FL5 Civic Type R Launches In Vietnam, Ahead Of Other ASEAN Countries, Are We Missing Something?

Vietnam? Why Vietnam? The legendary offering for the Honda stable has always been offered to Asian countries such as Malaysia and Thailand first before based on its immense popularity and which requires little to zero marketing effort to clear the usual limited quantities brought in. In the FL5 Civic Type R’s case even the production would not be able to meet worldwide demand with production numbers capped at 400 units a month.

FL5 Civic Type R arrival at VMS 2022 venue (video: Johnny & Supercar Vlog)

The Honda Civic FL5 Type R would be launched at the 2022 Vietnam Motorshow (VMS 2022) which is being held for the first time following a long hiatus due to Covid-19 restrictions. Honda Vietnam can be seen proudly announcing its availability to the public during the VMS 2022 and that it would be taking pre-orders from now on with the final retail price to be announced by the end of 2022 and customer vehicle delivery to begin in 2023.

The retail price is still kept under tight lips, but a few Vietnamese media have made speculations that it would be about 2-billion VMD (RM 379,000). At that price range, the FL5 would carry close to RM 60,000 premium over its predecessor FK8 launch price in Malaysia.

The FL5 Civic Type R, although heavier does produce about 10HP more making it capable of lapping the Suzuka Circuit at 0.873-seconds quicker than the FK8. This is thanks to its redesigned turbocharger and improved exhaust efficiency. The FL5 Civic Type R also features active exhaust function making it capable of higher revs.

A revised rev-matching program coupled with lighter fly-wheel is also said to improve the overall driving feel going through all 6 forward gears. Although the Civic Type-R has always been exclusively front-wheel drive, its clever use of dual-axis strut front suspension somehow manages to suppress any signs of torque steer. This time around Civic Type R purists would not have to swap out the OEM wheels for a smaller size, as the previously used 20-inch wheels have been ditched in favour of an overall better performing 19’s.

More importantly for the track junkies, who this car is intended for, you would not need to hook-up your smartphone to the FL5’s onboard data logger. All these functions can now be accessed thru the FL5’s 9-inch infotainment system which makes your lap recording and performance telematics display easier.

Now back to the FL5 Civic Type R being launched in Vietnam. For us at Caricarz, it is evident this could be due to a few combined factors. For one, the VNM 2022 is the only national level auto show happening in the ASEAN region at the current period.

To add to that, and what we feel is the more important factor is the production numbers for both left-hand drive (LHD) and right-hand drive (RHD) models. With America being one of the largest consumers of the FL5 Civic Type R, the production numbers for the LHD models would surely be higher to meet the demand. Hence it is natural to channel some of these spills over to any Asian countries with this drive configuration. Next in line we assume would be the Philippines.

In Japan, the demand for the FL5 too has been overwhelming with waiting periods said to be in excess of 6-months. Given that, the earliest we guess the FL5 Civic Type R would be made available to the other ASEAN RHD countries would be in 2023, but which country is another guessing game entirely.  However that does not stop the market speculators in Japan from swooping up cars bought by the early buyer and putting it up for sale in the Japanese's auctions sites for international buyers who cannot wait to get their hands on these Type R goodness.