According to the leading used car price 'bible', Glass's Guide, the Civic Type-R has the slowest depreciation of all hatchbacks, with one year old '01 / Y reg examples retailing for an amazing 90 per cent of their new cost. This low rate of depreciation betters that of all of the Civic Type-R's direct competitors including the SEAT Leon 20V T Cupra, Renault Clio 172 and VW Golf GTi 2.0.

A Glass's spoksman said: "This is a classic example of a specialist car that is greatly in demand, combined with one that's built to go the distance."