Well having a CTR makes me slightly biased but I will chuck in my two penneth....
The 172/182 is pretty easy to drive quick, the Civic is much more tail happy (which I personally find a good thing) and is much more track orientated. It requires total commitment and real work from the gearbox to get every last ounce of performance out of it.
That said, it suits my driving style very well and I love the 8600rpm redline (Hondata KPro ECU upgrade). Service from the dealers is spot on perfect (note how everyone else here has neglected to say a word about Renault dealers!)
The Civic engine and the gearbox are fantastic, and the engine responds very well to tuning (to which you have a massive scene in Japan and the USA so therefore lots of parts and proven performance upgrades).
Mod-wise I have gone for a
http://www.gruppemeurope.com/frc.htmlGruppeM carbon airbox, a
http://www.hondata.comHondata KPro fully mapable (by end user) ECU and a Spoon Sports N1 catback exhaust (loud as a touring car).
Running a decent ECU map downloaded free via the internet I have approx 195 BHP at the wheels (ie 230 at the fly) as proven by several other members of the CTR forums with the same mods. When I have finished modding my car (new manifold and decat next, ITB kit or cams to follow dependant on cost) I will get my car setup properly and hope to release even more power.
For a vid clip of a very similar car to mine with my mods check out
http://gallery.themspros.com/albums/album04/Spoon_N1_Gruppe_M.mpgTrungs Clip
For the insane, a supercharger conversion is also available which along with the 8 PSI boost upgrade has taken several cars past 310 BHP (12.9 seconds QTR mile). The basic supercharger conversion costs around 3-4k. See www.cplracing.co.uk">CPL Racing for more info.
And for all those who complain about lack of steering feel, a set of camber correcting bolts and a simple fast road setup by ABP or similar will sort that out for approx 90 quid. An excellent solution is a Quaife LSD.
Dont get me wrong, I really do like the Clio (having driven over 12k of the mileage on my other halfs car), but the CTR is in a different league IMHO and should really be compared to cars a class up from the 172/182 (ie Focus RS, Leon Cupra, Audi S3 etc).
In terms of kit you get, the only thing I miss from the 172 are auto-locking doors and Xenon headlamps.
[Edited by evilowl on 11/8/2004 2:53:36 PM]
EDIT - forgot to mention that around town I get approx 230 miles from a full tank so its approx low 20s (45 litre tank) but on the motorway and A roads (even with a hefty right foot and lots of iVTEC action) its easy to see 320 plus miles from a full tank. Most I have seen is 370, least is 180