Are you happy with your SI ??

[pwjazz]

I'm still in the break-in period of mine, so I don't have a lot to say about peak performance and all that, but a few thoughts so far:

1. Now that I'm living with it, the driver's seat is not as comfortable as I remember from the test drive, mostly because of missing lumbar support. I had the same problem in my NB Miata, and the same cheap mesh lumbar support I used there works wonders here too.

2. This thing is way closer to a GT sedan than a hot hatch. In my younger years I had a Mk. 3 GTI, that thing was a hot hatch, but it was also much slower than my Civic SI. My dad almost bought a 4th gen Nissan Maxima back in the day. Back in the day, the Maxima was one of the most spacious and fast FWD sports sedans, and because it was much lighter than a lot of the competition, it was properly fast and a hoot to drive. The SI has almost identical exterior dimensions and weight, and a bit more power, and of course much better tech features. For some reason in today's climate, the SI gets derided as being too slow and too big (baby Accord and all that). Maybe I'm just old, but I call B.S. - in today's dollars, that Maxima cost upwards of $40k. The fact that Honda can make an equally spacious, equally light, equally powerful vehicle with modern safety features and amenities, and dramatically better fuel economy, at 3/4 the cost of that Maxima is just astounding.

3. I love how well Honda integrated the driver assistance features with the manual transmission here. Most carmakers (I'm looking at you Subaru) just punt on driver assistance on their manual models and restrict it only to automatics. Honda gives us lane keeping assist and adaptive cruise control. As a bonus, I noticed that the cruise control speed stays set even when I change gears, that's a nice touch. I know these aren't things that enthusiast press people and YouTube influencers care much about, but combined with the automated rev match, the SI gives me a tremendous quality of life in my daily driving, which if we're honest is 99% of what we do anyway.

So yeah, so far I'm overall happy.

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[Shankmeyster]

Still waiting for my Aegean to show up.

 

[VarmintCong]

I'm still in the break-in period of mine, so I don't have a lot to say about peak performance and all that, but a few thoughts so far:

1. Now that I'm living with it, the driver's seat is not as comfortable as I remember from the test drive, mostly because of missing lumbar support. I had the same problem in my NB Miata, and the same cheap mesh lumbar support I used there works wonders here too.

2. This thing is way closer to a GT sedan than a hot hatch. In my younger years I had a Mk. 3 GTI, that thing was a hot hatch, but it was also much slower than my Civic SI. My dad almost bought a 4th gen Nissan Maxima back in the day. Back in the day, the Maxima was one of the most spacious and fast FWD sports sedans, and because it was much lighter than a lot of the competition, it was properly fast and a hoot to drive. The SI has almost identical exterior dimensions and weight, and a bit more power, and of course much better tech features. For some reason in today's climate, the SI gets derided as being too slow and too big (baby Accord and all that). Maybe I'm just old, but I call B.S. - in today's dollars, that Maxima cost upwards of $40k. The fact that Honda can make an equally spacious, equally light, equally powerful vehicle with modern safety features and amenities, and dramatically better fuel economy, at 3/4 the cost of that Maxima is just astounding.

3. I love how well Honda integrated the driver assistance features with the manual transmission here. Most carmakers (I'm looking at you Subaru) just punt on driver assistance on their manual models and restrict it only to automatics. Honda gives us lane keeping assist and adaptive cruise control. As a bonus, I noticed that the cruise control speed stays set even when I change gears, that's a nice touch. I know these aren't things that enthusiast press people and YouTube influencers care much about, but combined with the automated rev match, the SI gives me a tremendous quality of life in my daily driving, which if we're honest is 99% of what we do anyway.

So yeah, so far I'm overall happy.

i was driving 25k miles a year for field service, I loved the driver assist in my 2020 Si, and also loved how you can leave the car in 6th on the highway and have plenty of power plus 38-40 mpg. It was the perfect field service car.

The company paid me $450/month and $0.22 a mile to own it for 2 years, and I sold it for more than I paid.

 

[kev2069667]

10k miles on mine. Some pros and cons
Pros:
-Handling is amazing
-Shifter is amazing
-Great jack of all trades car( power to fuel consumption, handles well but not too rough, etc.)
-Reliability should be great
-Low end torque from the turbo
-Amazing aftermarket support
-Rev matching is great
-Did I mention the handling? When you think you're going to understeer like most FWD cars, the car starts rotating in harder. The suspension engineering is amazing.
-I like the car warns you if you have a possibility of rear ending the vehicle in front.
Cons:
-Rattles more than any other vehicle I've owned. Really makes the experience feel cheap.
-Steering feels stuck in the center at highway speeds making small corrections. This is pretty unforgivable. Makes keeping the car centered a laborious experience.
-Paint chips if you look at it funny but my 9th gen was like this too.
-the camera system has false braked a few times. I turned off the lane keep assist because it would randomly steer when lanes were splitting or going through construction.
-Wish cruise control was not adaptive cruise. The system will brake randomly and slow down too far behind the car ahead. I won't use cruise control unless taking a road trip. In my other cars I've had I used it every day. Maybe it would work better if the car was an auto non si? It feels like it wasn't designed for this car.

Active lane keep is both a pro and a con. Works well for long road trips most of the time and will take some fatigue off me. But It will confuse road cracks with lane lines and will pull you where you don't want to go like the lane keep assist does.

 

[Blue_Keroberos]

-Wish cruise control was not adaptive cruise. The system will brake randomly and slow down too far behind the car ahead. I won't use cruise control unless taking a road trip. In my other cars I've had I used it every day. Maybe it would work better if the car was an auto non si? It feels like it wasn't designed for this car.

JFYI, you can use regular cruise control, you press and hold the Interval button (Following distance button)

 

[kev2069667]

JFYI, you can use regular cruise control, you press and hold the Interval button (Following distance button)

I didn't know that. Thanks for the heads up! Even the closest following distance is too far away for me in most daily situations so I appreciate it!

 

[SP R KiD]

-Wish cruise control was not adaptive cruise. The system will brake randomly and slow down too far behind the car ahead. I won't use cruise control unless taking a road trip. In my other cars I've had I used it every day. Maybe it would work better if the car was an auto non si? It feels like it wasn't designed for this car.

I'm not sure if it's like this for all models, but if you hold down a button to switch it from adaptive mode to just normal. It is like this on my CRV

Maybe look into that potential solution

 

[evanescent03]

I am looking to buy a new car in 2023. The SI is on my list. Is there anyone that bought an SI that wishes they would have made a different choice?
Here are some other cars I am considering ... HONDA <> Civic Sport Touring Hatchback , Type R, <> Mazda3 Hatchback, Mazda Miata, Toyota GR86, <> Hyundai Elantra N

I just got a second Si (i bought one 2 days ago, and i also bought a new one the first week of january 2022, ironically), I had a GR86 for a few months and have driven a Type R on the track.

Most of car buying comes down to preference, honestly. They all have a list of pros/cons but most of those are very subjective. You really need to prioritize what's important to you. What are you wanting out of it?

The CTR on that list is probably the best all-rounder. My wife, however, thinks they look horrible bc of the red seats (she also dislikes the "pink" seats in the Si, fwiw).

CTR: best performance by far, also most utility; polarizing looks and pretty pricey especially with ADM most people are asking ($7-20k it seems); get this if you want an even MORE practical and similarly/more? fun BMW M3 for a big savings but with much less speed and prestige. definitely my pick from your list (i'll hopefully trade my Si in for one [or integra type s] when i can get one close to MSRP ... hate the markups!)

Miata: iconic "sports car" but slow .. i've driven them on the street and they're fun but very useless compared to other cars. if you're going to autocross and like a tiny car with super cheap consumable parts, this is a great option.

Si: fantastic fuel economy, zippy enough and with a good chassis and light feel to be fun despite being pretty slow; no hatchback (consider Acura Integra? if you want a more grown up Si hatch); very adequate infotainment and nice sounding Bose for price point. great choice if you want a something fun, practical and really efficient but don't care about raw speed or pink seats.

GR86: really fun, very balanced on the track even though i had the auto (it worked out, but much less fun than i'm sure the manual is ... it's all i could find at short notice). back seat is almost useless but maybe two kids on passenger side behind one another? not fast, but zippy enough to be fun; horrible infotainment and audio setup. similar to Miata ... brake rotors were hilariously cheap (but they also only lasted me a weekend because i destroyed them with track pads).. would need some upgrades for tracking.

I'm not real familiar with the other so i'll let other chime in ... they're all fun though so follow your heart and test drive stuff when possible!

 

[pwjazz]

I am looking to buy a new car in 2023. The SI is on my list. Is there anyone that bought an SI that wishes they would have made a different choice?
Here are some other cars I am considering ... HONDA <> Civic Sport Touring Hatchback , Type R, <> Mazda3 Hatchback, Mazda Miata, Toyota GR86, <> Hyundai Elantra N

I used to own a 2002 Miata. Fun little car, reliable and easy to maintain, and a big enough trunk to do basic grocery shopping and such. As the cliche goes, it's not fast, but on public roads that's a plus. If you ever need to transport more than 1 passenger though it's a no-go.

I test drove an Elantra N (DCT) before buying the Civic SI. The Elantra N was a hoot--the DCT shifted really well, it made great noises, it felt properly fast and had a very linear feeling throttle response, and it has really impressive amounts of grip on the stock summer tires. It's also got plenty of interior space and a huge trunk. I know some people don't like the looks and it does look kind of janky in photos, but in person, the blue color with red accents is pretty stunning, and it looks fun in that slightly over the top way that the 10th Gen Type R looked fun (though not nearly as whacky). Definitely put a smile on my face. What kept me from buying it was:

1. The front lip is pretty close to the ground, and the front overhang is quite long. Combined, this means that I could barely make it into my driveway without scraping, and I would have been afraid to daily drive the thing for constant fear of scraping, hitting a curb, or whatever.

2. The bottom seat bolsters were just a bit too tight for my body shape

3. The gas mileage isn't great

4. The interior looks and feels worse in person than it does in pictures

If none of the above are issues for you, the Elantra N is definitely worth considering.

I also test drove a GR86. Fun car, proper RWD platform, really good looking in a way that I think will age well, felt like a much faster and rigid version of my old Miata, would surely be a blast on track. I had hoped that it would be like a 4 seat Miata in which I can transport my kids, but there's so little legroom in back that even with my short self in the front seat, my 4 year old daughter didn't have enough legroom to dangle her feet without contorting herself. Also, I suspect that ingress/egress with a 2 door would get annoying pretty fast. Less important but worth noting is that the relatively high belt line and small windows make it feel claustrophobic relative to the Civic SI's airy greenhouse.

At the end of the day, I think of the Civic SI as a really competent economy car injected with a little sport (Sport Injected, right?), kind of like meat and potatoes with a chipotle gravy on the side. I don't know that I'll ever love the Civic SI the way that I would love a Miata, GR86 or even Elantra N, but unlike all of those it's a car that I can live with and enjoy on a daily basis.

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