When you walk into your garage and your morning gaze lands on the car parked there, do you feel almost giddy anticipation for your commute? I do. We get to drive a lot of cars in this business, and there are precious few that instill this feeling—for a sustained amount of time. It’s been four months since we got this car, one year and four months since I first drove the Civic Type R, and I still get a buzz when I approach it. The thing that distinguishes it among other hot hatches is its bandwidth. It can provide mellow and comfortable as well as it can wild and wooly experiences. Come to think of it, that’s the same reason I love the Porsche 911 and the (F90) BMW M5. They’re all multitalented. Not only that, the harder one drives any of these three, the better they become: more precise and more fun.
BAM! thump thump, thump
Do you know what’s not fun? Driving over a raised sewer cover the street seems to have settled around. Bam! There was a slight vibration in the steering wheel right afterward, and I was expecting the TPMS light. (In a different car, I once hit a pothole at speed and pinched the tire so hard that it tore a silver dollar–sized blister in the sidewall.) No low-pressure warning from the I.P., and when I got out and looked at the tire, it was OK. I checked the pressure. Good. There was no evidence that anything had happened (scratches head). Oh, wait. There’s a 4-inch section of the wheel that looked straighter than the rest. Yup, a bent wheel. Depending on where you look on the Web, it would cost between $500 and $800 to replace the wheel alone.
Check-up
At about the same time, the “A1” service light came on, so I made an appointment with 6,600 miles on the odometer. A couple hours later, an oil/filter change and thorough inspection totaled $96.51, which feels a little steep. Nevertheless, the CTR is zooming again and earning decent fuel economy on its journey, earning 28.7 mpg on an 8-gallon refill, bringing its running average up to 22.4 mpg.
More on our long-term Civic Type R here:
The post 2018 Honda Civic Type R Long-Term Update 2: Type R IRL appeared first on Motor Trend.
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