Honda Australia says it will price the upcoming Civic Type R aggressively in its bid to get cars on the road, emphasising the brand’s return to manufacturing proper sports cars.
Speaking to CarAdvice at last week’s Australian Formula One Grand Prix, Honda Australia boss Stephen Collins said the Type R had generated more interest for Honda than any model in the brand’s current line-up to date.
“It has been enormous. I know that a couple of weeks ago, Type R was the biggest showroom hit on our website. I think it had over 10,000 individual visitors in one week, which actually superseded any other model we’ve had,” Collins said.
The interest in Type R, Collins says, is an indication of the model’s popularity and cult-like following.
“All we had there was some pre-registration information and a lot of our dealers are holding orders, and of course we haven’t given them any indication on price or anything yet, but it think it shows the ground swell of people who had a historical interest in the car and an interest in this car coming.”
As for what it will cost, Collins admits it will be priced sharply so that it gets Honda’s name out in the market place.
“I think it has created enormous interest and excitement and buzz around us and our dealers. It’s that sort of car, so we are expecting [big things].
“We will price it aggressively in that hot hatch segment and our aim is that we want people to see these cars on the road so we want to see reasonable volume. We are yet to settle on the price and that sort of thing yet, but we will make it good value for money.”
The Honda Civic Type R will go up against the likes of the Volkswagen Golf GTI/Golf R, Renault Megane RS, Ford Focus ST and Focus RS and even Hyundai, with its imminent i30 N performance hatch.
As you can read in greater detail here, the 2017 Type R sports a 2.0-litre VTEC turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine developing 235kW of power and 400Nm of torque, sent to the front wheels exclusively via a six-speed manual transmission.
As for other Type R or sporty models coming to support the Civic and Honda NSX, Collins says that Honda Australia will look at any sporty variant opportunity provided by Japan.
“Certainly wherever we can add more sportiness to our range we would do that. In the short term its Type R and NSX, but even if we can add more sportiness – like the RS Civic is an example of that – you know it’s not an out-and-out sports car but we are trying to add more sportiness.
“And wherever those opportunities arise, we will certainly chase them.”
Honda Australia expect to Civic Type R to launch around October. Pre orders and registration of interest are already open.
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