What It's Like to Live with a 2024 Honda Civic Type R (POV)

I could eat it here on these tables, or I could use the Civic Type R's built-in table. This is not just for downforce, it's also highly practical. That's highly delicious. Hey crew, I've got the key to that. Not to the Kia EV9 right here, which is a very cool vehicle. My wife reviewed it for her channel Mobile Mama Reviews. But no, the key I have is to this Honda Civic Type R. And today we're going to see what it's like to live with. Beginning with spacing in my driveway. I've got it parked a couple inches in from the edge, sitting at somewhat of an angle. Next to the EV9, which is at more of an angle. Also with a couple inches of space there at the back. And the nose of the CTR is right about the beginning of the gutter in front of my driveway. This parking spacing gives me about three feet between the cars to easily walk through or wheel a stroller through, like my family does. And because the vehicle is not too long, from the bumper of the CTR to my garage door, I've got like five or even six feet of space. With the CTR parked on this side of my driveway, let me show you the passenger door opening space. And with the key fob in my pocket, I do have smart keyless entry for the front two doors. So just pulling on the handle unlocks them. We'll go one and two notches with that door gives me a nice wide access point to nestle into the cabin, which I will do so on the driver's side. Easy to lower on in. And closing that door presents some chimes and an animation on the TFT display. I like that. Hello, cabin crew. Thank you for joining me for this day in the life in a 24 Honda Civic Type R. In this video, I want to answer the question of whether something that looks this aggressive is actually too aggressive to live with every day. The way I'll do that is with some fun driving, of course, but then I'll move into some practicality, seeing if I can put a bicycle in the back. And then tomorrow, I'm going to take it on a commute with the help of Mobile Mama. So before I get anything going here, I want to show you where I've stashed my goodies. I've got my smartphone here on the wireless charging pad. I've got my GoPro accessories, which fit perfectly into this cutout, which, yes, does cover up the cup holders, but I couldn't fit my big bottle anywhere, not on the console either, where I've got my sunglasses and wallet. So instead, I had to downgrade to just a regular old one-use bottle. So this is just going to fit here in the door. And I do have my zero to 60 timer over in the passenger side door. So I was able to find spots for almost everything, but my big bottle had to go. So now let's clutch in and fire it up. And let's go see what that idle sounds like on the outside. Man, for a cold start, that's... It's so modest. That will not disturb any neighbors at all. All right, let me belt up, release that e-brake, head into first, and ease on down. Now I do have some curb ramps here, but I don't think clearance would be an issue even if I didn't have them over that gutter portion. Now, I am making the bold decision to delay my morning coffee, expecting that driving this car aggressively will fill me with the energy I desire. But before that happens, I still need to talk about a couple things. One, this all-metal shifter knob, which feels very good in the hands, provided that it's not terribly cold. Now, it's March here in Southern California, and so it's a little chilly in the morning, but I guess tolerable. But man, I've driven a CTR on a really hot day, and I didn't want to touch the thing. So if I actually owned this car, I'd invest very early on in one of those little custom socks for these things, because it's just not worth torturing your hand. Now, the next thing to mention on my way to the good roads would be the turning circle in the CTR. And, you know, keeping in mind that it is a front-drive vehicle, and so those front tires have the added complication of not only powering the vehicle, but also turning the wheels, and therefore being kind of pushed out a little further for a wider turning circle. It's still not really remarkable. It's fine. It'll work in most confined spaces. But what is remarkable is this horn. Are you ready? How does that not just make you giggle? And why would anyone take that seriously? But all the rest of the giggles that I will experience behind the wheel of the CTR come from driving it enthusiastically. So I'm going to go into the plus R mode, the most aggressive driving mode. Downshift it. Lay in. And feel the surge of torque. Wow. I love the shift light indicator, too. Makes it feel like proper race car stuff. And it feels so stable, along with the ride having firmed up a ton here. Oh, I'm bouncing all over the place. All of the road texts are in through the wheel. Having driven a CTR on track, none of this surprises me. But it still thrills me, even on a road. Shifting gears here for a moment. If you owned a CTR, you might want to see how quick it gets to 60. So I found myself in a real world situation. I've got my race box set up to record. And I'm going into first gear. I'm going to rev it out a little bit. See how quick we can get there. 60 in second gear in 5.44 seconds. It's not the maestro of out-of-the-hole acceleration, but it is entertaining. But the CTR isn't a stoplight drag racer. It's a car you wait all work week until you can take it out to a canyon road on the weekends. Or I guess if you're me, this is my work. No, but seriously, this car is really, really fun. I get so much back through the steering wheel. I know precisely where I'm placing the car. The brakes are fantastic. The front limited-slip differential has zero trouble getting the 315 horsepower to the ground. The body is just so controlled. And though I don't actually have to change gears very often, when I do, I find a gearbox, oh my gosh, that's really tight and fluid. It just wills me to push it harder and harder. Because the performance is there. It's there in spades. This much fun at this price territory is wild. I knew I wouldn't need coffee. Because I've got CTR. Now, I still want coffee, so I'm gonna go get some. And the place I have in mind is called the Home Depot. Oh, wait, no, it's just below that. Bodie Leaf Coffee. You know, this spot is just all anybody can talk about. I'm sorry. I'm a dad. What can I say? My humor isn't sophisticated. Much like the backup camera on the Civic Type R, it's so greeny. You do have trajectory lines, that's helpful. And a couple different angles here, including overhead. It works. And I'm all set. I need some coffee to improve my humor. All righty then. Got my coffee, got my beans, and now I need a place to put it. So this is gonna have to just go on the floor. I'm done with my fast driving, so it shouldn't move around too much. That gives me a cup holder for my decaf latte. I know what you're gonna say. Decaf? No caffeine. Would it even have mattered if I had it this morning? And my answer to that is, it's about the ritual. It's just about the ritual, okay? All right, around towning it in the Civic Type R. Now that I'm not in that plus R drive mode, which was so darn stiff. Sport mode is still pretty bouncy, but it's livable. It's tolerable. And I know if I own this vehicle, one of the first mods I would make to it is to buy the damper module from the Integra Type S and install that, because that's a much more compliant ride. But this is still agreeable. And a large part of the reason it's agreeable is these seats. They not only held me in place during the canyon carving, but here just around town, the padding is so comfortable. I just sink into them and the bolsters aren't too restrictive. So certainly for my body type, at least, I'm just very relaxed. In regards to this six-speed manual, I've already waxed poetic in a performance context. But here around town, the clutch pedal isn't too heavy. The release point is on the later side. Took me a sec to get used to that. But now that I am, I can smoothly work between the gears, feel out that friction point. And on the downshifts, I've got a rev match function. You can see it'll automatically blip that throttle for me, so I don't need to get heavy on the brakes and roll over my ankle for heel-toe downshifts, nor do I need to rely on the synchros. Just makes it much smoother to daily this vehicle. Though I wish the rev match function just had a button to turn it on or off, you actually have to stop the vehicle fully, engage the e-brake, then go into the infotainment system to turn it on or off. I just kind of leave it on, and CTR is pretty easy to manage. At least in this situation. I'll find out tomorrow in traffic, kind of heavy stop and go, if it's any more tedious. But frankly, if you're buying a manual-only Civic Type R, you kind of know what you're getting involved with. The brakes, meanwhile, are smooth in their slowing. No grabbiness. Speaking of brakes, I'm going to go take one, get some lunch. I'm hungry. And I've made it to one of my favorite poke spots, Wow Bento. Look at that. This poke bowl is beautiful. Now, I could eat it here on these tables, or I could use the Civic Type R's built-in table, which, uh, because of the shape, makes the bowl a little wobbly. But you know what? I will not be deterred. This is not just for downforce, it's also highly practical. That's highly delicious. Ah, now that I am refueled, I want to get some exercise. Let's see if this bike will fit in the back of the CTR. I'm going to remove the cargo cover first, then lift up on the levers and fold the seats. Oh, almost. Let me move the front seat forward. Okay, everything is prepped. I got the seat folded forward. My helmet is there. Water bottle is in the door. And a towel is down to protect the carpet. Will the bike fit in one go, or am I going to have to remove the front tire? Let's see. Okay, I'm going to try this. I think it might clear. It fits. No front tire removed. Better yet, look at all this room between the bike tire and this passenger seat. I can move it back to where it was before, pretty much. The passenger could still join me, and maybe their bike, too. The wildest part, though, might be the fact that my visibility hasn't changed at all. Bike in the back or not, I see great out of the CTR. That'll do it for today. I will see you guys tomorrow for a commute with Mobile Mama. Are you done shifting? No. This is to be. This is difficult. Okay, sorry. We do have to get to the Infiniti QX80 reveal. We do. I got to get there. I would like to look presentable and not have mascara all over my butt. I guess a manual transmission does make that a little harder for you. Just a little. I'm sorry. But I do have some questions for you, Mobile Mama, on our commute. Commute of sorts. We don't have a commute normally, but today we're commuting to the QX80 reveal. What do you think of driving in the Civic Type R on the highway? Well, currently I have mascara on my eyelids. Okay, beyond that. Let's try to get past that. It's bouncy. Feeling a little like a bobblehead. Yeah. Are you done? That's it. All right, that's fine. So it's a little bouncy. Is it... I mean, it's not too loud, right? It's a little loud. It's loud. But like, okay, so... Like, I feel like you're shouting at me. I am kind of shouting, but I feel like that's necessary because you've been deafened by our children screaming in your ears for years. So I feel like I have to raise my voice. I don't need you to. Yeah, I think this is a very different vehicle from a driving standpoint. Super fun. Yeah. Engaging. You're gonna love it. Yeah. Passenger standpoint, a little uncomfortable. Okay, but let's bring it back to some good stuff. What about the seats? Like, they're really comfortable, right? Yeah, they're supportive. I like that. I have good bolstering. I feel like, you know... Nicely padded, right? Yeah, yeah. They feel good. Okay, so that kind of redeems a little of the commuter potential of this car, right? Yes. It's like I have spikes for eyelashes. It's really not good. I'm not even going that fast. This is like Conan because I can't get it. Hi! Let me stab you with my rations. And we've caught up to stop-and-go traffic. And we've got another hour of this. Aren't you excited about that? Yeah, I'm feeling great. Yeah. I mean, I'll reiterate what I've said already in the video, that if you're getting a manual-only car and you're planning on commuting with it, you have to know what you're getting involved with. This situation, an hour of this traffic, engaging the clutch, changing the gear, engaging the clutch... It's going to get old. It just will. Even if it's a great gearbox like this one. So just keep that in mind, right? If you're planning on buying this as a commuter and then enjoying it on the weekends, it's going to be kind of a slog during the week. Now, one thing the CTR does have over other manual-equipped commuters is adaptive cruise control with steering assistance. These are features I don't even have on my Cadillac CT5V Blackwing, which is well over double the price of this car. And now, it doesn't mean I don't have to downshift or upshift, but it does mean that the vehicle is automatically going to maintain that following distance and speed up or slow down just to help me have a little less frustration while commuting. So we're slowing here, and the vehicle is automatically going to start slowing down. I then am just going to apply some shifting, but I don't need to work the gas or brake. So Christine and I are going to be early for the first time ever to an event in L.A., which meant I had to stop and get an acai bowl with all my extra time. He didn't get me one. Hey, you had the opportunity to order one, and you chose not to. You also didn't feel well. So now, I'm just going to eat this while trying to drive in L.A. traffic with a manual. Let's see how it goes. So far, so good. Dude, people just watch you eat in these videos. I usually cut it. Oh, thank God. Go ahead. Take a bite. I don't know. I want to be safe. Eyes up. Eyes on the road. Getting a bite. Oh, success. How is it? That's actually pretty good. This was expensive, like everything in L.A., but that's pretty good. A lot of honey. They really, they went ham on the honey. Maybe too much honey. That's my review. This place is called The Green Spot. And this is it. The all-new Infiniti QX80. This brings us out here to Los Angeles. The long-awaited new generation of the QX80. This is pretty cool. It's got a new illuminated 3D Infinite Road logo. It's got some animations on the LED daytime running lights. It also has some functional air curtain pass-throughs to cool the brakes. And it's got these 22-inch wheels with, I love this, sidewall. This is a novelty in today's current car climate. All these big wheels and no sidewall. This is going to be cushion for us on the road. It's also got an adjusting air suspension with 4.9 inches of raising or lowering. It's also got these flush-mounted door handles that pop out when you approach. Door mirrors unfold. And inside, these are some nice-looking chairs. Heated and ventilated and massaging semi-aniline leather with this new ClipStitch 24-speaker sound system with speakers in the headrest with zoned audio. So you can do things like have a conversation as the driver while your kids are jamming out in the back seats or no music is playing back there and they're asleep. They're not going to hear your conversation. And looking at the dashboard, you've got this heated leather-wrapped steering wheel. Trigger this on twice to illuminate the two 14.3-inch screens here. There's a digital rearview mirror, a dedicated screen for climate or for your drive modes. This is now running Google built-in. That's new for Infiniti. The screen itself is very responsive and I love the vocal cues. Hey, Google, take me to the Hollywood sign. OK, Hollywood sign. Here we go. Like that. Hey, Google, find me coffee along the route. OK, there's Starbucks two minutes away. It's just super quick. I love this system. Here in the console setup, you've got a wireless charging pad with two USB-Cs, cup holders, a cool box here in the console, and then some other storage underneath that screen. Look at this. I've got this nice open-pore wood trim, some ambient lighting there, the tweeters for the clip-sitch system, running boards. Then behind the driver's seat, that's my sitting position at six feet. I've got lots of knee room. This is all in leather. Big foot pockets for me. Cup holders there. Another screen with massage. Now this is the signature range-topping trim. So not all these features will be here. Two more USB-Cs there. Four-zone climate control system. A little more storage in front of this console. My head clears the roof, which is suede-wrapped. You've got this pano sunroof. Digging that. And now to get into the third row, press that button. Seat goes forward at an angle too. So if you've got a front-facing car seat, in theory, it'll stay there. It'll detect and then move back a little bit. But without the car seat, you've got a really wide access point. They actually carved out more of the door opening such that I can easily get back here and the seats recline. Oh, that's nice. Head clears the roof. I'll bring the seat back. Just to show you the legroom situation. Meanwhile, I've got a USB-C on either side. Big cup holders there. So here's my knee room. Got plenty of that as well. Man, this is a massive upgrade. Oh, still have the, uh, the droid-looking headrests, including a headrest in the middle. And here's the space behind the third row. There is that adjusting air suspension. You could lower that down. You could raise or lower the third or second row of seats here. AC outlet off to the side. And just a little bit of storage down beneath the floor. Power close and lock on the tailgate. And this is with the light bar illuminated. And it just completes the picture of the back end of the new QX80 with this diffuser design down low. I like all angles of this new truck. The blacked out pillars give it kind of the separation of the roof and the rest of the body. Looks more upright, more squared off. More premium, for sure. I'm digging the design. Now, I can't wait to go take it for a drive and experience the new 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6. Let's actually take a peek at that right now. The Archie blows. The new twin-turbo V6 makes 450 horsepower, 515 pound-feet of torque. That's 50 horsepower more than the outgoing V8 and over 100 pound-feet more of torque. That's connected to a nine-speed automatic and a permanent all-wheel drive system. There is not a two-speed transfer case just four-wheel drive high. All told, it feels like a very big upgrade for Infiniti and a proper flagship SUV. And now for our drive home, we've got a lot of rain and even more traffic, but at least mobile mama is able to experience the nearly lay-flat passenger seat for her snooze. Oh, that was a slog. We've just about made it back. One of us, still unconsciously. And now I need to put some fuel in the Civic Type R. Over the last seven hours and 23 minutes, I've been getting, let's see here, 20.4 miles per gallon, which is a little less than the EPA rating of 24 combined from 22 city and 28 highway. If I was getting the 24 combined, then with this 12.4 gallon fuel tank, I'd have around 300 miles on a tank and at current fuel prices of $4.69 for 91 octane fuel that this vehicle requires, it would cost me about 57 bucks to fill the tank. And moment of truth here. Is there capless fueling? No. No, no, no, no, no, Honda. Making me work extra hard to fill up my tank. Now as a final act of business, before I conclude my thoughts on living with the CTR during a night drive, I want to walk you through the backseat area. So here I am behind my own seat at six feet tall. Don't mind the umbrella just hanging here. I've got plenty of knee room. The foot pockets are nice and large. I'd say I'm pretty comfortable except for my headroom. It's pressed against the roof with my head attempting to go back on that headrest. I do have cup holders, but there's no armrest, nor is there air vents or USB ports at all. This is a $45,000 car. Air vents at least would be nice. And I want to see now what it's like to install car seats. We've got two lower latch anchors, three top tethers. I'm going to put in my two rear facing kiddos car seats. See what that does for the front passenger room. Right, so I've had better ideas than attempting to install car seats in the rain with one hand holding onto the umbrella and the other trying to load in the car seat. But I guess the good news is that it's pretty easy to get it in here. The doors are nice and wide opening and then there's quite a bit of space inside to maneuver the seat, again, one-handed. And to now install the anchors, this flap folds down to actually expose the anchor points and make this a whole lot easier than some other vehicles. Okay, so both car seats are in and secure and I didn't have to move my driver's seat at all. Yet there's still a couple inches of space between the seat back and the car seat. So knowing I fit as the driver, what's it like on the passenger side? Here, again, I've got a couple inches of space but I couldn't move that front passenger seat back any further without touching the car seat. So what's that do to my seating position? That feels a little more cramped on this side. My back angle's a little more upright than I would like. I have some space between the glove box but my knees are still kind of crunched in. Every day, if you had a six-footer in the passenger seat, this might get old, but in a pinch, it's going to be just fine. At the beginning of this video, I wondered whether something that looks this sporty could actually be livable. And after spending a decent chunk of time behind the wheel of the Civic Type R in all weather, in all driving environments, I can confirm the CT-R is a good daily. This FL5 generation's styling doesn't require excuses. The hatchback shape is highly practical. The seats are super comfortable. You can see out of it easily. Adults and car seats can fit in the back. And when opportunity presents itself, the CT-R is hilarious fun to drive. Livability does take a hit in a few areas, like the bouncy ride or the inherent tedium of shifting a manual transmission in heavy traffic. The loud cabin on the highway or the lack of certain conveniences like heated seats or rear USBs or even rear air vents. But if those aren't deal-breakers for you and I don't think they should be, then the CT-R is a vehicle you'll continue to love as the miles pile up. Hope you guys have enjoyed this day in the life. And I'll see you again next time.