2004 Honda Civic Type-R review from UK and Ireland

NOISY AS HELL... The road noise is so loud that I tend to find myself shouting to talk to who's sitting next to me in the passenger seat - Heaven forbid should you put the stereo on too. Understand that a factor of this IS the road surface, but I've owned/driven a lot of cars and only my Kawasaki Ninja competes with the noise.

YOU MUST PAY THE EXTRA FOR AIR-CON!!!

All three back windows steam up SO much to the point that you can't see out of them. I expect that in the morning or in the cold the all windows are likely to steam up to some degree, but after the car's warmed up the SHOULD clear, I emphasis 'should'. The front three are fine clear as you'd expect, but the rear three... well after 1hour and 45 minutes of driving, I parked up and they were STILL steamed up - so much you couldn't see through them. I took the car back to the dealers for an inspection, and they continuously reassured me, "We've never had this problem before", that doesn't help me much. Their solution... they cleaned the windows... CLEANED THE WINDOWS!!! Imagine my disgust when he told me "You couldn't see out of the window because it was dirty", How dirty can the inside of a 'solid' (non-moving) rear window get??? So I explained that I'd spent the extra money on their sponsored cleaning products on buying the car which included a 'Window cleaner' product that, all be it, makes the windows lovely and clean, but it sure as hell didn't solve my problem. So I'm STILL stuck with rear windows that I can't see out of, but summers here soon (so I'm told) and there should be a problem, but I look forward to winter driving.

If anyone else has the same problem please write it in a 'Review Comment', as I'd been told NO-ONE has this problem. EVEN better if you've had it and solved it!

The doors... This may be a silly thing, but... some-times no matter how hard you slam the darn things they stay ajar, and no there's nothing blocking it.

And the stereos CRA... rubbish! But this may be biased as I had my old car fully fitted with BOSE...

AND FINALLY; The titanium gear know looks good I agree, but is FREEZING at 6-7 in the morning, so bad it burns your hand!

SO, all in all I am quite disappointed in the car and wouldn't recommend one until atleast SOME of these faults are sorted.

"Quit with the negative vibes man..."

(Kelly's Hero's)

"RIGHT, think happy.."

Beautifully comfortable. The seats hold and support you perfectly, short journey or long you won't be clasping you lower back as you get out.

The suspension is great. It lets you feel what your doing without jarring you as some others do.

And performace... pretty good considering she only cost £17,000 or something in that region with air-con. A night-mare in the 20mph zones... she doesn't stay at 20. And over-taking is a breeze, flick her down a gear and go. Flick her down TWO gears, zing the rev counter up a few thousand, dump the clutch and you'll leave this place FAR FAR AWAY. Scared the hell out of me the first time I done it. I went from 40 to over 100 in next to no time, a quick glance in the mirror and that 125 was out of sight!

The boot-space is pretty good too. I can fit a full grown Japanese Akita (bigger than a German Sheppard) in the boot and she's got plenty of room to spare. As for the back seats... you can actually fit an adult in them WITH leg space. My old F.T.O. didn't have enough leg-room for and 'Umpa-Lumpa' (Green guys from Charlie and the chocolate Factory)

The fuel economy is excellent. She takes £26 in just over a week. (Don't ask, but every time I've filled her up she's took £26... FREAKY!) As expected, I you red-line every time you sit behind the wheel then expect dearer running costs. But considering the V-Tec 'bits' open up at about 4000 revs, and you can't not go over 4000 really, she's pretty darn reasonable on fuel.

After writing this I'm really not sure if the positive weigh out the negatives or not. Make your own judgment, just after spending this much on a brand new car I didn't expect, nor want, this many faults.

BUT - one mans meat is another mans poison - or something like that. Test-drive one MORE than once on all different road surfaces and make your own call.