Honda Civic Type R 2023 Review

How much does the Honda Civic Type R cost?

The new FL5-series 2023 Honda Civic Type R costs an eye-watering $72,600 drive-away in Australia, its extreme price generating plenty of comment but apparently not deterring buyers.

On one hand, that’s a big suitcase full of money for a hot hatch, priced roughly $13,000 more than its FK8-series predecessor once on-road costs were added.

And the latest Honda Civic Type R is significantly more expensive than most front-wheel drive high-performance rivals, such as the Renault Megane RS (from $63,500), Volkswagen Golf GTI (from $55,490) and Hyundai i30 N (from $46,200).

On the other hand, Honda’s new hot hatch is sold out for almost two years in Australia, suggesting the high price tag has done little to quell demand for what’s set to be the last non-electrified Civic Type R.

What equipment comes with the Honda Civic Type R?

A quick walk around the new 2023 Honda Civic Type R, and a cursory glance in the cabin, initially resulted in narrowed eyes. It felt somewhat like ordering a gourmet pizza and being served cheese on toast, because this doesn’t look or feel like a $70,000-plus car.

Sure, the big 19-inch alloy wheels shod with fashionable Michelin Pilot Sport 4S footwear, a road-hugging stance and black highlights across an updated aero body kit look very cool, plus it’s got a functional bonnet vent to improve thermal dynamics in the engine bay and aluminium struts holding up a new (and less intense) aerodynamic rear wing.

Brembo brakes, superior suspension and the K20C1 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine are what you’re really paying for here, but a bit of carbon-fibre would’ve been nice. An optional carbon-fibre rear wing is offered, but it adds an insulting $4500 to the price…

Inside, there’s plenty of eye candy and tactile treats including suede-like vermillion red bucket seats, seat belts and floor carpets, a suede-covered steering wheel and a gorgeous aluminium gear shifter.

But the rest of the interior feels underdone for the money, with the same conservative dashboard as regular Civics, the same undersized 9.0-inch touch-screen and 10.2-inch digital driver’s display – although the F1-like LED shift lights above the driver’s display add a functional motorsport-inspired element.

You get a wireless phone charger, dual-zone climate control, sat-nav, an eight-speaker stereo system and the unique Honda LogR datalogging system.

But is it $72,600 worth of goodies? It doesn’t feel like it upon initial inspection.

It misses out on things like a 360-degree parking camera, plus there’s no heating, cooling or power adjustability for the front seats, no head-up display, the reverse parking camera has a low resolution, the list goes on…

Four colours are offered – Championship White, Rally Red, Crystal Black and Sonic Grey, with Racing Blue not available in Australia, yet. Maybe a special-edition down the track?

Like all new Honda cars, the Civic Type R is covered by a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, five years’ roadside assist and five years’ capped-price servicing that costs just $199 per annum. Service intervals are every 12 months or 10,000km, whichever occurs first.

How safe is the Honda Civic Type R?

Based on Honda’s 11th-generation small car, the 2023 Honda Civic Type R gets an impressive safety suite headlined by excellent adaptive cruise control and active lane keep assistance.

If you’re feeling lazy, the car will almost drive itself on the freeway and some country roads.

The semi-autonomous driving features are part of Honda’s Sensing safety systems which include blind spot detection, forward collision warning and mitigation, automatic LED headlights with high beam dipping, and real-time speed limit updates via the camera-based traffic sign detection.

The Honda Civic Type R comes with eight airbags covering front and rear passengers. There’s no ANCAP safety rating, but the regular Honda Civic carries a five-star rating under European NCAP testing.

What technology does the Honda Civic Type R feature?

Compared to the previous generation, the new 2023 Honda Civic Type R gets a handful of technology upgrades including a 10.2-inch digital driver’s display, a new 9.0-inch central touch-screen system and an updated drive mode system with more depth.

The previous Civic Type R had three drive modes – Comfort, Sport and R+ – and these are retained, but there’s also an Individual setting that allows the driver to configure six different performance parameters: engine, steering, suspension, engine sound, rev match and gauges.

Each setting can be toggled through Comfort, Sport and R+ (except for rev match, which is Comfort and Sport only) and gives the car more scope for various scenarios.

For example, on some less-than-perfect mountain roads we switched everything to R+ but set the adaptive dampers to Comfort to better absorb the rougher road surface. And it worked a treat, but more on that in the drive section below.

The 10.2-inch digital instrument cluster features regular circular speedo and tacho dials, plus there’s also an F1-style setting in R+ mode that’s actually pretty good when you’re going at it hammer and tong – as are the new LED shift lights just above the screen.

The LogR system features g-force meters and a number of pre-loaded racetracks, so you can analyse just how good – or bad – you are across various corners and sections thanks to GPS tracking. We didn’t get to use this feature, but it was a neat addition in the previous model.

What powers the Honda Civic Type R?

At the heart of the 2023 Honda Civic Type R is the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine codenamed K20C1, carried over from the previous Civic Type R.

The VTEC-enabled engine pumps out a bit more power and torque than its predecessor thanks to a revised turbocharger, improved air induction via a new cold air intake and a more efficient intercooler.

Where the fifth-generation Civic Type R churned out 228kW at 6500rpm and 400Nm from 2500-4500rpm, the new sixth-gen CTR delivers 235kW (at the same 6500rpm) and 420Nm from 2600-4000rpm.

Featuring a die-cast aluminium block with centrifugally cast iron cylinder sleeves to improve long-term durability, the punishing pressure exerted on engine internals required a lightweight forged-steel crankshaft with individually micro-polished journals.

The fettled 1996cc engine delivers quicker 0-100km/h acceleration, now a claimed 5.4 seconds. That shaves 0.3sec off the previous FK8-series standing starts, and from our launch drive there’s no doubt the new FL5 Civic Type R is a weapon off the line.

Should you find yourself on a long, straight private road, top speed is a scintillating 275km/h.

In practice, the force-fed four-cylinder mill motivates the car’s 1429kg kerb mass with astonishing ease, the powertrain upgrades building on an already potent four-pot screamer, making it slightly more responsive and significantly more determined.

Indeed, it pulls like an aggressive pit-bull on a leash from 3000rpm and there is so much tractability.

Best of all, power delivery is wonderfully predictable and so linear you’d swear there was no turbocharger attached; the engine generates inexorable force right up until the 7000rpm rev limit, spinning freely and smoothly on its incendiary high-rev journey.

There’s a cheeky high-pitched ‘chirrup’ noise from the wastegate when you change gear under hard acceleration as the car vents exhaust gasses away from the turbo, adding meaningful (and much-needed) acoustic drama to what is a lacklustre exhaust note.

Engine power assaults the front wheels via an excellent six-speed manual gearbox, which has been tweaked for even more precision.

A helical limited-slip differential helps improve power delivery under mid-corner acceleration, while an updated (and switchable) rev-matching system and a lighter flywheel improve the manual gear shifting experience.

How fuel efficient is the Honda Civic Type R?

The 2023 Honda Civic Type R can be remarkably efficient when just cruising around on arterial roads and on the freeway in top gear, for example, sipping fuel at around 7.0L/100km.

Honda claims combined-cycle fuel consumption of 8.9L/100km. We ended up with a final combined figure of 11.9L/100km, which was quite a pleasant surprise given the shellacking it copped.

What is the Honda Civic Type R like to drive?

The 2023 Honda Civic Type R is one of the most gratifying front-drive hot hatches I’ve tested, and while it may not look like a $73,000 car inside or out, it certainly feels like one on a winding mountain road.

Fair dinkum, the new Honda CTR is a bitumen beast like few others in the genre, as the engine, brakes, steering, suspension and tyres combine to deliver an unforgettable experience.

The way the Type R tracks through corners at high speed, and especially bends with uneven surfaces and bumps, is tremendous, because the suspension is more nuanced with better bump absorption than its predecessor, ensuring more consistent contact with the road.

That it does this while maintaining an ultra-flat attitude navigating white-knuckle corners with precious little body roll is a delight to behold.

The resolute front-end’s unerring precision and adhesion is so honest it’s somewhat alarming at first, the front wheels biting into the road like a hungry bull shark chomping a bloated whale carcass.

It’s a fierce apex predator, make no mistake.

A range of updated suspension components, including lower suspension control arms, new bushings and front and rear knuckles, combine with the longer, wider, lower hot hatch to maintain excellent mid-corner body control, with only mild pitching under hard acceleration or deceleration.

It’s a decisive and dynamic vehicle; even rapid changes in direction across tight, challenging and sometimes off-camber roads are undertaken with the sort of arrogant confidence usually only possessed by untouchable politicians, elite athletes and Thor, the God of Thunder.

Modified dual-axis front struts and multi-link rear suspension, backed up by adaptive dampers all round, along with a wider track than its predecessor (+26mm front, +30mm rear) and wider (265/30R19) Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres, generate preposterous levels of mechanical grip, almost like there’s a vacuum suction seal between car and road at times.

It’s a finely balanced performance car with virtually no understeer and very little torque-steer when you’re blasting into and out of corners at full noise, the LED gear shift lights dancing angrily in one’s periphery.

All the powertrain systems (including the slippery diff) work in concert with the chassis to deliver the sort of feel and feedback through the steering wheel and the seat of your pants that few front-drive vehicles can match.

The connection between car and driver is compelling at worst, euphoric at best. The steering is ultra-direct and the way in which the deeply bolstered sports seats improve shoulder and arm positioning to help reduce fatigue on extended, high-intensity forearm-pumping drives is impressive.

The bond formed between hands, feet, brain and car is pretty special, and the short-throw gear shift is the icing on the cake. It delivers almost surgical shifts, such is the precision and definition felt rowing in and out of gates. Bliss.

Backing up the car’s potent chassis and powertrain are reassuring stoppers, the 350mm two-piece ventilated front brake rotors chomped by four-piston aluminium Brembo callipers, while 305mm rear rotors get a workover by single-piston callipers.

Brake pedal stroke is short and fairly sharp, which results in appreciably prompt response.

There’s no question the Civic Type R has matured with improved roadholding and suspension compliance, but it’s still a highly focused sports car and even with the dampers in Comfort mode it feels very firm around town – but it’s certainly not as rigid as its predecessor.

At lower speeds, in heavy traffic, in the ’burbs and so on, the Type R is surprisingly docile and easy to pilot thanks to the beautifully engineered and torquey engine and quick-shifting gearbox, not to mention the direct steering.

We were expecting this vehicle to be launched at a world-class racetrack like Phillip Island, but Honda just handed us the keys and said ‘have it’ for a few days.

In hindsight, we’re not too unhappy about this because we already know the new Civic Type R is an improved track tool, based on our international launch drive in Portugal.

And our first local drive has now confirmed it’s more composed on Australian roads.

What is the Honda Civic Type R like inside?

The four most important cabin elements in the 2023 Honda Civic Type R are almost faultlessly fit for purpose, with the seats, steering wheel, gear shifter and pedals arrayed in such a way to help generate an exquisite driving experience.

While the seats have manual adjustment only, pumping the height-adjust lever delivers loads of variation (along with seatback angle and horizontal movement), so taller/shorter drivers can find a suitable driving position.

The tilt- and reach-adjust steering wheel with its suede-like finish is sumptuous, able to absorb palm sweat like a champ, and the aluminium gear shifter is one of the finest we’ve caressed: cold and smooth.

The pedals are also ideally spaced for drivers adept at the heel-and-toe tango, and together with high-quality materials throughout the cabin and premium-feel switchgear and controls, it’s a nice place to hang out.

Smaller touches like the red carpets, unique build plate and Type R embossing on the sports seats are noteworthy, but there’s still a sense that more could have been done to improve the cabin – especially when you’re spending Audi cash on this fast four.

To its credit, the Honda Civic Type R retains all the practicality of its more pedestrian siblings, which means it’s got a reasonably spacious boot (410 litres expanding to 1212L with the rear seats folded) and ample room for four adults.

However, there’s only two seats in the rear and no air vents or USB ports for the poor souls.

There’s no spare tyre, either, only a repair kit.

Should I buy a Honda Civic Type R?

The new-generation 2023 Honda Civic Type R looks like poor value for money when stationary, the interior missing several features offered on far cheaper hot hatches.

The exterior’s toned-down visuals also mean it won’t turn heads like its Batmobile predecessor.

That said, the FL5 Honda Civic Type R takes everything that was great about its predecessor – a car that won every comparison we put it through – and galvanises the product with a level of maturity and confidence rarely experienced in a front-drive hot hatch.

Not only is the new Honda Civic Type R a more flexible, approachable and easier-to-live-with vehicle, it’s also faster and more satisfying to drive on the ragged edge.

Is it good value? Priced at a shade under $73,000, no, not really. But most owners won’t give stuff because they’ll be laughing triumphantly as they hunt down sports bikes on the road and Porsche 911s on the racetrack.

2023 Honda Civic Type R at a glance:
Price: $72,600 (drive-away)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 235kW/420Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 8.9L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 203g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested

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