom to spare even with tall folk, and no other hot hatch manages to be this commodious, even if there is a little sacrifice in headroom to make for that sloping, almost coupe-like roof.

There is one big negative, though - you lose the centre seat on the bench. We're not sure why because it's plenty wide enough, but Honda doesn't give you a centre seatbelt and there are cupholders indented into the seat. 

Still, the boot is big by hot hatch standards. Honda quotes a 410-litre boot capacity, but you'd swear it was more than that by looking at it, while the handy pull-out parcel shelf remains from the regular Civic. The seats fold in a 60/40 split to unlock a 1212-litre space. 

The latest Honda Civic Type R doesn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to the engine. But then it didn't need to, because the old car already had one of the most exciting hot hatch engines around. 

So, the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged VTEC engine remains, with some fettling to make it both more efficient and more powerful than before. Power is up to 329PS (from the old car's 320) and torque moves up another 20Nm to 420Nm.

The result is a 0-62mph time of 5.4 seconds - deeply impressive for a front-wheel drive car - and an entirely believable top speed of 171mph. The top speed figure tells you more than the acceleration figure, though, because while four-wheel drive rivals are quicker off the mark they can't better the Honda's top speed. 

The Civic Type R feels immensely quick, then, no matter whether you're pushing it to the limit on track or brushing the throttle on the road. A few dual-clutch automatic rivals are probably quicker point-to-point but don't feel it because the power delivery is so linear and the 'box slurs shifts so undramatically. The Civic starts off with a bit of low-rev lag but builds power strongly to a crescendo, egging you on to rev it as far as it'll go. Across the board it responds more keenly than before.

It even sounds pretty good, too. Alright, it's not a patch on the manic scream of the old, non-turbo Type Rs, but some engine sound generation through the speakers helps add theatre and varies depending on drive mode. If you don't like that, you can turn it off because the drive modes now offer near-endless customisation. There's three settings for the sound and three for the throttle response, and you can mix and match as you please. 

Helping add to the engagement is that fantastic manual gearbox. Honda has made it even more slick than the previous model's, and it's just lovely to use, with a short throw and pleasing action. Rev matching tech means it'll blip the throttle when you downshift, which is satisfying too. Bar one or two exceptions, we don't think there's a better manual gearbox out there. 

There's a little sacrifice to make in refinement over the regular Honda Civic with the Type R, but it's not suddenly ear-splittingly noisy. Sure, the engine note is ever-present, but it's muted enough at a cruise, although the short gearing means sixth gear is pulling higher revs than top gear in many rivals. 

Wind noise is fine, but road noise is noticeable thanks to the wide wheels and tyres. Again, it's not massively intrusive, though. 

You get the same roster of safety kit in the Honda Civic Type R as the standard Civic. That means automatic emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection (including a heated camera to make it work in winter), road departure mitigation, lane keeping assist, traffic sign recognition and intelligent speed assist, which will read speed limit signs and bring your cruise control speed down to match.

Adaptive cruise control is standard, too, as is Traffic Jam assist (low-speed auto cruise), blind spot monitoring and auto high beam. 

With a full suite of airbags and that stiffer structure, the latest Honda Civic achieved the maximum five-star Euro NCAP crash safety rating.

If reputations are anything to go by then we'd expect the Honda Civic Type R to be reliable, providing the maintenance schedule for that highly-strung engine and gearbox is stuck to rigidly. We've not heard of any major issues with the previous model, which shares similar basic mechanicals, and that basic engine has been around for years. 

Honda just finished outside the top 10 in the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index with a score of 89.7, which beats almost all premium brand rivals. 

The new Honda Civic Type R jumps up three insurance groups from the previous model, sitting at group 43. That'll be due to the higher price and slightly higher performance. It's noticeably higher than an Audi S3, which sits in group 31 in its base form.

The Honda Civic Type R is slightly less emitting than the old model, meaning it sits in a lower road tax (VED) bracket and saves about £500 for the first owner in the first year rate. Granted it's still £1095 in that first year, but that's in line with rivals. 

The main issue is that the list price is over £40,000, meaning another £490 a year charge is added on top of the standard rate for five years until it goes down to the basic £190-a-year flat rate.

As things stand, there is only one version of the Honda Civic Type R available to buy, but it comes comprehensively equipped. 

You get matt black 19-inch alloys, LED headlights with auto high-beam, the full infotainment suite, dual-zone climate control , keyless entry, wireless hone charging front and rear parking sensors, adaptive cruise control, sports seats, front and rear parking sensors, a rear-view camera and the Honda Sensing package.

This brings a roster of safety kit including collision avoidance and autonomous braking, lane keeping assist, rear cross-traffic alert, traffic sign recognition and blind spot monitoring. 

The only options are a range of paint colours (£650), the £3765 Carbon Pack and the Illumination Pack, which for £1210 brings footwell lighting, backlit door lining, illuminated cupholders and a special Type R exterior projector light. There are some more generic packs such as the £150 Cargo Pack or a fitted car cover for £765.