This year, we’re not just saying goodbye to a hot hatch icon, but to the last manual Honda you can buy!
I cannot emphasise this enough – Honda’s revelation that the Honda Civic Type-R is to be taken off sale is a huge deal! It’s majorly significant. A marker in automotive history. A sad marker. These are the moments in car culture that hit like a sucker punch to the gut. Not because they’re unexpected, but because, deep down, we hoped they’d never come. Unfortunately, it has come. The Honda Civic Type R is dead. And with it, so too dies the last manual Honda you can buy in the UK. Just let that sink in.
If you know Honda, like I know Honda, this is a brand that built its reputation on efficient high-revving engines, razor-sharp handling, and manual gearboxes so sweet they felt like slicing sushi with a samurai’s Tanto dagger.
The Last of the Breed
Honda has confirmed that sales of the Civic Type R in Europe will end before January 2026, due to the incoming Euro 6e-BIS emissions regulations.
The silver lining is that they are doing a carbon-clad Ultimate Edition send-off version of the Type R. Only 40 will be offered across Europe, we get just 10 examples of this swansong – all in Championship White, streaked with red decals and dripping in presence, like a warrior’s final ceremonial armour.
It’s fast. It’s furious. It’s £58,000. And you’ll get a little commemorative gift box. Costly though, right? Well, the regular FL5 CTR will also stay on sale at its current price of £52 till the executioner swings his axe in Jan. Admittedly £52k is a high price for a hot hatch (especially when the previous FK8 sold for £33k).
But forget all of that. Did you catch the bit about it being ‘final’. Finality. Terminal. The End. C’mon, this is not just the death of a car. It’s the death of a feeling. A feeling that for all its sensible and practical offerings, the unhinged spirit of founder Soichiro Honda – a man who was still hand-gliding, ballooning and, yes, racing cars into his late 70s – still remained in cars like the CTR. With this news though, you can’t help but feel he’d be spinning in his grave at 9,000 rpm.
My Honda Story: From Jeddah with Love
My relationship with Honda is deeply personal. It goes back to the 1980s, when my father – a man who had no interest in cars – reluctantly bought a first-generation Honda Accord saloon in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Now, he had wanted a Chevy Caprice. Something big. American. Dominant. Perceptibly safe.
I convinced him otherwise. I was just a kid (about 12 or 13 at the time), but I already knew enough about cars to know that Hondas had something magical in them. Lightweight. Nimble. Unapologetically clever. He only meant to keep it a short time, till he got used to driving in Saudi. Instead, he kept it the whole time he was in Saudi – well over a decade. That little Accord saloon did everything. Drove us regularly to Makkah and Medina. It took us on adventures. It crashed once. We rebuilt it. We kept it. We loved it.
And I got old enough to drive it. It was the first car that taught me to feel connected to the road. To understand balance. To enjoy corners. To revel in revs.
I remained a loyal fan for a long time. We’ve had Civics, CRXs, Accords, CR-Vs – I’ve probably owned more Hondas than any other brand, and have driven as many as I could get my hands on in my career.
And each time I shifted into gear, I felt that magic. That certain something that every Honda used to be infused with. And that slick, short-throw manual gearbox that Honda perfected, was a core part of that mystical connection. Few car companies produced manual gearboxes as slick and sweet as Honda and BMW.
A Tragic Goodbye
So now, with the Civic Type R going off sale, that magic goes with it.
Honda, once one of the flag-bearers of the manual gearbox, will no longer offer a single car with a clutch pedal in the UK. Not one. We’re not just losing a model here – we’re losing identity, character, and choice. We’re losing that sacred mechanical handshake between car and driver.
Prelude to New Cars?
Even the upcoming Prelude revival – a sleek new coupe draped in promise – won’t bring the manual back. It’ll be a hybrid, a range-extender style set-up. They’re creating an artificial new gearbox for a car that doesn’t need one. Some indication that old Soichiro’s spirit still pervades in some aspect of the engineering department’s efforts. It’ll have paddle shifts and simulated noises pumped into the cabin to mimic the sensation of driving.
Mimic. Not deliver. Honestly, I’ll welcome it. Because we drivers will crave any kind of sensations. But surely it will feel a bit like karaoke driving – a poor performance trying to copy original greatness? It’s lip-syncing to someone else’s words. To lost memories.
What We’ve Lost
The Type R wasn’t just another hot hatch. It transcended that label long ago. It was the last bastion of accessible driving purity. Front-wheel drive, yes – but world-beating. Emotion-evoking. A car that made you feel alive, even on the morning school run. Together we would scream for joy at the redline – literally!
And now it’s gone.
Why? Emissions. Legislation. Progress, they say. I guess it is. Doesn’t feel like evolution though. Feels like we’re going backwards, we’re losing something. We’re diluting. Forgetting. Smoothing out the visceral and replacing it with simulation. Sanding down the edges of true experience until all that’s left is safe, silent, soulless transport.
If you’ve ever redlined a VTEC engine just to hear it sing… If you’ve ever relished the snick-snack of a gear lever, matching ratios, snatching fractions of a second. Then this hurts. And you’re not alone.
Share this post. Share your memories. Tell me your Honda story.
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