2002 Honda Civic Type R from UK and Ireland - Comments

Driver side speaker rattles somewhere near the door.

SRS airbag light came on once.

Some rattle from the suspension (could be my fault)

An excellent car.

Excellent handling on bigger roads - motorway performance is stunning. It's put much bigger and powerful cars to shame (BMW 330ci, Scoobies, Cossies).

You might eventually get tired with having to rev it to 7,000 eventually though!

Not brilliant in the wet/cold and on smaller twistier roads.

Drives easily - even my wife finds it easy to drive - and she doesn't like to drive.

Very practical - wheels not too big nice shape - not too boy racer.

No doubt it is a fast car, but I don`t believe that its put Scoobys and Cossies to shame, come on, its nowhere near these two in the performance stakes. All the same it's a very fine car.

Scoobies would leave a CTR easily their performance is on another echelon. I've got a 255bhp (slightly modified) S3 and it can just keep up with them after 100mph then at 125mph closes the gap and past. I looked at the CTR when buying the S3 but the Honda dealer wouldn't let me test drive it being only 21 so I bought the S3 instead albeit second hand. The CTR is a wonderful car and extremely well priced, but in my opinion Honda do need to include air con standard then it would be near perfection.

The scoob is a fine piece of engineering, but unless we are talking about the Sti, the stock WRX is slower to the ton than a CTR. I am confident that there is virtually nothing to separate them in real world driving (oh BTW, the CTR has a better top end too).

I own a ctr anniversary and have fitted a k and n tyhpoon air filter. this was done not to try and improve the performance (although they claim a 14 bhp improvement) but the sound. after it was fitted I could noy wait to try it out, but was a bit disapointed at frist start up. then I hit the v-tec and wow what a noise its sounds fantastic. I would recomend this mod to any one the only problem is it makes you drive in the v-tec more which is expensive.

Not all roads are straight a scooby would leave the ctr 4 dead on the twisty stuff. the pull out of corners is phenomenal wheras the ctr with its puny torque figure and high revving power delivery drops of the powerband and struggles. scoobs pull from 300rpm the ctr from 6000 no way a ctr would beat one. if it did it would be down to the drivers.

I can't't comment on scoobies or cossies, but the type r take 6.9 seconds to do 60 and tops out at 146 mph, the 330ci takes 6.4 seconds to do 60 and tops out at an electronically limited top speed of 155mph, plus it has torque all over the place in it's rev range, which the type-r cannot compare, whichever way you look at it, the 330ci is faster in acceleration and top speed. some people cannot count, but supposedly can drive a car like a civic type-r!

Sad and shameful, it must be said.

Raziel.

The 330ci is a wonderful car, I've had one, but now drive a CTR. Sometimes the numbers on the page do not reflect the 'smile factor' behind the wheel and this is a classic example. I kept the 330 for a year and have now had the CTR for nearly two and it STILL makes me smile.

A friend has a Scooby and it has to be said it is also an awesome car, turbo lag is a negative, but the 4 wheel drive makes a big difference.

In summary, they are all good cars for various reasons, but keep away from my CTR!!!

Reziel what ctr do you drive mate in the book theyre 6.4sec to 60 so don't misleasd people buy yourself a tdi golf

simon vickers the 1st.

I must agree with the other guy, if the civic beats a scoob its down to driver skill, even the UK WRX gets to 60 over a second quiker, same with 0-100 mph. In fact the 0-60 and 0-100 are the same for a UK WRX and a escort cossie, 5.6 and 15.8, its the torqe that counts in ecceleration. That's where turbos shine.

I agree with the gentleman who says that the bare figure do not tell the whole story. I have a CTR and my brother in law has a 330i, which I have driven plenty, so I can compare directly.

If you look it up, regardless of 0-60s, top speeds, bhp and so on, the Civic actually has the better power to weight ratio (although not by much) which is more relevant.

The BMW is quicker from a standing start due to superior traction and torque (and yes it has a higher top speed, but who can ever use that?). It will also pull away from the Civic at low revs again due to far superior torque.

BUT!!! If you are on the ball you can drive around the Civic's disadvantages and give the BMW a very hard time! Yes, you have to drive it much harder to extract it's full performance, but it can be done.

It WILL stay with the 330i when on the move - I have done it plenty to my brother in law! When the CTR is rolling (any Honda DOHC VTEC for that matter) they are capable of in gear acceleration that will give trouble too many cars that are faster on paper (if not out and out beat them).

Ultimately guys, between these two, there really is little difference on the move if the Civic driver is on the ball!!

I have a ctr and have found it (ability allowing) to be a great all round car. it has the acceleration that tares you face off in the v-tec and although it admitadly needs to be kept hold of, due to its fascination with following all divots and lines in the road. in my opinion you can only run so much power through to wheels, and although we are tintering on the edge of scoobie territory until a four wheel drive system and more power lower in the rev range is implimented we're not quite there.

But remember scoobie drivers it takes more than a car to be any good. and the honda is more forgivin than your rally spec, precision or i'll ditch it machine.

I'm so glad to see an argument about the 330ci and the CTR, as I was trying both a while back - in my opinion the BMW is slightly, and I mean only slightly faster, but much better top end and on a track I'm sure the torque of the big BMs 3.0 would help him keep the edge. No doubt its impressive for the Honda to keep up with it, but when driving in the real world we all know we would rather drive the BMW just because I found the civic to loud and rough, it really lacks style plus the depreciation is terrible I mean they're worth nothing now!

But the number one reason which really killed it for me was the chavy following it now has - this maybe just in my area (Dorset), but I swear I've never seen one driven without a baseball cap. Its sad really as it's not a bad car, but the Focus ST and Astra VXR put it to shame. Hopefully Honda's new Type R can put them back up there.

I found the bmws performance amazin and effortless-that's the key effortless. I exhausted after driving the civic so damn hard to get its potentional.

Civic probalby has the edge, but we all know we would rather have the bmw.

I recently traded my 2001 Impreza WRX for a 2003 Civic type R, so I know how they both run. I admit in the dry the Subaru is marginally faster. On a round about in the wet in second gear, plant your foot and the Scooby will squat down and motor round like it was on rails. The Civic will just plough head on. And the couple of days I drove the Impreza in snow was amazing. Nothing with only two wheel power could have touched it on the slippy stuff.

But I live in the real world, not a race or rally track. The Honda was a third less to insure. It gets forty percent more out of a gallon of petrol. And the last service on the Impreza was nine hundred pounds when they were finished. I dont ever expect to pay anything like that servicing a Civic.

Apart from the costs theres more. The gear change in the Type R is slick and fast while the Subarus is heavy and clunky by comparison, and, the sharp pointy steering in the Civic is a world away from the sloppy big ships wheel in the Impreza. The Honda is simply easier to drive, especially fast. Between the two, as long as its not snowing, the Type R is far more fun. The Civic is also quieter on the motorway, and even has a hatch back and folding rear seats for those awkward moments with awkward loads. I know it might not have quite the same street cred as a Scooby, but I will stick with my Type R for now.

As for the BMW 330? Its in a completely different class. It costs between 50 and 100 percent more than either of these cars so why is anybody comparing them.

Iain.