How Civic Type-R tops Volvo and Tesla in ‘Best Car’ competition

If I was to take away one revelation for auto-year 2017, it’s that the only aspect of a car evolving faster than advanced safety technology and personal electronic connectivity, is the public’s perception of what constitutes performance in today’s car.

But truthfully, I never thought I’d see the day when a Honda Civic, although be it the “baddest” high performance Civic to ever arrive stateside, would beat Volvo’s flagship S90 sedan, and Tesla’s eagerly anticipated Tesla Model 3 in a car of the year competition -- measurement if you will, conducted by a hi-tech, gadget publication. Such is the case of Digital Trends “Best Car of 2017” accolade -- one of many bestowed on the 10th generation platform, English built Civic Type-R. Torque News heads to the California Redwoods in Civic Type-R.

Nerds like Civic Type-R , it’s that good

Back in the early hayday of Silicon Valley development, cars like the venerable BMW M series, and Porsche 911 were the go to cars for software developers. Although not “tech” by today’s smart-car measure, the aforementioned were quick, nimble, and just uncomfortable enough to be utilitarian cool, in a minimalist German car sort of way.

Today, the young consumer is a budget conscious lot, with a want and need for exceptional personal electronic connectivity. While certainly low tech when looking to cars like Honda’s cutting edge Clarity PHEV, the one trim takes-all approach that is Honda Civic Type-R does come standard equipped with Android Auto, and Apple Carplay. Integrated navigation be damned, I’ll load it off of my phone!

Older driver likes Type-R too

I would venture to say that the young contributors at Digital Trends like Civic Type-R for its instant-on 306 horsepower, turbocharged VTEC 4-cylinder engine, close throw 6-speed manual transmission, and a very sticky limited slip front differential, with a miraculously low occurrence of torque steer. And then there’s the track inspired design cue that would find Bat Man lusting over Honda’s latest and greatest sport hatch. Cutting edge design? Yes!

But here’s the thing: I find Civic Type-R to be a comfortable long-range touring hatchback with real-world track capability -- right out of the box. Digital Trends points to Civic Type-R’s relative bargain basement MSRP “ of around $35,000, relative comfort, fun to drive attributes, and Civic-like fuel efficiency, as the hook in this story. This long in the tooth car guy likes Civic Type-R for its exception standard feature packaging and thrilling segment breaching road handling and driver’s seat comfort.

How's your Civic Type-R experience? Your comment is always welcome at Torque News, as is your like and share. Cheers!