THIS week we're testing the brand-new Honda Civic Type R (above), which by all accounts is astunning car to drive. It's also a hugely expensive one that - with a few small options - tops out at ￡52,000. As you can read on page eight, Honda puts what is a ￡12,000 increase over the old model (which actually shares much of the same underpinnings) down to an increase in costs and swings in the exchange rate. Oh, and the fact that the old model was too cheap! Back in 1988, I bought one of the best hot hatches of the time, a Citroen AX GT, brand new for ￡8,800. According to the Bank of England, that's the equivalent of around ￡22,500 today, and not far from the price of the brilliant Hyundai i20 N - our current favourite hot hatch. Yet, at ￡25,750, you could have two of the hot Hyundais for the price of one Honda Civic Type R.
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