When I think about the Honda Civic, the first thing that comes to mind is affordability. It’s the go-to recommendation when people ask me what they should buy if they’re looking for something cheap, efficient, and reliable. With a starting price of $25,890 including destination, it remains one of the more affordable options on the market, even if it doesn’t break the top 10 most affordable vehicles.
At the opposite end of the Civic spectrum is the Type R model. The current version arrived on the market in 2023, starting at $44,890. To me, that seemed insanely expensive at the time, but it was still around $1,000 cheaper than the Golf R, the Civic’s closest competitor.
No car is immune to price increases, of course. In just three short model years, the Type R’s price has ballooned by $3,200 to a new high of $48,090, including a $1,195 destination charge. While that increase isn’t exactly surprising or out of the norm, it’s still breaking my brain a bit.
Let’s Do The Math
The Honda Civic Type R first arrived in the U.S. for the 2017 model year with a starting MSRP of $34,790, or $15,160 more than that year’s base model. As a percentage, the ’17 Type R was 77% more expensive than the standard car. That’s a huge jump, but you also got a lot for your money; a turbocharged engine making 306 horsepower, a lovely six-speed manual transmission, specific chassis and suspension tuning, bigger brakes, a bunch of radical aerodynamics, and some iconic red seats.
Looking at the 2023 model year, when the current Type R hit the scene, that metric increased slightly. In that year, the Type R was $20,045 more expensive than the standard Civic, representing an 80% difference in price. That 3% difference can be chalked up to the wider track, the better brake cooling, and the extra nine horsepower included with the new design.
Fast-forward to 2026, and that delta is even larger. While the price for the base Civic hasn’t grown hugely in the past three years, the Type R is a different story. The ’26 Type R is $22,200 more than the base car, representing a difference of 85% versus the cheapest Civic. In this case, though, nothing’s been updated, added, or changed to justify the price jump since ’23.
I’ve reached out to Honda to see why this gap is growing, and here’s what the representative sent me:
Honda continually evaluates market conditions and product value to ensure competitive pricing. The Civic Type R did not have a midyear price adjustment in the 2025 calendar year, so this 2.2% increase in price for the 2026 model year reflects the first increase in over a year.
If you’ve paid any attention to the car industry this past year, I’m sure you can guess the real reason. Production for the standard Civic is located in Indiana and Ontario, while the Type R is built in Japan. With import tariffs for Japanese cars currently sitting at 15%, it’s not terribly surprising to see the sporty Civic get a price hike.
It also isn’t a one-off in the segment. Remember how I just mentioned the Golf R was around $1,000 more expensive than the Civic in 2023? Well, now it’s nearly two grand more expensive in 2026, with a starting price of $50,730.
Okay, But What About My Feelings?
While the Civic Type R’s price hikes are easily explainable, it’s still hard to wrap my head around. The words “Honda Civic” and “$50,000” in the same sentence are something that just doesn’t compute to me. Even the most expensive Civic should be a mid-$30,000 affair … right? Truth is that these days, 30 grand won’t even get you a Civic Si—those start at $32,690.
Clearly, I’m stuck in the late 2010s. On the grand stage, a near-$50,000 vehicle might not even be considered “expensive” to the new car-buying population. The average transaction price in America for a new car is over $50,000. That means, incredibly, that the Civic Type R, at $48,090, is still cheaper than the average vehicle. My brain is having a hard time accepting that one, too.
Weirdly, I’m not nearly as brain-broken when it comes to the Golf R’s current price. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s not front-wheel drive, or maybe that I subconsciously perceive Volkswagen as a more prestigious, luxurious German brand. But paying $50k for the best possible version of the Golf is slightly more palatable—it just hurts my soul. This is despite knowing the Civic is far more fun to drive.
Then there’s the Acura Integra Type S. It’s mostly the same as the Civic Type R underneath, with a few minor changes to improve comfort, a slightly classier interior. It also has five more horsepower, if that matters to you. The 2026 model starts at $54,595, or about $6500 more than the Civic. In 2024, the first year of the Type S, that gap was a bit wider, at around $7,000. Personally, I’d choose the Honda every time, but if you’re the type who prioritizes comfort and tech, the Type R’s new price tag makes upgrading to the Acura slightly more justifiable.
Top graphic images: Brian Silvestro, Honda
If you’re like me it’s the buying power, wages haven’t gone up even remotely commensurately with the increased cost of everything, with cars and housing being especially bad. I just started a new job with a fairly good salary (sub 6 figures though) but the same job paid roughly the same 10 years ago, meanwhile new cars have increased on average by gonna roughly say more than 30% And if you’re just old enough to remember it was only 20 years ago you could still buy an entry level BMW for what a well equipped regular Civic goes for now, let alone the Type R. And worse yet many dealers, at least in my area, are still adding a $2K to $5K market adjustment to them. Meanwhile Type Rs barely depreciate so you might as well swallow your pride and buy new and not take the risk someone was doing 6000 rpm clutch dumps in it.
And this isn’t even limited to the Type R, the new WRX is even more stupidly overpriced with the closest thing they make to an STi starting at $46K and it’s nowhere near as a thoroughly developed a car as the Type R. And imho $50K for what is essentially an AWD GTi is ludicrous I’d recommended to my brother a while back he might look at them when car shopping not realizing how much they went for and was shocked when he told me. Suppose the Golf R does feel more “adult” and is a somewhat unique value proposition, but still even if I could afford a $50K car I can’t see justifying that much on one-and I like them, just test drove a used MK 7.5 the other day and if it hadn’t clearly had a badly paint matched accident repair I might have even bought it.
What Chaps me is the Prelude starts at 42K but you cannot option that with anything except the 200HP Hybrid system. the hot ticket if I were to want a Honda would be a Prelude with the Type R 2.0 Turbo and 6 speed manual. They can call it the S2000 if that is what is needed to make that happen.
It’s just like everything, it’s expensive. A Base Mustang is 46K. Just 10 years ago my brother got his for 32K.
Do I like “attainable” performance cars being $50k? Hell no! But, this isn’t that crazy when you think about it. I googled the MSRP of my 04 STi (which I bought used in 2010). It had an MSRP in 2004 of $31,545. Plug that into an inflation calculator, and that’s $54,124 in today’s money.
The Type R is a hell of a car, and while I’d obviously like it to start about ten grand cheaper, it’s not that crazy for the amount of performance you get for the price.
Outside of the lack of a manual trans, and maybe the RWD part, I would be hard pressed to not cross shop an ecoboost mustang with the premium package. I think you can get those under 40K. Not sure if they still offer the track package, but that was going up against the Camaro track package at one time and it made for a pretty competent entry level sporty type car. over 300 HP as well.
I’ve driven my younger cousin’s manual ecoboost Mustang, and it was a lot of fun! I would agree with you that they could make a very competent driver’s car with some additional mods. Personally, i’d save that bit of money and buy a used manual one though! I have no problems daily-driving an auto, but I like my sporty fun cars to be as engaging as possible. Shame Ford discontinued the manual on those.
Interesting, was looking at MSRP on VA gen WRX sti the other day. Looked up a C&D article from ’16 and a WRX STi started at $36K, only a $5K price increase vs your ’04 over the span of 12 years. And I’d guess that price didn’t go up much over the production run, so when they’re now asking nearly $50K for the WRX TS it’s hard to swallow. I think the rapid increase in price and the fact that salaries largely haven’t grown at the same level is why this feels so bad?
The stagnation of many people’s wages would be my guess as to why these prices are so staggering. When you compare the relative MSRP of many cars when new compared to today, some are actually a pretty good value. It’s that many people’s buying power has not increased at that same rate. I mean, even my old 04 WRX wagon (which replaced my STi) had an msrp of around $25,500 new. That’s $42,900 today! I can’t imagine paying that today for such a basic car, despite how much I adored it.
An entire article that can be explained by simple inflation.
$45k in 2023 is somewhere around $55k today. I guess we should be thankful?
I guess I’m fortunate enough that we bought our Accord V6 EXL in 2017, for about $34,000 and our MDX in 2018 for $54,000. I haven’t done the inflation adjustments for those prices. So, I really don’t know exactly where they would be versus the Type R. But the price of the Type R is a bit eye-opening.
Both have essentially the same 3.5 L engine that have more CCs but fewer HP than the Type R. It will be interesting to see how they hold up versus each other. Well, I won’t know how the MDX holds up as my now ex-wife traded it in on a Lincoln Corsair. The MDX has DI which gives it a few extra HP and torques but also the possibility of carbon buildup on intake valves. The Accord does not.
At this point in life, I really don’t need a spacious back seat. So, I wouldn’t mind a Civic-sized car instead an Accord. But the Accord is paid off and at 74K miles has a lot of life left.
I remember the mid-70s Civics and they were definitely compact. Civics have grown to at least the size of my ’86 Accord. Perhaps there’s a slot for something the size of those 70s Civics.
I would be down to have the Honda E tooling restarted but offer the little feller with a small Erev System to go with an upgraded solid state EV option. Maybe call it the CVCC-E and get ti to sell with the Erev at $25k.
Nope. Too refined, too subtle and too restrained.
You ever find an Autopian article in which you have a lot of expertise, but the conversation ended hours ago, so there’s no point in commenting?
Well, I’m late reading so am/would have been interested your take and expertise….
Me too. I bought my Type s late last year. I cross shopped a few different cars. I would have some unique stuff to add but I do not see the point this late.
ALL the time. I’m on the West Coast, so I have a bit of a time zone disadvantage. And my biggest gripe about this site is the way the comments are sorted and spend time commenting only to find someone had already said something similar.
I agree that is a puzzle but I think it is more a marketing issue. Keep the inexpensive Honda Civic cheap but change the name of the R to a wholly different model. It really does not have much in common so just call it the Honda Speedster, and frankly as a buyer using industry jargon to explain the price difference would not work just say Trump’s Tariffs and I’m like okay that makes sense. As for brain hurt I still can’t get over a VW not being a cheap vehicle.
What breaks my brain is that people can afford to buy new vehicles at all in 2026. I’m 49 and make about $52,000 before taxes. Not great. After taxes that means that even a base model Civic is only about $13,000 less than my annual take home pay.
I have only bought a new car once, and I doubt I ever will again. I don’t know how people pay large car payments. The insurance is also more expensive, and so is the registration. My childhood dreams of owning a Porsche or other cool cars will never come to pass. I guess that’s what happens when you work in careers that help people. Capitalism rewards liars, crooks and unscrupulous folks. I’d rather live in a world where people had free healthcare, only worked a little and had time for leisure activities, hobbies and exercise. If anyone finds that place, let me know.
Eventually, AI will be doing our leisure activities for us so that we have more time free to work for them.
But probably no money. Soylent Green is people. Tastes like chicken.
From what I could gather from research, human tastes most like pork, though I imagine it’s similar to how I would say that goose kind of tastes like duck—not really, but that’s the closest comparable I know of.
Time for a modern version of John Carpenter’s “They Live”. Perhaps without the cheesy alleyway fistfight scene. Work! Consume!
“We should do away with the absolutely specious notion that everybody has to earn a living. It is a fact today that one in ten thousand of us can make a technological breakthrough capable of supporting all the rest. The youth of today are absolutely right in recognizing this nonsense of earning a living.”
-Buckminster Fuller
It’s really going to depend on cost of living. I’m 37 and don’t make much more than you, but I could afford to buy a new Type R if you restored my credit to what it was before I was unemployed twice in the last four years or wipe out the $450 a month in student loan debt I have (which is finally gone by the end of this year!). My rent is $1100 a month or so, utilities another $250. $150 for cell phone, $170 for insurance. Leaves me about $1700, or one paycheck, to pay for groceries, a car payment, or whatever else. But I live in a state with no income taxes, so that also helps.
Unfortunately for you is that unless you are in a relationship with someone else who makes a little more than you, so that your annual household income is closer to $115k+, you are not the demographic that a new car sale is targeted at. Most folks looking at $50k cars are in the $100k-$150k annual household income range, the median I am seeing is $115k with a quick search. Even then, I am not sure how they do it, at least comfortably. I live in a very HCOL area, average household income is above $180k annually. While there are still a lot of nice, $50k+ cars on the streets, it is not like some other LCOL areas I have traveled to that seem to have a higher proportion of similar cars.
Even when my wife was working we never made it to $115k+. There is also a high cost of living where I live. Just my property tax bill alone is 17% of my take home pay. I should stop ranting about it, but that article just sent me spinning. Has anyone unplugged capitalism and plugged it back in yet? We need a reboot.
I am lucky enough to be able to afford a brand new Integra Type S that I just bought. I paid cash but I drove the same car since I was 16 and I am now 42. But I also work in tech and make six figures for what I do. I guess I am in the upper class but man I feel like we are all getting squeezed right now something fierce.
For a vast majority of people who bought FL5’s new, the car has been at least $50k. $5k markup was about the best you could find for the first 2 years. Markups really only eased as the MSRP kept jumping year over year.
For context, the Hyundai Elantra N starts at $35,100. While not in the same league as the Type R in terms of raw performance, it’s also 27% ($13k) cheaper.
Probably costs the same to produce too.