The 2020 Honda Civic Type R does not look dramatic, but the subtle updates are worth the effort. For the most part, the CTR remains one of the most exciting driver cars you can buy new at the moment. If you are good with the look and price, it is pretty perfect for local daily rides, weekends and sports day heroes.
Full disclosure: Honda voted in to mever Civic Type R in Boost Blue Pearl when I said, wow, that color is awesome. Unfortunately I feel like I did not manage to get decent photos of it, but it rockets.
Test conditions: Lots of driving through cities. Three passes through tight Malibu canyon roads. Two passes through the wider and faster Angeles Crest Highway. I drove this car hard every night I had it. I burned so much fuel in Angeles National Forest that in the sixth I had to glide under the mountain with the corridor closed and barely made it to the gas station at the bottom of the hill. In a civil!
Honda Civic Type R explained
A $ 40,000 Honda Civic would have to be taken hot shit seriously. Fortunately for those who are invested, the Type R 2020 is an absolute scorcher and provides one of the most enjoyable driving experiences you can have for any price. Or whatever drivetrain layout, for that matter. Front-wheel drive is not necessarily conducive to hauling donkey but surely this Honda does not seem to like great.
While the standard Civic is a chill commuter car and the Civic Si is practical transport that likes to party, the Civic Type R is an absolute beast that can stumble coffee, furious acceleration, and a transmission that shifts with the decision and weight of Optimus Prime that makes a slow hit.
In other words, it feels stiff, powerful, and planted.
Zoom out a bit more: Honda’s volume sales come from practical, economical standard cars, but this motorist has also blessed us for a long time with serious performance facilities.
In the late 1990s, elite Japanese performance cars sang the Nissan 300ZX, Toyota Supra, Mitsubishi 3000GT, and Mazda RX-7 their swan songs in America, but still had legs at home in Japan. The first Civic Type R was born then and there, with the aim of offering fairly intense performance with high revving with the low cost of ownership and some practical nature of a compact car with little displacement.
But that original CTR was considered too badass for America. We had to deal with the Civic Si, and ultra limited production Integra Type R. While the tuner scene built momentum in the US and sports compact cars even streamed into pop culture, thanks in part to The Fast And The Furious, the Civic Type R was a car that many American cars dreamed of but never had to drive. Until 2017, when the FK8 Civic Type R finally appeared and was universally praised with all the phrases with which I opened this review.
New for 2020, the CTR all has the same goosebumpy goodness it had for the last three years plus a few tweaks for Honda:
- Rear-mounted buses in the front and rear suspension for improved angular stability and sharper steering
- Revised Adaptive Damper System (ADS) has a substantially higher sampling speed and re-tuned tuning for better control and improved driving comfort
- New two-part front brake rotors improve brake cooling and reduce weight
- Increased performance of engine cooling
- Standard Honda Sensing suite of safety and driver support technologies
- The all-new Honda LogR performance data logging app designed to record driving activity and help improve driver skills (scheduled to be released this spring)
There are also some minor changes to the exterior design. The plastic ‘mesh’ faux grills have been replaced by flat pieces, and small body-colored trim pieces have been added. More significantly, the cockpit gets an Alcantara steering wheel and a longer, shines shift knob connected to a new shifter with shorter yard. Annoyingly, the rear seats are still black, while the fronts are red.
Top Takeaways
See, it’s been too long since I advised the 2017 and Civic Type R for me to reliably articulate exactly how much better the 2020 is. But I can offer this: the first time I rode a CTR I thought it was pretty crazy. When I tried it again a week later, I had a little less patience for its intrusive traffic noise, but a little more appreciation for it. how much faster it felt than an Integra Type R from the 90s. And the week I just spent with the 2020 car? Some of the most rewarding rides I can remember.
How corny can you get, talk about a car, and still be taken seriously? I’m watching the Japanese tuner character Wangan Midnight again, so a big part of me just feels like I’re on the horizon, look at this machine, say something about r / Im14AndThisIsDeep.
“The third exhaustion tip is the window to the soul.” I do not know, man. The car rips, grabs and kicks itself just aggressively when you start the brake pedal.
Standout Features
Honda has a well-deserved reputation for building manual-shift transmissions that are fun to operate and the Civic Type Rs are among the best. You have probably read this before, so I will try to articulate it carefully. Gear ratios in this car feel rewarding because the shifter and clutch are designed in such a way that gear selection is very decisive and precise, without … being cumbersome. Each nut seems to have a gravitational force on the lever, which has some weight on it, giving the driver a sense of power.
Once you get into a groove with this car, it’s almost hard to feel that you are not ignoring it every time you change gears.
But the shifts are made even more enjoyable by the just wave of force you will drive as the turbo goes up and your rev needle’s work works about halfway up the tachometer. Whoosh! It’s addictive.
I also really like the front seats. The side bolts are very high to escape you without squeezing you, although I would have to qualify that by saying I’m a handsome boy. Also they are red and red goes hard. (Joke.) (Kind of.)
What is the weakness
What’s wrong with that seat not being heated? I think I would have taken the two-pound-something weight penalty for having a butt cooker.
Anyway, I think I can live without heated seats, but I hate living with Honda’s infotainment system. The UX is terrible and the response time is weak. Fortunately, Honda improved the lack of a volume button, but the car’s main screen giving any commands is tricky.
The infotainment of the primitive feel is hardly a dealbreaker considering how big of a car the Civic Type R is, but when I swapped this for a lender Lariat Ford, I realized just how slow and ugly Honda’s digital interface is. is compared to other options. Bummer.
Security
The 2020 Civic hatchback is in IIHS “Top Safety Pick”, but the agency says this does not apply to the Type R. I imagine this is mostly because it has not tested the Type R and it is considered a separate model instead of a trim level, but I bet the CTR has similar standards for surviving crashes as a standard Civic hatch.
Likewise is the NHTSA the Honda hatchback rates five out of five stars, but technically applies its decision only to the non-Type R.
My strongest practical observation about safety is the fact that the headlights are gloriously bright. Like, “oh, it’s already daylight,” clearly.
The Civic Type R has the Honda Sensing crash-prevention suite as standard. These include: Mitigation brake collision system; Road mitigation system; Adaptive cruise control; Lane Keeping Assist System. And you can find out what those people are doing with their descriptive names.
Recommended options from Jalopnik
There really are no options besides color (get Boost Blue Pearl) a red interior lighting kit for $ 1,112 (why not, sounds nice) and a carbon fiber package ($ 3,673) that has: Carbon Fiber Wing Spoiler; Carbon Fiber Hood Scoop; Carbon Fiber Door Mirror Covers; Carbon Fiber Interior Panel Cover. I skipped the CF bits myself, but they will probably help the car to stand up when you finally sell.
Class And Competition
The most direct Rivals of the Civic Type R would be the VW Golf R (less power, but all-wheel drive; not available for the 2020 model year), and the Hyundai Veloster (less expensive, less powerful).
The Subaru WRX STI is a sedan not a hatchback, but offers equally exciting turbo performance and four-door usability.
And once you start opening the field to “all semi-practical fun cars for less than $ 40,000”, the options are almost endless. The Civic Type R will be absent if you enjoy hesitation and responsive steering, and of course the car will be best appreciated by people who love the sport compact scene in general and want to experience owning an icon that fruit was banned on US roads for so long.
Judgment
I have to admit, I’ve been a long time fan of Japanese performance cars and fast Hondas in general, so I’m a bit predisposed to like this car on a personal level. But you do not have to be import-obsessed to appreciate how much fun this car is to drive in. You just have to love driving.
More photos
I do not think my photos here did the Civic Type R justice, especially in Boost Blue. (I liked that the increase in color temperature in the first picture gave it a hot Fast / Furious however, energy.) Fortunately, the Civic Type R can be seen from every possible angle Honda’s gallery page en Honda’s other gallery. Enjoy!
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