Honda Civic Si Sedan

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Special occasions demand celebration. Birthdays, anniversaries and Valentine’s Day find many couples making a beeline for the latest trendy dining spot. They’ll think nothing of forking out two, three or even four hundred bucks for a morsel of meat or fish presented oh-so-artistically on wheel-sized plates. If you’re lucky, you’ll even get a couple glasses of wine.

But even the rich and famous occasionally have to think about cash flow–after all, rehab doesn’t come cheap.

The Honda Civic Si sedan is like a plate lunch at your favorite Asian/Hawaiian takeout joint: tasty, damn satisfying and, when you consider all that’s on your plate, it’s a killer deal.

And thankfully, the American mindset that four-door sedans are no fun to drive or look at is starting to erode. Such old-school snobbery holds that four doors are two too much unless they’re hung on rides like a Mercedes-Benz S-Class or a Bentley Flying Spur.

The view from the driver’s seat is different in Europe and Asia, where four-doors have long competed with coupes in sales and motorsports with no such inferiority baggage. Last November Honda unleashed this $20K-something sedan that will shift attitudes in Main Street U.S.A. a whole lot quicker. The Civic Si sedan, like the turbocharged Mazdaspeed Mazda3, can be enjoyed on a daily basis without breaking the bank. And Subaru’s basic WRX as well as the turbo Jetta GLI sticker at just about two grand more than that.

Honda’s 2007 budget sport sedan starts with a solid foundation. A panel of independent journalists proclaimed the Civic the 2006 North American Car of the Year. And the accolades are backed up by an even tougher set of judges: the consumers.

The Honda Civic captured Strategic Vision’s “Most Delightful Vehicle” ranking for 2006, scoring a CDI score of 665 against the segment’s average of 507.

Strategic Vision, a San Diego-based automotive research firm, tracks buyers’ satisfaction each year and calculates how a vehicle scores on several segment-weighted attributes, including but not limited to attributes such as wind noise, appearance, cargo capacity, tire appearance, ride comfort and acceleration to come up with its Consumer Delight Index (CDI).

Strategic Vision’s Vehicle Experience Study helps quantify actual consumers’ judgments on satisfaction, overall quality, intention to purchase the same brand again, problem areas and emotional commitment.

The Si sedan, as Honda likes to point out, speaks to the practical and wild sides of our driving lives. To accomplish that mission, Honda has taken the latest iteration of its revered Civic commuter and injected it with steroids. The main attractions are its K20Z3 197-hp 2.0-liter with dual overhead camshafts and 6-speed manual transmission with limited slip differential. (Standard Civic sedans make do with a 140-hp single overhead cam 1.8-liter and 5-speed.) Grip, not to mention recognition, is enhanced by larger and sportier standard rubber: V-rated 215/45 R17s on dark silver, 7-in. wide cast aluminum alloy wheels. A rear spoiler and Si badging also signal this isn’t a vanilla-variety Civic.

Drivers and occupants are treated to bolstered seats with red stitching, red backlit gauges and leather trimmed tilt/telescoping steering wheel and shifter knob. A rev limiter warning light in the top tier of the bi-level instrument panel flashes red 600 rpm before you hit the Honda’s screaming 8000-rpm red line.

Tunes of a different sort are generated by the Si sedan’s standard 350-watt, seven-speaker audio system which includes an aux input jack, MP3/WMA playback, speed-sensing volume control and a subwoofer.

Ventilation is via standard power windows and one-touch moonroof. Keyless entry with security system and a 60/40 split folding rear seat, traction control, electronic stability control and a full complement of airbags round out the package for this sixth-generation Civic Si -- and the first time it’s been available in two body styles.
The wheelbase of the four-door is 106.3 in., two inches longer than the Si coupe. The Si sedan weighs 2945 lbs., 59 more than the two-door, but the suspensions are very similar. Braking is handled by 11.8-in. ventilated discs up front and 10.2-in. rotors out back. Sedan and coupe share the same springs and rear stabilizer bar but Honda says the four-door’s 27mm diameter front stabilizer bar is tuned for the sedan’s longer wheelbase vs. the coupe’s 28mm bar. Damper tuning is also different. The sedan’s turning radius is a shade tighter at 34.8 ft. vs. 35.6 for the coupe.

And here’s the great news for consumers: the spirited Civic Si sedan comes at a downright civil price: $21,885. W-rated summer tires are a $200 factory option. Ordering Honda’s navigation system drives the price up to $23,040. (The audio system on cars with nav are ready to pipe in XM® satellite radio if you choose to subscribe.)

Honda’s Si sedan hits the sweet spot between perceived quality, performance and usability so well it’s scary – at least for the competition. For the rest of us who love smart value almost as much as a stretch of winding road, the Si sedan is a fantastic opportunity.

The Si-specific exhaust system, which features a stainless-steel exhaust manifold, coupled with Honda’s iVTEC, imbues this little gem with dual personalities. You can putter around all day, not using up too many natural resources (EPA estimates 23/32 city/highway mpg) or doing really nasty things to air or noise quality. When you feel frisky, though, this platform responds as well as any front-driver that carries nearly 60 percent of its weight up front could be expected to perform.

The stereo’s fine, but the music from the exhaust – a braaap that wails like a sport bike --will move you just as powerfully. The power curve on this playful pup underscores that 3rd, 4th and 5th-gear are your best friends when your heart’s in sport mode. Owners will quickly learn the Si enters the zone when the VTEC’s aggressive cam profiles kick in at about 5800 rpm.

We liked the legibility of the speedometer readout made possible by the two-tier instrument panel. We just wish Honda would have thought out the navigation screen to the same degree. The daytime glare that obliterates diagrams and directions could (and should) have been largely eliminated by mounting the display further into the dash or center stack. Steering feedback could also be improved but overall, the Civic Si sedan is a compromise that grownups will not only appreciate, but love.