One turbo, two litres, 315 horsepower, four cylinders, five doors. The Civic Type R is back, and with it, a question of what it means to offer an enthusiast hatch in today’s market. We already know that the Mk. 8 Golf R is too plush for its own good, but the 2023 Civic Type R has likewise grown longer in wheelbase and heavier on the scales than ever before. It all begs some curious questions for how these two icons stack up in middle age.
Straight away, there’s a sting: seldom as we might now see them, the few hot hatches left in 2022 have brought the segment to unprecedented heights — and with that, unprecedented costs. No longer the domain of the truly cheap and cheerful, these complex contemporary rockets now launch from deep pockets. The 2023 Honda Civic Type R rings in at $51,830 including destination. The 2022 Golf R manual arrives from $51,682 — right within a breath of the Civic. Both cars come one way, though Volkswagen offers an optional DSG for a further $1,400 over the manual.
Today’s VW and Honda Rs differ slightly in approach, and more still in ethos. Where the 2022 Volkswagen Golf R attempts to balance AWD usability and everyday comfort, the FWD 2023 Honda Civic Type R brings the eleventh-generation platform’s stellar accoutrements to bear for the R’s sixth generation with far less compromise.
Both of these vehicles run 2.0L turbo-fours. Horsepower is matched at 315 in both cars; torque turns a respective 295 or 280 lb-ft in the DSG and manual Golfs, respectively; and 310 lb-ft in the Civic.
The 2023 Honda Civic Type R adapts the previous-generation Type R’s same snappy engine, this time delivering nine more horsepower and 15 lb-ft more torque. True to its roots, a further-lightened flywheel spins the existing six-speed manual, their interface smoothed by revised rev-matching and their front-wheel output focused by a limited-slip diff.
The 2022 Volkswagen Golf R is plenty familiar by this point, its motor a tweaked version of the EA888 found in 2.0-litre Vee-dubs reaching over a decade back. The ‘lesser’ GTI even sports the same engine, though tuned for 70-ish fewer ponies. It may be the less torque-y of the two, but the Golf R’s all-wheel-drive translates power into movement more efficiently than the Civic’s FWD, although the engine never feels quite as thrilling or raw as its rivals. Launching from the line sees minimal parasitic chatter, limited slippage, and instant thrust. The two cars feel fairly even in terms of cornering capability, which may mean more to the heavier, taller VW.
The Golf R may be the quicker car off the line, but the joyfulness of the Civic Type R makes it feel so much faster. Riding grippy 265-section Pilot Sport 4S tires, those fronts will spin plenty, even with traction control enabled. The rev limiter bounces a lot, but once hooked and under load, drivers experience a deeper sound from the centre tailpipe, which fills the lows beneath the VTEC’s high-frequency 7,000-rpm buzz. Where the Golf R’s powertrain sounds and feels distant, the Type R’s readily affirms that it’s there and ready.
The feeling of engagement is matched with a playful enthusiasm from the drivetrain, whereas the Golf R can feel a bit too serious at times, particularly as you second-guess which drive mode a situation drive calls for. The Civic has its own set of modes and settings, and they’re more intuitively defined between Comfort, Sport, Individual, and +R.
All this makes the Type R a screaming bit of fun, but it’s also a good reminder of the dynamics at play. Though aggressively poised with impressive sway control and adaptive damping, the Civic’s front-driven setup nevertheless answers more directly to that power, pulling strong but plowing wide through steering inputs under acceleration. With this in mind, drivers must more diligently set up their entry, then unwind the wheel with a gentler roll back into the throttle than in the Golf R.
If the Golf is emotionless but calculated, the Type R is emotional while demanding more mindful calculation of your own. Just don’t wait for steering feedback to tell you when you’re about to understeer: The Golf R’s steering is far from lively, but Honda’s laughably overweighted electronic rack offers even less in this department.
All this praise for the Civic Type R’s liveliness isn’t to say that the Golf R is a bore, and it must be noted that it brings a whole lot to play with. The Golf R offers a variety of selectable drive modes, including Comfort, Sport, Race (which enables Drift), a customizable setting, and a special Nurburgring mode. The car noticeably changes its behaviour between these modes, although the special Nurburgring mode feels like a gimmick, boasting the exact settings used by VW’s test drivers on the famed circuit. Living 6,000 km away from Germany, it’s hard to say whether that setting will apply to an everyday commute — or even laps around local tracks. Still, its willingness to let the rear controllably step wide is a good little pleasure.
A drift setting helps further distinguish the Golf R from the GTI — and other hot hatches for that matter — sending up to 50 per cent of the engine’s power to the rear axle. The fun twist is that the power can also be routed to an individual rear wheel as needed thanks to AWD-system cleverness — theoretically enabling it to put about 157 ponies on a single tire, if the system decides. Unfortunately, even on cold tires, this mode never seemed like enough to overcome the size or weight of the car, and might be most enjoyable on a slick surface like a skid pad or ice rink.
On the other hand, the Custom mode is an overwhelming buffet of settings. The Dynamic Chassis Control damper settings have about 15 settings to choose from, and while it is possible to tell a difference at the ends of that spectrum, it’s far more subtle in the middle of the spread. With all those modes and settings, it feels like drivers have to figure out the right combination in order for the Golf R to find their perfect fit — something which unfortunately never clicked for either of us.
Far from a burden, the Golf R’s AWD system provides its benefits beyond the mild drift mode and off-the-line thrust. It helps build confidence, as the mechanicals dial in how much power is needed at each wheel. The persona of a hot hatch used to be twitchy, as they were boosted beyond any civility and lacking other important ride-enhancing features to keep costs down, but the Golf R sheds this cliche.
It’s advanced, composed, stable, and confident, and its suspension system goes a long way to complement these traits. All dampers react independently to maintain the desired ride in the given drive mode, helping to tighten up the ride and reduce body roll when pushing things, or leaving things a bit loose for regular commutes.
Capable as it is, the Civic Type R feels rather simple by comparison. Damping adjustment spans just three basic settings (Comfort, Sport, Race) and your only other options are confined to the engineers’ very specific parameters. Even the digital experience is simpler, with Honda’s basic centre display feeling a generation behind the slick, tablet-like VW UI. Still, Honda packs plenty in with its LogR system. Continued from the last generation, LogR displays myriad telemetric data on the centre infotainment screen and combines with a smartphone app for data-driven analysis of driving habits and traces. Datapoints include input traces, G-forces, fluid temperatures and pressures, and GPS lap timing and recording.
Manual transmissions are important character points in these cars, and there are important traits to note here. The Type R equips the previous car’s same pleasant six-speed manual with a machined NSX-style knob, snappy engagement, and short enough ratios that it gets plenty of work. The Golf R’s three-pedal option — manual for North America only, where uptake is high among its following — was seemingly phoned in by disinterested Germans who tossed in a base commuter Golf ‘box with long, soft shifts and little real passion or mechanical joy. Unless you intend to improve the manual yourself, the smart-shifting dual-clutch automatic feels like the better fit for this high-tech hot hatch. Please, somebody get this car a short-shift kit.
Neither clutch provides much real feedback, and electronic throttle maps make both cars effectively un-stallable in normal use. The Type R’s pedal feels the slightly more sporting of the two; likewise, its less overtly digital character indirectly helps its rev-matching feel less nanny and more natural. There’s another plus in the Civic Type R as well: proper LED shift lights.
For all the joy that these hot hatches can bring to the road, they’re also expected to be modern, practical, livable vehicles. To check that box, they need to be spacious and easy to use.
Contrast the Golf R’s exterior restraint and interior blandness with the Type R’s slight boy-racer vibe and searing red cabin, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the Golf was the outright more practical of the two. But while the Type R’s front buckets sink deeper than the broader, more accessible seats in the Golf R, the Civic seems the more dimensionally and intuitively friendly car to live with. Driving assists are less powerful than the Golf’s, but still simplify the commuter’s drive with effective lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control down to 30 km/h.
The VW’s three rear seats offer more headroom, but the Civic’s two rear passengers will enjoy significantly more legroom — even if they stand six-foot-four. The Civic also presents more space in its broad, easy-loading liftback cargo area, which is great for when you trade blasting through B-roads for grocery-grabbing. Comfort-mode ride quality is comparable to the Golf R, with both vehicles riding on 19-inch wheels.
Importantly, the Civic doesn’t feel like it’s trying to do anything too strenuously clever or new. It feels like a new Civic, and features an approachable take to user interface design. Centre-screen controls are easy to use, with less sheen but still many of the same features as the Golf. Though also less customizable, important information is always clearly and straightforwardly presented. As time passes and the Type R becomes a collectible, owners will likely appreciate this simplicity.
The VW gets about half a mark here. It has a usable cargo area, and passengers will definitely fit in the rear seats. The front thrones are comfortable and supportive, and there are parts of the cabin that look slick, like the blue accent stitching. Other aspects look far less premium, with drab, depressing, hollow-feeling gray plastic.
Then there’s the infotainment system. While it can be defined as ‘powerful,’ some users will find the Golf R’s interface utterly frustrating. Simple tasks took our eyes off the road for too long; a proximity sensor would bring icons to the display when we didn’t want them; the touch-sensitive HVAC settings don’t light up at night, and worse, are placed just around where you would brace your fingers to use the touch screen, resulting in surprise inputs. We avoided the native infotainment system where possible and kept to the wireless Android Auto/Apple CarPlay interfaces, or the better-defined (yet still excessive) steering wheel buttons.
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Weighing this all from an enthusiast buyer’s perspective, the 2023 Honda Civic Type R sweeps this comparison — and indeed the segment. If you aren’t so concerned with pulling up in something that looks a little racy, the Honda Civic Type R delivers more sound, more sensation, better shifts, greater accessibility, and a greater sense of satisfaction with every pound of the pedals. It’s brilliant fun and plenty capable, making it an intensely attractive package.
The Volkswagen Golf R is an impressive and perhaps technologically superior product, but if you’re really that set on lap times, you’re probably looking for something with two doors. Set aside its on-paper strength, then, and the two obvious reasons to press ahead with the Golf over the Civic are brand loyalty and sheepishness about that rear wing.
Economical as their profiles may be, these hatches’ stickers have ticked up to full-sized prices. Of course the ~$52k MSRPs aren’t the easiest swallows, but such is the average sale price for new vehicles today. Shoppers would also do well to give thought to the best-of-its-bracket Hyundai Elantra N, which comes loaded with three pedals and enthusiastic FWD from $11,000 less.
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