In the grand, glowing mural of NPC cars (for all you noobs out there, that’s a “non-playable character”), very few do anything to stand out. Every small car has a four-cylinder engine—maybe hybridized—and gets good fuel economy. Every small car is comfortable and reliable. And for the most part, every small car is pretty nice … Read more
Let’s play a game. Without Googling, how many manual hatchbacks are still being sold at this moment in the United States? Not that many, right? My own brain informs me that they are the Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3, Hyundai Veloster N, Subaru Impreza hatch, and this, the 2022 Honda Civic Hatchback. They’re a dying breed, … Read more
On the snaking, cambered twists of Bear Divide in the Angeles National Forest of Southern California, the 2020 Honda Civic Type R blew everything I ever knew about front-wheel drive to smithereens. I’m an FWD evangelist and I still cannot believe what Honda achieved here. Forget about torque-steer management, the way the Type R behaves … Read more
The 2022 Honda Civic Si is one of the few affordable sport compacts still around and kicking from the segment’s heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. As a younger car enthusiast, I didn’t understand why this spruced-up economy car somehow outlived its more bombastic rivals, like the Mitsubishi Eclipse and the Mazdaspeed 3. What did … Read more
Despite its proximity to the States, there are quite a few cars available up here in Canada that aren’t sold in the so-called land of the free. Keen readers of The Drive may remember my jaunts in the Canada-only and surprisingly fun manual Nissan Sentra and the not-as-fun-as-I’d-hoped manual Kia Forte5. In this latest edition … Read more
Fourteen hundred miles from home, at a race track I’ve never driven before, I experienced the 2023 Honda Civic Type R at its angriest: From the passenger seat. I giggled and marveled at four-time Formula 1 race winner Sergio Pérez mercilessly overdriving one of a few new CTRs in existence. Later that day, I had … Read more