Camaro 1SS 1LE
Speaking of compromises, if you’re okay with something that’s not Japanese, not especially highbrow, and $4,005 more than a Civic Type R, there’s always the Chevrolet Camaro 1SS 1LE. At $47,995 including a steep $1,395 freight charge, it’s a mullet-weilding trackday weapon with one of the finest chassis on any front-engined rear-wheel-drive car today. Brake pedal feel is as confident as a Toastmasters champion, the steering is surprisingly communicative, and the LT1 engine is an absolute torque monster. Forget about the badge on the front, this is what many performance cars from much posher brands aspire to be.
Volkswagen Golf R
If four-season grip is of concern, the Toyota GR Corolla and Volkswagen Golf R are formidable all-wheel-drive weapons. The Golf is astonishingly quick, rather refined, and packs one of the most infuriating infotainment systems ever to come out of Germany. I love the EA888 engine, but Volkswagen’s latest infotainment system makes first-generation iDrive feel as intuitive as iOS. At $45,385 including a $1,095 freight charge, it’s also more expensive than the Civic Type R, but that’s the price of more toys and all-wheel-drive. Plus, there’s a certain maturity and comfort to the Golf R that most hot hatches lack.
Toyota GR Corolla
Or is it? Because the Toyota GR Corolla starts at $36,995 including a $1,095 freight charge while packing serious all-wheel-drive punch. Sure, if you want the Torsen front and rear differentials, heated seats, and a banging stereo, you’re looking at $39,445 including freight, but that’s still a bargain. It’ll be a difficult little bugger to get your hands on, but its trick center diff and available front-and-rear Torsen differentials should make it an absolute piss missile in the snow. Granted, the Morizo Edition pictured above costs a lot more, but the base Core model with a few option boxes ticked still promises to be plenty fun.
Hyundai Elantra N
Finally, there’s the bargain option, the Hyundai Elantra N. I’ve logged plenty of miles in the Elantra N and in various FK8 Civic Type Rs, and I’d say that the Elantra N is a better car and almost as good of a driver’s car as the old Type R. The damping is spot-on, the chassis will happily rotate upon a lift of the throttle or a brush of the brakes, and the brakes are most certainly up to track duty. The steering’s also quite good, with weight building naturally so you can really lean on the front end in the corners. Perhaps best of all, you can shut the whole thing up, go into comfort mode, and have a normal compact car with heated seats and a heated steering wheel and a decent stereo when you just want to chill out. At $33,245 including a $1,095 freight charge, it’s an absolute bargain.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the Civic Type R is a good performance car. The last one was truly superb and it seems like Honda hasn’t tampered with the formula. However, it’ll need to bring its a-game if it wants to stay ahead of the pack, especially with a price tag starting with a four. Here’s hoping we get our mitts on Honda’s little rocket soon to really see if it improves on the old car. With 315 horsepower, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, a six-speed manual gearbox, and a limited-slip differential, the new car promises awesome driver engagement in a practical five-door package.
Lead photo credit: Honda
The VW is nice but you know it’s going to cost a lot more to operate than a Honda, with greater problems, plus the styling is pretty questionable on the mk8 imho.
The Corolla, okay sure but once you find one for sale and read the markup on it, it’s no longer really in competition with the Type R, and it’s rarity again makes it sort of questionable to run in any type of salty winter environment.
The Hyundai is the only car it’s really competing against imho, but look at it. Ew david.
I rarely do, and even then, there are Mustangs, Camaros and RWD Chryslers of all sorts out there with me.
Once the first GRCs finally go on sale, many will be marked up, yes. But there are many MSRP-only Toyota dealers out there. All else equal I’d rather have a CTR but I’ve looked far and wide and have personally found zero dealers taking MSRP. Best I’ve seen is $5k over for a mid-late 2023 car. Looks like right now, for one of the first CTRs off the boat you’re looking at 10-25k over. All signs are pointing to ~4000 per year for the US, far fewer than the GRC. It will be a nightmare to get one for reasonable $$ for the entire run.
They both are in the same hypothetical boat that prices them somewhere near slightly used German sports sedans.
And now we’ve found out all those DCTs might strand you on the side of the road.
And before someone mentions the story that went viral about the Elantra N over revving and Hyundai refusing to fix it that car was absolutely, 100% tuned. There’s no way in hell a stock automatic transmission with a hard rev limiter is going to do what that guy claimed his did. The guy clearly tuned the car, blew the engine up, and tried to switch it back to stock for a warranty claim.
Manual is the only proper way to have that car. I personally think it’s a bit of a shame that the major Japanese manufacturers either can’t or won’t make a decent performance oriented automatic, but then again they sell every manual version of these cars they make so I get why they don’t care.
But as someone who has to sit in traffic all the time? Boy would I love a DCT in something like a GR Corolla….
By the time I was getting rid of it (11,000 miles) it was having problems starting up periodically, but whatever…not my problem anymore. I’m not going to say I’ll never buy another VW product but I’d definitely be hesitant to.
Just imagine a gray-haired 68 year-old Toastmasters champion hammering away on a Civic Type R… To the salesperson: “Uh…it’s for my grandson’s 18th birthday”
Any time I’ve looked for a Golf R, it seems like there is $10k tacked on to it. I’d be surprised if Hyundai dealers aren’t trying to hold the Elantra and Kona N cars ransom for a nice bonus profit.
Looks like Camaros in general might not be marked up, maybe the SS 1LE is the exception to that.
And if I am spending $60k after markup, I guess I’d take a run at a M240i instead. Think BMW has been doing orders at MSRP in enough places.
A 335 horsepower NA V6 would be celebrated if it was in pretty much anything other than a pony car, and it saves some weight. I found the 6 to be very nimble on backroads and it still offers an excellent soundtrack…although it’s obviously not the sledgehammer the LT1 V8 is.
I love the current gen Camaro, I just wish it wasn’t so ludicrously compromised. The trunk opening is so small you can’t fit anything bigger than small carry ons through it, you can’t see a damn thing out of it, the back seats are useless, and it has an econobox quality interior until you upgrade to the nicer packages, which are pricey. I could never daily one.
But as a pure fun/driver’s/track car? It’s one of the best out there, and the LT1 trim is a screaming deal. If you can put up with the drab interior you can get the V8 with a Tremec 6 speed, front Brembos, and some handling goodies for around 35 grand…not to mention it doesn’t get the exterior upgrades the SS gets so it’s a major sleeper.
The Camaro (to me) says, “I’m 18 years old, just enlisted in the army, and put 95% of my paycheck into the completely insane car payment I’m making on this car.”
When I bought my 4Runner a few months ago, I asked my sales guy about ordering a GR Corolla. He basically said “I think we have one allocation right now, and it’s already been promised to a friend of the owner.”
Then what happens? Toyota, Honda, et al, they all say “look! we gave you affordable performance cars with manual transmissions, but none of you bought them, so there’s clearly no demand. Here, have a hybrid crossover with a CVT.”
I REALLY wish the manufacturers had more control over their dealer networks.
Honda is basically saying “whatever, idiot, we know you’ll pay it”. And honestly, I hope they’re wrong. 44 grand is ludicrous when compared to the cars you brought up…but the Ns and the GR Corolla in particular drive a hard bargain when 33-38k or so can get you an N in one of 3 body styles or a GRC with the LSDs. Plus, with the GRC or Golf R you get all wheel drive for Pete’s sake.
Here are some others cars at roughly the same price that I thought of when I came across the price of the CTR:
1). A base spec M240i
2). A Supra 2.0
3). A base spec S3
4). A decent C7 Corvette
5). A Mustang GT with the track goody package
6). A Scat Pack Challenger/Charger
I could keep going. $44,000 for one of these is ludicrous, and with how greedy Honda and VW have gotten with their pricing of these cars I feel like they’re no longer true to the hot hatch ethos. These cars are supposed to be fun and relatively affordable. I’m sorry, but 45 grand isn’t affordable, and inflation isn’t a valid excuse to raise prices on these cars 15% after redesign. It’s greed and it’s exploitative.
