New Honda Civic Type R vs new Volkswagen Golf R 20 Years: costs

Buying and owning

Costs, equipment, reliability, safety and security

Production of the Volkswagen Golf R 20 Years is planned to run only for 12 months, while Honda says Honda Civic Type R imports will be restricted to the “hundreds, not thousands”. It’s perhaps this limited availability that has given their makers the confidence to charge nearly £50,000 for these range-topping hot hatches. In the Type R’s case, that’s more than £10k up on its predecessor.

In the context of a PCP finance deal, that translates to £687 per month for the Type R and £804 for the R20, assuming you put down a £5000 deposit and limit yourself to 10,000 miles a year over three years. That’s a lot of money by anyone’s standards, but then again, a Mercedes-AMG A45 S Plus on the same terms would cost you a further £350 per month. And that car isn’t ‘limited’ production.

No data is available about the Type R’s predicted resale values, but we’d expect them to be very strong, given the limited supply. Meanwhile, the R20 should hold onto its value fractionally better than the regular Golf R.

Both cars come with niceties such as adaptive cruise control, climate control and keyless entry. Apart from metallic paint, there are very few options available for the Type R, whereas we suspect R20 buyers will want to add the adaptive suspension, and some might be tempted by the Akrapovic sports exhaust (£3500).

The standard Honda Civic and Volkswagen Golf received Euro NCAP’s maximum five-star safety rating, but the former was tested under a more stringent regime, so it is difficult to compare their individual scores directly. Both cars get automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance, blindspot monitoring, traffic sign recognition and a rear-cross traffic alert system that warns you of approaching cars if you’re reversing out onto a road.

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