8 Awesome Used Civic Type Rs For Every Budget

The Civic Type R is an institution. Famous in Japan since the 1990s thanks to the lightweight, high-revving EK9, consumer demand meant that Europe finally got its hands on that car’s successor, the 2001 EP3. Since then it’s been a performance benchmark right through the full life cycles of the naturally-aspirated EP3 and FN2 versions, and latterly the reincarnated, turbocharged FK2, not to mention the rather positive reviews coming out from the launch of the FK8…

Whichever version you buy and for whatever budget you’re dealing with, you’re getting a top-drawer hot hatch with pedigree. The classifieds are full of them, too, with used versions of every generation littering the usual websites. It didn’t take long for us to pick out eight that caught our eye, all the way from £1500 to £30,000.

2001 EP3

Let’s start proceedings with the cheapest fixed-price way to buy a UK-model Civic Type R today. Some auction listings were cheaper at the time of writing with hours or days still left to run, but we couldn’t find a less expensive car in a classified ad. This 110,000-miler on a 51-plate has probably been abused if the tacky modifications are any yardstick, but at least its MOT is unblemished – unlike the paintwork.

Still what do you expect for £1495? It ‘drives well’ says the seller but needs some cosmetic attention. The seats look like they could do with a full re-trim, for starters, and if you have any decency you’d also want to get rid of that silly oversized metal dingleberry hanging off the back end. A subtler exhaust would be better, along with a bonnet respray and maybe even a wheel swap.

2007 FN2

The world is your oyster if you want an FN2. Not always given the love it deserved while it was on sale, it nonetheless sold in the thousands. This generation used the same engine as the EP3, with a slightly different exhaust that liberated a solitary extra pony from the four cylinders. All the extra weight Honda piled onto it, like automatic windscreen wipers, cruise control and increased sound deadening, made it slower on a racetrack but infinitely more refined and exploitable on the road.

This is the cheapest unmolested one that we found. At £3395 it’s theoretically the sort of bargain that should have you frothing at the mouth, but it clearly has some scrapes. The front bumper needs attention and the wheels could do with a refurb. The service history isn’t mentioned and we’d want to see a full one bearing in mind the 126,000 miles on the clock, but it’s still huge fun for the cash.

2004 EP3

But what about if your budget is, say, £5000 and you want a decent, standard, cared-for car as opposed to the cheapest there is? Here’s the sort of EP3 you really want. A black 2004 model, this one has covered a healthy 65,000 miles and it’s declared under a SORN at the moment. Lucky the seller has a big driveway to take the pictures on.

It has a full service history, according to the advert, and looks to have been well looked-after. The driver’s seat might need a bit of attention to clean it up properly, but otherwise it’s very tidy. The asking price is £4995, and judging by some similar ones around the classifieds, this one is a good deal. Prices for good ones are very much on the up.

2007 FN2

After that neat EP3 here’s a very similar FN2, in that it’s black, has driven 66,000 miles and seems to have been looked after. This one isn’t totally standard, having had some minor, unspecified work done under the bonnet. It’s also been fitted with what the seller thinks is a Mugen body kit. It isn’t. Not that it looks bad in any way, but it’s not the same as the one fitted to the Mugen-fettled versions.

Still, for £6470 you get a peach of a driver’s car with a full service carried out three months ago, in great condition all round. Prices are still creeping down, though, so the best you can hope for in investment terms is to get the purchase price back one day. Which, admittedly, isn’t a bad deal.

2007 FD2

An ordinary FN2 pales into insignificance against our next option, though. Built in the same year, 2007, the FD2 was the JDM version; altogether prettier with four doors and a saloon boot. It was more agile-feeling than the UK car with better steering and better chassis feedback, and it was also 24bhp happier at the top end. That gave it more of a rush and let VTEC flex its muscles with more gusto. Fifth Gear once tested it against the FN2 around a wet Castle Combe circuit and the FD2 was three seconds quicker…

It had a helical limited-slip differential (unlike pre-2010 FN2s) and was more closely related in many ways to the DC5 Integra than the EP3 Civic. The one we’ve picked costs a fairly heavy £12,995 despite its 89,000 miles, but it has a lot of the modifications that buyers might want to make themselves anyway, like progressive Spoon lowering springs, Rota Force alloys and EBC Yellowstuff brakes. You’re probably not likely to lose much on the price you pay, either.

2010 FN2 Championship White

If you’d prefer something from the UK, this facelift-era FN2 Civic is a cut above the norm. It’s the Championship White model, built with a Mugen body kit and a mechanical limited-slip differential. It did cost quite a bit more than the standard car, but it won absolute rave reviews when it was released, transforming the FN2’s weaknesses into strengths.

If you want it, you’re going to have to pay for it. The 35,000-miler we found is up for grabs at £14,000, for which you could buy two very nice standard FN2s with spare change for fuel. It’s no more powerful, either. There’s a definite question mark over whether future demand will really reflect the asking price today, no matter how good it is to drive.

2015 FK2

‘Bargain’ is a relative term, but we think this might be one. We liked the FK2 Type R a lot, however briefly its light shone. Built and imported for just two years before being replaced by the all-new FK8 Alex reviewed this week, it was the first turbocharged Civic Type R and a bit of a beast. It had a completely different character to the earlier Type Rs and you tended to need to be a gear higher, wherever you were and whatever you were doing. It was a rapid and engaging beast of a thing on the right road, though.

For this feature we found this two-year-old one, in what for us is the best colour and spec combination. As a GT model it gives you sat-nav, a rear parking camera, xenon headlights, all sorts of safety aids and there’s even three years left on the service plan. With new FK8s well over £30,000, paying £23,250 for this one with just 15,000 miles under its belt seems like a bit of a steal.

2010 FN2 Mugen 200

We’re not suggesting you buy this one, but the price is so steep we just had to include it. This is not the full-fat Type R Mugen that formed a heroic last stand for the N/A Type R. That one had 256bhp from a 2.2-litre bored-and-stroked version of the K20 engine and was completely mental. This, on the other hand, is essentially the same car beneath the skin as the Championship White edition, with the slippy diff and the all-round improved driving experience versus standard, but no more power.

The Mugen 200 has the exclusivity of being limited to 200 units, this being number 004 and blessed with a history of being used as a display car at Honda motorsport events, but it shouldn’t add that much in value. The odometer reading of just 500 miles will add some, but as you can see from the listing, it’s for sale at £30,000. Thirty grand. That’s madness. There’s an identical one for sale at £13,450 with 54,000 miles on it, so we’ll just leave that there.

We couldn’t find a proper Mugen 2.2 for sale anywhere, but thinking of the likely prices makes us clench…