Overrated: Honda Civic Type-R (FL5)

What? Is he serious? How can anyone who gets cars not be into the latest Civic Type R, a machine that’s been universally praised for its ability to set one’s trousers on fire when you want it to but also be perfectly civilised when you do not. Why the sudden, and seismic, shift in opinion?

Bear with me, if you will, because this is far from a conventional volte face. On the contrary, I thought the original FL5 Type R was a superb car when I first drove it on its international launch at the end of 2022, since when I’ve done numerous track tests on it back here in the UK – all of which it has won – and more recently have spent six months in one for a long term test. So I know this car quite well and, mostly, I think it is fantastic.

But there are glitches within its matrix that conspire to very nearly ruin the genius of this car – and they’re big enough to make me believe it is overrated.