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Honda Civic Type-S Review

38K views 43 replies 16 participants last post by  warriorpete 
#1 · (Edited)
... a 5-Door owners view

First things first, this is a fantastic car. Anyone new to the 2006/2007 Civic, and in the market for a three door warm hatch is going to be impressed. It's hard not to be - the car we know and love has been re-spun to create a sporty model with something of a nod to the Type-R styling. So there's the good news - Honda have created one of the best sporting 3-door hatchbacks on the market. Yet, in terms of value and to the seasoned 5-door owner, this car comes as a disappointment.


Put simply, there just isn't enough here to make up for the lack of doors, the additional cost, or the reduction of trim choices. Badge or practicality? The choice is yours.

Let us take a fictional trip to the Honda Marketing office....

Employee 1: "So, we need to do a three door, what's going to work well?"
Employee 2: "Well without the back doors, the whole thing looks sleeker!"
Employee 1: "Erm, no. They'll look almost the same now."
Employee 2: "Fair enough - well, obviously the reduced price will pull in more people than the 5 door"
Employee 1: "Except we're aiming to price it as a premium model"
Employee 2: "Right, okay - let's half-heartedly pop a badge on it, make some slightly sticky-out trims and charge more"
Employee 1: "You'll go far, here's a promotion."

Cynical, but it was always going to be clear that a vanilla three door version of the popular 8th Generation Civic was going to struggle against an extremely sporting looking 5 Door, with the same lines and styling. Still, there are some changes to this revision..

So what has changed? Honda claim to have uprated the suspension, and the brakes. Certainly the 17" wheels supplied on the review car looked to fill up the wheel arch slightly better than the 17-inchers on the 5 Door, so we can assume some lowering and stiffening has taken place. Upon taking the car out on the road, you can tell the ride is harsher and firmer - perhaps akin to the feel of 18" wheels on the 5-Door version. Improved brakes are also included, which definitely feel keener than those on the 5-Door models.


The external side skirts are not body-coloured like the Type-R, but keep the same twisted fusilli style shape of the forthcoming hot hatch. The off-grey matched with the metallic Vivid Blue, stands out in a bad way. It's quite a shame, since part of the appeal of the Type-S is the more aggressive styling; something is lost with the skirt colouring. This effect is probably less severe with black or bronze.

At the front, we have a replacement front panel, which looks wide and menacing from the front, but more like a guppy from the side.


This is definitely an improvement from the standard 5 Door equivalent trim. Less different at the rear, but an updated grill reminds on-lookers of the intention of the car.

As we move inside, there are a number of subtle changes worth mentioning. Firstly, the new seats (complete with handles for rear passenger ingress) do look sportier. The material for the central sections feels more substantial than the existing seats, and has contrasting white stitching to complete the effect. On closer inspection, the build quality of the seat seems to have dropped a little - specifically the feel of the mechanical adjustments such as seat height and position levers. In the rear, the styling continues, but with the removal of the central drop-down arm rest, and new side panels. These look pretty nice, with lozenge-shaped speaker grills high up the door, and new silver-rimmed cup holders giving a quality feel to the spacious rear seats.


It's also worth noting that Honda have removed the magic seat functionality, and the seats cannot be lifted up cinema-style as in the 5-door.

Sitting in the drivers seat, one immediately notices the leather steering wheel even on the standard trim level Type-S. Most things feel familiar, and fall to hand as you might expect, but the driving position appears noticeably higher. Even on the lowest height setting, I felt like I needed to drop down a few notches. There are a few minor changes to the seatbelts, including a seat tether loop to keep the holster in place. One concern was the lack of visibility when doing an over-the-shoulder check; altered door/pillar layouts have made things worse since the 5 door (which itself has a few pillar issues).



Setting off, and giving the car a good workout, it's clear that there are some minor changes with the driving feel. The clutch felt slightly easier, and the engine less liable to lurch in first gear, this car did seem very slightly smoother. These changes are more likely revisions of the ECU since the 5 Door has been on the market for 9 months. It will be interesting to see if existing ECUs get altered at service time.


The car feels very natural, and offers an almost identical to drive to the 1.8 5 Door. The small amount of "scrabbling" pulling away quickly from bends was slightly disconcerting, as this is not something that happens on my own 1.8 SE. This could have been down to the brand new tyres, or the new suspension - there's certainly no more grip available on the 3 Door.

Finally, the long-awaited iPod link. Hidden away in the dashboard cubbyhole, this is a proprietary Apple connector, with a small covering cap for when the link is not in use. The cable is brought down from the 'roof' of the hole, and is around 8" long. It's impossible to be kind to this attempt at getting auxiliary input to the head unit.


Mating the iPod and cable results in a Honda logo on the device's screen, and a quick shuffle of the head unit "mode" setting reveals the CDC (CD Changer setting) option. There are no track listings, artist details, or any information about the music whatsoever. This, coupled with the locking out of the iPod's screen and controls during connection means music is virtually uncontrollable. Albums are selected at random (with no apparent means of stopping this), then tracks can be accessed sequentially within the album. Something of an own goal, and far less useful than a basic 3.5mm AUX jack.



Apparently playlists are supported, but this merely adds the playlist name to the display. Even the physicalities of the link are dubious. You can only place the iPod in the cubby hole, which of course is much larger than the device itself. Every single corner results in a thud of iPod against dashboard, as it slides around inside. The price for this magical combination? Between £220 and £300.



Addition of the GT pack adds serious expense to the car, but includes dual zone climate, cruise. front foglights, auto lights, auto wipers, glass roof, power folding mirrors.. essentially an EX with a glass roof.

In conclusion, and despite the criticisms, we are looking at a superb vehicle. It is key to remember this review is mainly in comparison to a remarkable 5 Door car which offers much more flexibility in terms of trim, rear space and to housing back-seat passengers. The chassis improvements are minimal, and the updated skirts are not going to convince many buyers. It feels not so much a "Poor Man's Type-R" but more like a "Rich Man's SE".




Best 3 door coupe in it's class? Absolutely. Best Civic in Honda's range - no way. Bring on the Type-R!



Many thanks to Paul and Donna at John Banks Honda for the loan of the car.
 
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#6 · (Edited)
The plastics are exactly the same, no difference. There is different material (cloth) on the door panels, looks harder wearing.

The suspension just feels a lot firmer, you definitely feel every bump and hole in the road. There may be marginally less body roll, too.
 
#11 ·
It's quite surprising really as it seems much quieter and smoother (might be the tyres but 17" same as my 5 door) The rear track being wider helps with the cornering and coupled to the revised suspension setting it works well.
I also find the 3 door easier to use with the kids than the 5 door as rear doors do restrct access to kiddy seats a little.
 
#13 ·
I also find the 3 door easier to use with the kids than the 5 door as rear doors do restrict access to kiddy seats a little.
Sorry MC you've lost me on that one! I still remember the last time I ever had a 3-door and breaking my back trying to lift the baby/kids into their rear car seats and strap them in... how can not having EASY access with rear doors be better? :confused:

Am I missing something obvious here, it's late and I'm tired ;)
 
#21 ·
but the engine sounded a little quieter and smoother.
Do you mean they could have put some more noise reduction stuff in the car to decrease engine noise? :(
(if so + combined with a smoother=slower DBW the car looses to much sportiveness and will get closer to a "nothingspecial" Golf)

At the test drive I really loved the engine noise (better music)...
I hope they not going to modify the 5D too fast.. and mine still will be a sporty one..:roll:
 
#23 ·
i have just come back from the dealers and driven both the 5dr and the 3dr. I absolutely love both versions but i have now made up my mind on what im going to get.

And that is the 3dr.

Some people say its not as practical. Maybe it isnt but not by much. The front seats slide along way forward leaving ample room to get into rear so no problems there in my opinion.

The back seats dont flip up in the 3dr but again for me i dont really have a prob with that as with the seats folded down it still leaves alot of storage space. But then every person has different uses but for me its not a prob.

I found the type s slightly quieter inside from engine noise than the 5dr which is a good thing for me.

Some people say it doesnt look alot different but i personally prefer the 3dr look. I think it looks sleeker and just suits that car. Also I love the bodykit it comes with and the standard 17" wheels.

I also found the type S seats more comfortable and they hold you better.

Anyway all just my opinion but thought i would share what i made of the type s
 
#25 ·
1.8 EX bought June, has ventilated front disk's.

Could there be some confusion here between ventilated and drilled disks?

Don't want to teach my mum to suck duck eggs (Never understood why anyone would like to suck a duck egg), Ventilated disk are like two disks separated by vanes while drilled disks are, well drilled [smilie=cheeky-grin:
 
#28 ·
Aha! I meant to write about that.

Rear visibility is actually WORSE in the three door. Main reason being that the "over the shoulder lifesaver" when merging/changing lanes is really difficult now with the different door positions. IN the five door, you can see out the back rear window on a quick check... I couldn't see ANYTHING in the 3 Door. Pretty hairy, but at least the wing mirrors are good.

It's also a pain reaching back to put the seat belt on.

I've updated the review as I did mean to mention this.
 
#29 ·
Aha! I meant to write about that.

Rear visibility is actually WORSE in the three door. Main reason being that the "over the shoulder lifesaver" when merging/changing lanes is really difficult now with the different door positions. IN the five door, you can see out the back rear window on a quick check... I couldn't see ANYTHING in the 3 Door. Pretty hairy, but at least the wing mirrors are good.

It's also a pain reaching back to put the seat belt on.

I've updated the review as I did mean to mention this.
WORSE???

Oh...

As a potential 07 Civic buyer, I sat in a 5 door last week and thought the rear visibility was already poor, so if you're saying the 3 door is WORSE...I might have to revise my buying options!

I *had* thought the 3 door visibility would be better since it looks like the swooping glass before the C pillar affords a better view....but perhaps not?
 
#31 ·
As wollyciv says, the front disks are ventilated. It is like a sandwich, and the air can get in between the disks to cool them. if you look at the front disks at an angle, you can see a gap in the middle.
Drilled or grooved disks have holes drilled in them or grooves cut into them to aid cooling but are for the most part unnecessary for normal cars, only needed on true sport cars.

BTW that was a very good write-up, BG. I have to agree, I seel little point in removing the rear doors in the first place, Honda did such a good job with them on the 5 door! I think I will stick with mine for the time being...
 
#34 ·
i really dont unstand this HUGE issue with rear visability!! i have not had ANY problems seeing anything (and yes that includes when i had my dealership sticker still on!) i manage to reverse park, change lanes and see anything i need to see and i certainly dont agree with BG that it is worse in the 3 door, its the same blinking car but with 2 less doors!!!
 
#36 ·
I think it might be down to reviewers of the Civic highlighting the rear visibility as a weakness. It depends what car you had before you bought a Civic to some extent, but having sat in one at a dealers I didn't think the visibility is great - not only is the C pillar thick, but the rear glass also has a black border which effectively further widens the C pillar, which does not help!

With parking sensors/rear camera things are better and also, as with any car, the driver adapts to the car over time, so perhaps 6 months into driving the Civic the visibility issue isn't an issue any more?

I would love to try out the 3 door as it *looks* better visibility wise, especially for six footers like me!
 
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