RE: Honda Civic Type R Sport Line vs. Toyota GR Yaris

[Trevor555]

Aust5 said:

The Yaris looks plain and Toyota lazy about the way it looks. I’m sure nice to drive but civic gets my vote as looks awesome. But unfortunately will not be buying either as just drove and bought puma ST performance pack mean green. An awesome car and a lot cheaper.

You say it's a lot cheaper? I just have to answer to that..

The real cost of a car is the difference between what you paid, and what you sell it for. Then adding on the servicing costs.

I do this with every car I own personally (I know I need to get a life) and I work it out into a weekly cost of ownership.

For example, if my car depreciates £3,000 in a year, that's £57.69 per week.

One I had recently depreciated £12,000 in the first year, that was £230.77 per week.

Onto the GR and the Puma ST.

I'll guess that the GR prices will be quite firm for a while.

So in three years time when it's time to sell, the Yaris will more likely have been the cheaper car to own in the real world.

I had a 981 for a year recently, that cost me £0.00 per week as it sold for the same as I'd paid. A free car for a year.

Anyhow, enjoy your Puma, they are a very good car, I enjoy driving ours when the missus let's me.

[mintmansam]

Trevor555 said:

Aust5 said:

The Yaris looks plain and Toyota lazy about the way it looks. I’m sure nice to drive but civic gets my vote as looks awesome. But unfortunately will not be buying either as just drove and bought puma ST performance pack mean green. An awesome car and a lot cheaper.

You say it's a lot cheaper? I just have to answer to that..

The real cost of a car is the difference between what you paid, and what you sell it for. Then adding on the servicing costs.

I do this with every car I own personally (I know I need to get a life) and I work it out into a weekly cost of ownership.

For example, if my car depreciates £3,000 in a year, that's £57.69 per week.

One I had recently depreciated £12,000 in the first year, that was £230.77 per week.

Onto the GR and the Puma ST.

I'll guess that the GR prices will be quite firm for a while.

So in three years time when it's time to sell, the Yaris will more likely have been the cheaper car to own in the real world.

I had a 981 for a year recently, that cost me £0.00 per week as it sold for the same as I'd paid. A free car for a year.

Anyhow, enjoy your Puma, they are a very good car, I enjoy driving ours when the missus let's me.

This is an excellent point, according to my calcs a Focus RS would have been cheaper to own then a Fiesta ST, if I sold them, but really I didn’t have the money to buy a RS and it’s big gamble.

GR Yaris values are holding strong and frankly the £15,000 value after 3.5 years look bonkers, but I still have budgeted for the estimated depreciation. In fact I don’t see myself selling it ever

In fact a real concern of mine was my ability to buy the car 2nd hand at decent price (ala Focus RS values) and the true cost of buying another car, then looking for a 2nd hand Yaris worked out not too different to buying new, or that’s what man maths says. Also if I didn’t buy it now, when realistically would I, life passes quickly, and there is always a good reason not to do something #deep

Edited by mintmansam on Wednesday 16th June 14:50

[Vickers_VC10]

wab172uk said:

Aust5 said:

The Yaris looks plain and Toyota lazy about the way it looks. I’m sure nice to drive but civic gets my vote as looks awesome. But unfortunately will not be buying either as just drove and bought puma ST performance pack mean green. An awesome car and a lot cheaper.

Thanks for the laugh on a Wednesday morning.

+1

[Ron240]

ArnageWRC said:

As a rallyfan, it's the Yaris all day.

and all of the night

[bcr5784]

It's not really a case of either or - it really depends on your priorities. Clearly as an all-rounder, particularly in Sport Line form, the Type R has the GR soundly beaten. As a weekend fun car - and the appeal of something which is (today) quite unique it's the Yaris. If much of my driving was on wet or greasy roads - I'd favour the Yaris. The fact that Type R is bigger than I would like is significant (to me) - but then the Yaris is ACTUALLY pretty wide too.

Difficult choice - if I really needed a bigger car to replace the A110 it would have to be the Type R - but I can well see that for others the GR might fit the bill. No right or wrong choices - so I can't see why the review needs to come down on one side or the other.

Edited by bcr5784 on Wednesday 16th June 21:39

[cidered77]

Trevor555 said:

Aust5 said:

The Yaris looks plain and Toyota lazy about the way it looks. I’m sure nice to drive but civic gets my vote as looks awesome. But unfortunately will not be buying either as just drove and bought puma ST performance pack mean green. An awesome car and a lot cheaper.

You say it's a lot cheaper? I just have to answer to that..

The real cost of a car is the difference between what you paid, and what you sell it for. Then adding on the servicing costs.

I do this with every car I own personally (I know I need to get a life) and I work it out into a weekly cost of ownership.

For example, if my car depreciates £3,000 in a year, that's £57.69 per week.

One I had recently depreciated £12,000 in the first year, that was £230.77 per week.

Onto the GR and the Puma ST.

I'll guess that the GR prices will be quite firm for a while.

So in three years time when it's time to sell, the Yaris will more likely have been the cheaper car to own in the real world.

I had a 981 for a year recently, that cost me £0.00 per week as it sold for the same as I'd paid. A free car for a year.

Anyhow, enjoy your Puma, they are a very good car, I enjoy driving ours when the missus let's me.

absolutely spot on there - i have my own Manmaths Spreadsheet Calculator i've used to justify several cars to the wife, and in fairness - more often than not it's worked out. Had some great cars purchased because i wanted them, but also because i reckoned they would cost next to nothing to run if you pick something that won't depreciate. And it mostly worked out fine (we won't ever talk about the Citroen C6 again, however...):

BMW 1M sold for 7.5k more than paid; R129 500SL for 5k more, Clio Trophy for 1k more - all either offsetting or completely removing running costs. The Yaris for a new car with VAT won't be free, and values won't be at or above newprices forever... but it still is now, even after so many have been delivered (becoming more and more a common sight); and i doubt it will come down that far relative to anything else in the segment i could have chosen.

So it's not just a great car, it's a pretty cheap car also

[SJR202]

First article I've seen with this version of the GR included

Having been lucky to help on a magazine COTY last year I got to drive about 700 miles in the Type R GT and have to say its one of the best drivers car I've ever been in, like most cars the more you drive it the more you learn the good and the bad, but after a blast across mid/north wales and then to Scotland it is an absolute A to B weapon with brakes on a par with any super car. Not a huge fan of the artificial weighting of steering in R mode but Sport was spot on.

The GR driven back to back is amazing but you really need to be giving it a lot of speed even provoking it to feel as exciting as the Type R, personal opinion but the GR certainly has the hype and attention but I didnt feel its as good as the Type R GT as an overall drivers package, however I did about 70 fast miles in the GR so maybe an unfair comparison, what was to note was how much other road users hate you when driving a bright blue Type R, very innocent day to day driving seemed to provoke people with a point to prove. As someone middle age I can get away with a GR but a Type R is too lairy for me looks wise so despite being the 2nd best hot hatch in the world I am now counting down 11 more months until I get my GR :-)

ps apologies to every Type R driver I turned my nose up at and thought you a 'boy racer', you now have my respect in choosing one of the best!!

[is1]

cidered77 said:

I had a 182 Trophy and own a GR now - they are a different universe of speed ,to be honest. To the point the Yaris at times feels in that "too fast for the road" territory (if you aim to push the car to the edge of its grip, like all the motoring journalists apparently do All The Time!).

TC rarely comes on, even if the mechanical diffs likely shifting torque about a lot on a quick drive. It's just a much more modern, more capable car - low CoG, good tyres, two diffs, tons of power and torque - completely different animals. I'd love to say "ah but the Trophy was more fun more of the time", etc - but, i'd be fibbing really! loved both - but find myself more often taking the unnecessarily long way back more of the time in the Toyota.

Interesting. I also had a 182 Trophy and you are right that they are very different animals.
However, re your comment suggesting you couldn't really say "ah but the Trophy was more fun more of the time", I think that most of the good small fun hatches are much more fun than a GR Yaris at lower speeds/on road.

I also have a Panda 100HP, and it's much more fun than my Circuit Pack GR Yaris on the school run.
Snorty engine, brilliant 6-speed box and tiny, tiny dimensions with brilliant all-round visibility make it incredible fun.

The Yaris is more boosty (before it goes bananas(!)), visibility is dire to the point that on any roundabout, you have to take a second bite of the steering for the apex, gearbox is notchy and doesn't like a rushed 2nd to 3rd (or vice versa) (although it only has 150 miles on it). It's far from perfect, and a number of my bugbears are to do with the fact that it's a modern car (in particular, poor visibility and an excess of bodywork). Then there's Toyota's inability to do a seating position or pedal box properly.

Perhaps it's the Panda that's incredible, it stands up well against my old 911 too in the "pure thrills" driving stakes.

[Ron240]

is1 said:

I also have a Panda 100HP, and it's much more fun than my Circuit Pack GR Yaris on the school run.

You really are stretching the boundaries of imagination and believability with that statement.

[bcr5784]

Ron240 said:

ou really are stretching the boundaries of imagination and believability with that statement.

Not so sure myself. Fun and an objective judgement of a cars capabilities needn't be closely aligned. People get fun from driving classic/vintage cars. One car that I had enormous fun driving was a Daihatsu Domino - objectively crap - but, when you were in the mood, great fun to thrash the effervescent engine, and drive around the handling deficiencies. The Panda is objectively far better, but I can see the appeal of that too.

[SuperNads]

I was lucky enough to have the whole Old Military Road between Perth and Nairn to myself this morning and through the interchanging sunshine and rain, the car felt absolutely planted and unstoppable but not for a second did it feel boring. Getting to really use 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear, pushing the engine to 7000rpm and just feeling thrust forwards and sideways like you're on a rollercoaster felt absolutely brilliant! Oddly enough I've only ever had thumbs ups from Cayman GT4 drivers - almost everyone else ignores it.

[grumpynuts]

This was an interesting article as the only 2 cars on the radar for replacing the wife's daily was the Civic type R and GR Yaris.I've always loved honda's hot hatches way back to the original crx with its little glass hatch,stunning v-tec motor and non assisted steering.It was so raw and exciting.I've also loved the scooby and Evo rally replicas.For us it was the full fat versions only, I love the type R's outragious bodywork and think it looks amazing but the pure rally bred capability of the Yaris won us over.We now have a nearly 12 month wait until our flame red circuit pack model arrives.Can't wait.

[MyV10BarksAndBites]

Ron240 said:

is1 said:

I also have a Panda 100HP, and it's much more fun than my Circuit Pack GR Yaris on the school run.

You really are stretching the boundaries of imagination and believability with that statement.

Yep, the Panda really is rubbish... even when driven like a hire car...

[SidewaysSi]

MyV10BarksAndBites said:

Ron240 said:

is1 said:

I also have a Panda 100HP, and it's much more fun than my Circuit Pack GR Yaris on the school run.

You really are stretching the boundaries of imagination and believability with that statement.

Yep, the Panda really is rubbish... even when driven like a hire car...

Really? It is the 100HP we are talking about which I think was universally praised as being a laugh.

[bcr5784]

SidewaysSi said:

Really? It is the 100HP we are talking about which I think was universally praised as being a laugh.

Agreed. Unfortunately it was "replaced" by hot versions of the Fiat 500 (same platform) which were much more expensive and not generally well regarded. Nothing like as well packaged either.

[waynecyclist]

GR Yaris would be my choice, Civic is ok but needs to the full fat version, fake vents and bulges need the spoiler to work, all looks a little lost without it and the smaller wheels.

[ecsrobin]

waynecyclist said:

GR Yaris would be my choice, Civic is ok but needs to the full fat version, fake vents and bulges need the spoiler to work, all looks a little lost without it and the smaller wheels.

Harry Metcalfe agrees with the looks. I’ve said it before but if you’re going to drive an ugly car you may as well drive the “ugliest”.

[bcr5784]

ecsrobin said:

Harry Metcalfe agrees with the looks. I’ve said it before but if you’re going to drive an ugly car you may as well drive the “ugliest”.

Disagree. For me the standard car is just too far OTT (and looks are far down my criteria when choosing a car). The Sport is JUST OK for me - but my OH might well disagree. On looks the GR and the Sport are on a par - but neither is bad enough to stop me buying the car if the dynamics were on point.

[martin12345]

The Civic may be a great FWD hot hatch but it is just too in-your-face / ugly for me to want one in either form
I chose to buy a Leon Cupra and the Civic was not on my list despite it being acknowledged as the best 300 BHP FWD hatch to drive
Have to say since I got some decent tyres on the Leon (PS4S) I am really, really happy with it

Have just ordered a GRY to replace it in 2023

Completely different cars and I will miss the practicality of the Leon, but I have 2 other cars which are more practical and the GRY just feels like a car that "needs to be owned" whereas the Civic may be a brilliant FWD hot hatch but it is not special/unique like the GRY

[ecsrobin]

martin12345 said:

Have just ordered a GRY to replace it in 2023

Order book closed in June/July? With just a waitlist for if they continue to build cars for 2023.