Civic Type R / Type S / EX or another car?

I think I'd quite enjoy a CTR for those spirited back road blasts and I'd enjoy working that engine to death. Problem is I do that once a week at most, 5 days a week I prefer the low down grunt of my motor for the daily grind.

Therefore I too would be looking towards a mk5 Golf GTi (or possibly even a mk2 Octy vRS if I was buying for myself) as an "all rounder".

I wouldn't say an extra £1250 is small change over the course of a year... then again I'm not in a position to be spending £14k on a car so horses for courses.

I can't say that I noticed a huge jump going from my 1.4 306 to my vRS running cost wise. I'm not blind enough to say the costs aren't percentage wise much higher but not to the point that I really feel it in the wallet department. Some examples:

Insurance: +£25 a year (hitting 25 helped!)
Fuel: 36mpg dropped to 32mpg in the vRS, with super being a few ppl on top of regular
Tyres: about £50 ish more for a pair
Servicing: I still use my regular chap so its comparable. Marginally more but not miles away.
Brakes etc.: Strangely I seem to get through pads and discs at a slower rate. Only changed the rear discs and pads and they were very cheap for OEM replacements.
 
Thanks guys for your thoughts, very helpful and has me thinking.

I'm going to test drive all 3 civics today - I'll see how I feel after that. Maybe I'll graduate to a Golf/Focus - or maybe I'll fall in love with a Civic today, we shall see.

Although I won't know for sure until all have been driven, I suspect this will end up being a 'head vs heart' type decision. And who knows which'll win that one!
 
So I managed to get a test drive today in an EX and a TypeR. The sales guy was quite old/authoritative and insisted on coming on the test drive (Probably because I'm young I guess). Also traffic was very heavy so I struggled to TEST the type-r, if you know what I mean :)

I now echo Talon's comments really - ride was harsh (especially in the back) in both the EX and the R (I guess the S is very similar), but road noise wasn't really an issue at all.

They do feel sturdy and refined, I like that.

Still not sure!

I did however bump into an Alfa Brera on my travels today, what a beautiful car! I wasn't expecting such a thing to be anywhere near my budget but you can find ones a few years old for a very keen price. It also occurs to me if the diesel mpg figures aren't anywhere near as good as quoted (I know all quoted figures are inflated but usually the figure resembles something vaguely close to reality), then maybe the extra cost of a TypeR isn't so bad.

I just can't make up my mind :)
 
The Brera is rubbish, its slow, its heavy, it doesnt really do anything good other than look pretty awesome. It's a drive ornament for people who dont care how a car drives.

Which is a real shame really as Alfa used to make some fantastic cars.
 
Trust me, noise is an issue on a Type-R when you get on a motorway. Wind specifically, if anyone tells you different they are lying!

I have owned a lot of cars (including a thoroughly un-insulated 1991 MR2 Turbo) and the wind noise on the Type-R is the worst.
 
I was thoroughly unimpressed with the FN2 Type-R. Whilst the previous model was also not a car I liked, I was at least able to concede that my tastes just differed and that as car, it was good.

However I just feel the FN2 is a fundamentally poor car. Honda seem to have lost sight of what they were trying to do with it. The previous model was a raw, semi-stripped out VTEC-thrashable hot hatch. It was noisy, it had no kit, but who cares? Thats not the sort of car it was.

The FN2 though has climate control, cruise control, a huge funky posh dash, etc etc. It's full of nice comfort features. Excellent, a refined GT perhaps? No, because the ride quality is worse than useless - seriously, its terrible, and the wind noise is pathetic, which ruins any chance at being a GT. But then its not supposed to be a GT I hear you say, its a stripped out nutter hatch! Well no, it isnt that either because its stuffed full of luxury kit.

It ends up being a car that does two things badly not one thing well.

And it looks crap.

And the build quality sucked - full of cheap plastic and rattles. Yup, rattles. Counted about 4 different rattles on a 3 month old car with 2k miles on the clock. For £15,000. Yea no thanks.
 
I literally must be the only person on here who defends the looks of the FN2. I think the type-r in particular looks blooody ace.
 
I'm going to be original here and suggest that in the £13k price bracket, the O/P should really be looking at an ITR-DC5 (original, I know :p).

All of the benefits of the Civic FN2 with none of the crappy suspension / Engine issues.

Or, save for a couple more months and buy an FD2 Civic. They are GORGEOUS.
 
I would take the Mk5 Golf GTI too (Well a cheaper larger one with a different badge to be honest)
 
I've done just over 1000miles in 7days in my Type R now.

What the heck are you on about noise on the motorway? Either I have a brilliant Type R and no noise gets through, or the one you were in was rubbish.
 
You do have to be careful with popular sporty cars. One of my colleagues has just had his house broken into to get his Golf R32 keys whilst they were sleeping!
 
[TW]Fox;15117085 said:
However I just feel the FN2 is a fundamentally poor car. Honda seem to have lost sight of what they were trying to do with it. The previous model was a raw, semi-stripped out VTEC-thrashable hot hatch. It was noisy, it had no kit, but who cares? Thats not the sort of car it was.

The FN2 though has climate control, cruise control, a huge funky posh dash, etc etc. It's full of nice comfort features. Excellent, a refined GT perhaps? No, because the ride quality is worse than useless - seriously, its terrible, and the wind noise is pathetic, which ruins any chance at being a GT. But then its not supposed to be a GT I hear you say, its a stripped out nutter hatch! Well no, it isnt that either because its stuffed full of luxury kit.

It ends up being a car that does two things badly not one thing well.

And it looks crap.

And the build quality sucked - full of cheap plastic and rattles. Yup, rattles. Counted about 4 different rattles on a 3 month old car with 2k miles on the clock. For £15,000. Yea no thanks.
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Thanks Fox, I agree the car sits perhaps rather awkwardly between Hot hatch and refined GT. That's quite a nice summary of it imho. I will say though, in my test drive I got it upto (and *cough* perhaps a little over) motorway speed limits and I felt the road noise was fine, I was able to hold a normal conversation and didn't feel it was anywhere near as bad as people have made out. This was a genuine surprise for me as I was suspecting the worst.

Rattles I can't comment on because I guess they develop with time. And I personally like the way it looks, that's subjective.

I had a day of test driving lots of different cars today:

Z4: Being 6'4, I couldn't drive it!
S2000 - Ditto (A real shame)
Focus ST - I liked it, felt similar in speed to the CTR, but better ride quality. Prefer the looks of the CTR though.

I also sat in a Brera, and you may say it's rubbish, heavy etc, but goodness me that thing is gorgeous. I want to test drive one before I decide on anything else. 0-60 speed isn't the be all and end all for me, so perhaps the Brera is a fit.

The search goes on, but thanks to everyone for opening my eyes to other cars :)
 
Andr3w said:
I've done just over 1000miles in 7days in my Type R now.

What the heck are you on about noise on the motorway? Either I have a brilliant Type R and no noise gets through, or the one you were in was rubbish.
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The road noise is awful in the Type-R when you compare it against *any* of its competitors.

And I should know as I've owned one for the past 18 months.

The one I test drove was exactly the same.

Tell me - when cruising at 80mph, what number do you need to put the radio up to before you can hear it clearly?
 
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