EP3 Civic Type R - why not?

[powerandtorque]

No interest in the equivalent Celica then?

It's personal preference at the end of the day - I personally found the Celica 190 an underwhelming and slightly disappointing car when I borrowed the demonstrator from the dealer while my MR2 was getting serviced.

It was probably 10 years ago odd now so I can't remember the finer points, but what I do recall is that it was crying out for an LSD, that the chassis felt a bit bland but wasn't bad and that the engine and gearbox didn't seem particularly well matched with one another.

Maybe I was harsh on it as I'd just stepped out of an MR2 (which was super-agile and handled fantastically) and I was comparing the Celica a DC2 Integra which is frankly sublime, but the Celica 190 just felt like a missed opportunity to me. It looked nice enough, seating position was nice and it went OK if you kept it above 6k rpm (the ratios made that slightly hard work though) but it just lacked the sparkle and finely honed feeling of the 'Teg.

Of course, for half the cost of a EP3 Civic it's potentially worth considering and it's probably on par everywhere except the drivetrain - the engine and gearbox is the EP3's selling point as far as I'm concerned.

I really want to try a DC5 Integra as - on paper at least - it's the fantastic drivetrain from a Civic but with a half decent chassis and proper hydraulic power steering which should give some feel and feedback. They're holding their money well though and obviously all JDM imports.

I've not driven one, but from what I've read the facelift EP3's (2004 ish onwards) had slightly revised suspension/steering which improved things considerably over the earlier cars, if still lacking steering feel.