2006 Honda Civic Review

Specifications

The Torqueless Wonder

This thing is loud, its obnoxious, and its perfect for me. I jest, I jest. Its not exactly perfect for me, but its so much like me that I had to get that off my hairy chest right away. Those were my primary first impressions, which remain relatively unchanged at the end of a week-long stint, but I learned how to extract almost every ounce of go-juice from this torqueless wonder. Yeah, 197 horsepower is all well and good, but 139 lb-ft of torque? I think I used to drive a riding mower that had more low-end grunt. Okay, I exaggerate, but the inflated horsepower, low torque and boy-racer muffler means youre in for a lot of loud, heavy-footed clutch drops and a lick of spinning rubber before the limited slip differential kicks in and launches you away from traffic.

Nonetheless, despite all the acrid smoke and screaming revs, traffic was securely on my bumper, something I got used to losing in the WRX Id recently driven; but that was clearly an unfair advantage with all-wheel drive putting 235 lb-ft of torque down to all four Bridgestone Blizzak winter boots, in the slush and snow no less. Sadly, even the base Impreza puts out 166 lb-ft, never mind the Sis true competition, like the VW GTI and its 207 lb-ft or the equally torquey Chevrolet Cobalt SS Supercharged. Still, the Si fits the sporty bill, but nowhere will you see me attach powerful as a descriptive of its performance, as its power is all smoke and noise. Once you get around its hobbled jump off the line, the Si rounds into form (or, more appropriately, rounds the corner in fine form, meaning exceptionally flat through the apex) with many nice touches to help you forget any inadequacies you may experience from stoplights, because while industry standard rates everything by 0 to 60 mph, fun in the city is all about 0-30 and 0-40 times, or just plain being awake enough to surprise the old lady with the big hair in her Mercedes AMG.

While I imagine many will use the phrase “it begs to be driven hard” to describe the Si, I would say it absolutely demands it, since you get absolutely nothing from it unless it is driven hard. Nothing. Okay, Im exaggerating again, but I got thoroughly frustrated with the way it limped around town like a regular old Civic sedan or four-door Corolla if you stuck with moderate, sub-4K rpms all the way from home to Costco, to the movies and back home again. The Si should make you forget that its a Civic (and by Civic I mean generic compact car), and in city traffic while observing the limits of driver etiquette, it doesnt come close, except in the noise department. Maybe if I lived with a racetrack between my home and work, I would enjoy the monstrous exhaust note (its great, but it can be a little much before coffee in the morning), wicked steering and limited slip differential that keeps the tires from running away from each other around irresponsible turns and onramps.

Since my time behind the wheel, Ive been reading review after review comparing the Si to the GTI and the Si always comes out on top in the slalom and only a whisker behind in straight-line acceleration, but all the comments point to the GTI being the car that you can actually live with. I guess as I approach 30, I realize that I really dont want to drive at 10/10ths all the time. Wait a minute, yes I do, I love driving like that, but the Hell that is sunny Saturday afternoon traffic wont let me, and so I curse the deafening industrial-meat-grinder exhaust note (which, according to one comparison test, is not as loud as the GTIs cabin noise–coulda fooled me–by about 5 or 6 decibels).

I also felt the lack of rubber on somewhat narrow 17-inchers (215/45R17), and they were winter tires when I drove it, so they lacked grip under ideal conditions, but the trade off is running into the back of a bus, so Ill take the winter rubber any day (at least, any winter day). The alloy wheels did, however, fit the look of a racer, as did the sleek coupe profile. I find it hard to believe how distasteful the sedan is to look at while Im in love with the coupe, especially with Si badges, skirts and spoiler, and even a pair of nice fog lamps tucked into the valance (although mine didnt have the fog lamps) to give it “The Crouch”–the ready-to-leap look that good bodywork and a lowered suspension give a racy car. And the crowning touch on the modern but tasteful coupe was a coat of stunning, alluring and downright hot Habanero Pearl Red paint. It looked so good I wanted to lick it. But I didnt, because it would have been too spicy!

The interior, on the other hand, differs little from the stock sedan interior. Notable changes are a three-spoke (rather than two-spoke) multi-function steering wheel, red backlighting on the central tach, stereo/info screen and LED speedometer (an abomination of Coney-Island proportions, in my opinion), the small-knobbed slick stick, aluminum pedals with rubber pegs for grip and chairs that enveloped me in near-perfect tough love, i.e. firm, with minimal cushioning, breathable fabric on back and lower cushion, aggressive bolstering lined in a supremely gripping alcantara-like cloth with killer red stitching and never a moment of back fatigue or discomfort. Yeah, the seats were good.

Normally if a cars seats are that good, Ill be a happy camper, especially if its a compact performance car, but I dont think I bought into the tuned philosophy of the Si. The engineers have obviously done everything they could to extract as much from the 2.0L 4-cylinder aluminum-block engine, using such magical tricks as fuel injection, 4 valves per cylinder, i-VTEC massaging each of the two overhead cams right up to the screaming 8,000 rpm redline and that shrieking stainless steel exhaust manifold, but I want seemingly effortless power, a graceful demonstration of superiority from every stoplight to go along with my nearly 200 horsepower. I feel like I could get as much out of a Ford Focus (I cant, but I can still feel that way) by running the revs into the stopper between every shift, which is what the Si sounds like anywhere above 3,000 rpm.

If you like pounding your right foot to the floor and hunting for razor sharp shifts, all while keeping the revs pinned above 6,000 rpm, and you appreciate hearing every detail of the engines output zinging away like a mechanical rendition of “Rex! rex! rex! rex tremendae majestatis” from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Requiem mass in D minor (a popular ditty), the Si is your hammer. But if you ask me, its like a hammer with a big handle and a small head–easy to swing but just as easy to miss the mark, and then when you do hit the nail on the head, it really doesnt do much damage, so you just have to keep pounding away. I guess if youre happy swinging a hammer for the sake of swinging, this ones for you.