Honda Civic Type R: near-new examples listed close to $90K

When Honda announced pricing for the latest Civic Type R, punters were astonished that a front-drive hot hatch could command $72,600 drive-away. But with deliveries of the 11th-generation FL5 Honda Civic Type R commencing this month, speculators are already trying to make a quick buck.

There are examples listed for private, or dealer used sale in the classifieds for as much as $89,990 excluding on-road costs with 400km on the odometer.

Once you add registration, insurance, and stamp duty, that’s roughly a $20K mark-up over ordering one new from a dealer. Though, with Civic Type R’s huge wait times, some may consider it worth their while.

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“Due to high demand for the extremely popular Civic Type R, some wait times are estimated to be approximately 20 months,” reads Honda’s website. Guess that’s $1000/month privilege to get one now.

The lowest price listed for a Civic Type R is $72,600 drive-away from official Honda dealers and, at the time of writing, there are only a handful of delivery-kilometre examples under $80,000.

The Civic Type R situation is optically inconvenient for Honda Australia following its transition away from traditional franchise dealers to a fixed-price agency model. The idea is to make buying a new car a simpler and less competitive affair – however, it isn't Honda preying on long wait times.

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A spokesperson for Honda Australia told Wheels that none of the dealers currently advertising Civic Type Rs above the retail drive-away price are affiliated with Honda Australia.

“We can confirm that all the advertised units of the 2023 Civic Type R units you referred to are being sold via non-Honda used car dealerships. These dealerships are not affiliated with our current Honda Representative network. There are no Honda dealers marking up their allocations.

“Each of these Civic Type R’s are being sold as used vehicles in the used car market”, the spokesperson added.

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It’s a situation we’ve seen increasingly, and not just on exotic or enthusiast vehicles, such as the well-publicised GR Yaris saga, but also the more mundane with Ford Rangers and Toyota RAV4 Hybrids also getting a little extra thrown on top.

The Civic Type R uses a 235kW/420Nm 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine that drives the front wheels via a six-speed manual transmission.

At the Type R’s international media launch, Angus Mackenzie adjudicated a rare 9.5/10 – the verdict being that at $20K more than a Hyundai i30 N, The Type R is a lot of cash. “Is it worth it? If you want what is the best front-drive hot hatch in the business, then yes.”

We’ll have a full local road test, and a comparison between the Type R and one of its main rivals, live on 10 April.