JDM Civic Type R

[trophy176]

Has anyone else read about the JDM Civic Type R and getting a bit tempted?

Autocar clocked it doing 0 - 100 in 15.98 secs while the Megane R26 clocked 16.66. Not much in it but interesting all the same.

EVO gave it a good review too, hailing it as the best Honda on sale at the moment. I looked forward to next months issue to see how it did at Bedford.

 

[DaveTrophy]

http://uk.media.cars.ign.com/articles/777/777166/img_4436552.html

^^Is that the one your on about?

I'm not normally a fan of 5 door motors but having read the spec and reviews of that thing it would be hard not to be tempted

Have you seen the Mugen version also...

http://uk.media.cars.ign.com/articles/785/785878/imgs_1.html

 

[Cue]

was thinking the same, but I wouldn't get rid of the Trophy for one.

 

[artdealer]

As Pele says in the Viagra ad.."I would" (well at least I think that's what he says)

 

[trophy176]

Yeah Dave thats the one.

Just been on the Litchfield site and you can spec various Mugen performance parts onto it.

But also just read in magazine that it costs £12500 in Japan yet litchfield want £22500!!

It really cant be that much to import?

 

[trophy176]

http://www.litchfieldimports.co.uk/civic_options.asp

this is the litchfield site with Mugen pics.

 

[Cool Hand Luke]

Yeah, impressive write up in Evo this month - sounds like it'd be very good to drive. Looks good too for a saloon.

Where did it all go wrong with the UK Civic Type-R? :?

 

[trophy176]

Good question!!

For me it seems that they have tried to offer the UK a middle ground pitch. A car that will be liked across the board. I can relate it to the first hot megane the 225 which didn't go down too well but had a decent across the board fancy for it. I think they have seriously failed to realise how much the UK likes extreme hot hatches like the Trophy and R26.

It always surprises me that Honda never brought the DC5 to the UK. A car that if supplied by dealers would have had a huge following filling the gap between hot hatch and coupe.

 

[artdealer]

Landed cost in UK with Commission in Japan, Shipping, Duty, SVA (someone's had to pay for the report) Alarm, Delivery in UK from docks to dealer, all plus VAT and the total is about £18500. Payment when car leaves dealer in Japan, probably a 2.5 month lead time to get it on a boat and through docs etc. If you do it all yourself then would be cheaper than a dealer, but they have to make commercial sense of having the money out, otherwise they may as well line up a row of black Fiesta Zetecs and turn the stock 25x per annum.

 

[trophy176]

Always a sneaky catch on importing!!

Art dealer you should give it a go and sell for 20k!! :lol: :lol:

Or just look out for low mileage second hand ones next September for me.

 

[Steve]

They're lovely, If I was saving up for a DC5, I think I'd hold out a little longer and get one. I mean it must be good if they compared it directly with the DC2 this month. :wink: :lol:

 

[trophy176]

Yeah that EVO article was done by Richard Meaden and he is pretty fair when analysing cars. If memory serves me right he's a big fan of the Trophy to.

 

[artdealer]

Always a sneaky catch on importing!!

Art dealer you should give it a go and sell for 20k!! :lol: :lol:

Or just look out for low mileage second hand ones next September for me.

It crossed my mind a couple of weeks ago but I decided against as I think Honda GB will clamp down on them**. They are legally entitled to following the Mitsubishi precedent a few years ago. They are obviously better than the UK car and if the imports take off they will either get angry or bring them in.

The previous rationale of not bringing DC5 in as they would affect CTR sales was flawed, if I was MD of Honda GB I'd be hammering on Japan MD's door!

I will buy them 2nd hand asap - or even go out to Japan and arrange a block of personal imports (that would be the way around it if the grey import dealers were prevented from selling) if it was worth my while.

**Ollie, here's a subject for your blog.

 

[oliie]

Always a sneaky catch on importing!!

Art dealer you should give it a go and sell for 20k!! :lol: :lol:

Or just look out for low mileage second hand ones next September for me.

It crossed my mind a couple of weeks ago but I decided against as I think Honda GB will clamp down on them**. They are legally entitled to following the Mitsubishi precedent a few years ago. They are obviously better than the UK car and if the imports take off they will either get angry or bring them in.

The previous rationale of not bringing DC5 in as they would affect CTR sales was flawed, if I was MD of Honda GB I'd be hammering on Japan MD's door!

I will buy them 2nd hand asap - or even go out to Japan and arrange a block of personal imports (that would be the way around it if the grey import dealers were prevented from selling) if it was worth my while.

**Ollie, here's a subject for your blog.

Hehe... thanks for the thought Steve! There is an opportunity cost with having good cars in the country to kick start. Afterall, Litchfield is taking on the marketing at no cost to Honda and can test the water (and get the car homoligated). From there it'll be easy for Honda to undercut the grey imports... as did Mitsubishi here and in Australia.

 

[Steve]

I'd love to get one of these in a year or so, I'll let someone else pay for the costs of importing the thing and running it in, then pick on up for £15K. Nothing else of a similar age will touch it performance wise for the money, it's a stupidly good car, Honda reliabilty, all the practicality of a saloon, the looks of a coupe and the kerb weight of a medium size hatch (It's the same weight as a Clio FFS!). Most importantly of all, it's bloody good to drive.

There's a whole bunch of people on the DC5 (and DC2) forum that are saving up for one right now, Some of them were looking at selling up to get a car with four doors and now they can have the best of both worlds, a car that's quicker on track, arguably better to drive and with loads of space, It answers all of their needs.

 

[Cue]

it's serious contender if i'm ever forced to ditch #274.

 

[trophy176]

It's very interesting to see that other forums/enthusiasts are getting very excited about the car and are looking to buy one. This also works well for me as a second hand buyer as hopefully in a year they will be available (but still be rare! fingers crossed).

Even better if Honda takes note of the current buzzz around the car and decides to directly import it and compete with the Megane. Offering similar performance, hard looks but four doors! I am hoping they'll do an estate for my mountain bike!!

 

[George K]

When first written up it looked to be the ultimate up to 2.0 litre package. In fact it is quite large and much heavier than the Trophy. According to Honda's Japanese website the basic version weighs 1,270 kg - so to get the same power to weight ratio the Trophy needs 195 bhp, which should be quite feasible. Autocar tested one of the Litchfield imports recently and it is obviously rock hard, which does not bode well for the wet. In a subsequent 0-100-0 test it was only 1 second quicker 0-100 than the UK Civic type R.

To get an idea of what it looks like it has the same basic body shell as the Hybrid saloon

 

[trophy176]

The thing is the trophy is ultra hard but good in wet, would the Honda not be good due to extra weight?

In that Autocar test the Megane did pretty poor I thought.

 

[George K]

The Trophy is quite stiff, but actually has very progressive damping, which is why it is so good in the wet (I am not brave and relatively my times are better in the wet). JDM damping tends to be much harsher which is not so helpful.