8th Gen Civic Si

The "other" car mag had a 10 awesome cars for $10k thing a while back. GTO was also on that list.

I owned the 4 door sedan for over 4 years and just traded up for an FRS. I was extremely happy with the vehicle and probably one of the most fun FWD cars I have ever driven. The car was used for DD duty, trackdays, countless autocrosses and even a hillclimb. I have driven every competitor of this car and many more, usually in anger at autox (Wrx, Sti, MS3, GTI, ITR, S2K...etc). I think the car is the FRS of the FWD compact crowd: not the fastest but the most fun and rewarding to drive. It is not amazing in any one area (except the driveline) but it does it all very well.

Mine was the 2008 Canadian Sedan with the HFP bodykit and an absolute looker. No TPMS, no VSC, just ABS and the car. Honda really lost their way after that (9th gen). Dead reliable, low maintenance, decent on gas and most importantly, very fun to drive. Sure an MS3 is faster, but I hated it, absolutely loathed trying to wrestle the car while shredding the front tires. ITR was a better race car, but the Civic takes it in every other department. The civic is one of the few modern cars that you could completely rotate under trail braking. Try to do the same in a GTI? Pig like understeer. In fact, I would take the Si over an STi both for driving fun and a better overall package for DD duty (my friend is regularly running 15-18mpg).

The car is comfortable and will seat 4 to 5 no problem. The stereo is great, the interior is of excellent quality for. The engine is sublime and the shifter was the best of any h-pattern I have ever sampled (50+ cars). In fact, in those respects the FRS is a downgrade. On the other hand with respect to aggressive driving the civic does not offer the most feedback through the steering wheel (not bad), you sit a bit high and it rolls quite a bit. Stock dampening is quite good though older BMW good. The weak point on the car is the brakes. Even with ducting and race pads I could boil the fluid in less than 20 mins. If you are going to do some track work (and the car will be an absolute blast to drive) I recommend you don't skimp on the brakes and get some camber. Everything else is unnecessary unless you just want to see faster times. My car had a stock engine, exhaust, rollbar and a FIA bucket and was massive fun and let me run down some big boys even with stock power and suspension.

The engine has massive potential as well, even in NA form. Bolt ons and a tune will get you an easy 220whp from a stock 170whp. With cams you are looking at a daily reliable, vicious and screaming 240+whp, NA, from a 2.0l! The synchros would sometimes grind from a lot of angry driving in the heat (quick 1-2 shift) and I had the occasional 3rd gear pop out (once every couple months). The problem was more prevalent in earlier cars and cars with drivers who were not smooth shifters.

What does the FRS do better and worse:

I always said to my friends: "The civic is a perfect DD, I just wish I could get the same (similar) car but with RWD..."

I believe the FRS was the closest thing, and thus I pounced on the car. I have been enjoying the car immensely.

For one its RWD and will easily throw the back end out. I have always preferred cars that try to kill me and set up everything for oversteer. The e-throttle tuning on the toyobaru is much better, as is the feedback through the steering wheel. The sitting position is much better. The stereo is more advanced (ie. bluetooth, USB etc...) but I think the Civics sounded better. There is a lot less body roll.

The civic had the better sounding engine and a smoother transmission. The interiors are about par, with the civics possibly being a bit higher and me missing the wheel mounted controls a bit. The civic was more roomy, but I had a rollbar which effectively regulated it to a 4 door 2 seater.

Sure you could get a BMW, but I look at all the metrics for a DD including: reliability, maintenance, fun to drive factor, comfort, utility, ergonomics, mpg and entertainment. As an overall package, the Si is very hard to beat in my opinion. The $:::fun ratio is just too damn high!

Thanks for the personal experience rwdsport. I agree with your conclusions, hence my asking. The vast majority of the time I am driving around town. I am lucky to make 5 Autocrosses a season. If i do get one it might make 1 hpde. For my purposes it seems about perfect. But PRICE kills it. Oh well... I will keep my eyes open. If I find one with less than 85k for 9999, in the next year it so I will be set. Beyond that might as well wait for the frs to become more accessible.

Update: Well I could wait no longer. I found a blue '07 with 125k miles and got it. It is not perfect, but it is a one (lady) owner car. So far, it is exactly as I had envisioned.

Found it in a small town dealership in MO for a good price. I am in MN. On the way back I averaged 33mpg traveling mostly at 75mph. In a few months if I remember, I will share my experiences. So far it is living up to the fast enough, fun enough, reliable enough criteria I had. Thanks to all for sharing your experience.

After owning an RSX-S, and having experience with a TSX, I wouldn't ever consider an 8th gen Si. I absolutely HATED just about everything about my dad's '06 Civic EX coupe, and only marginally liked the Si's a little bit more- I've never been impressed with them. Straight line, they seem to be slower than the RSX's, too. My '02 Type-S had a race header and short ram intake, and went 14.4 @ 98 mph like it was it's duty in life. I couldn't get my friend's '06 Si with the same mods+Hondata and exhaust past the 14.6 @ 95 mph mark. I'd destroy that car from stoplight to stoplight and on the freeway. The suspension is worlds better than the RSX's, but it seems like the best of both worlds is the 06+ TSX's. Best suspension out of all of the above, already has a K24(with some of the best factory cams), way comfier, still feels 'old school Honda' in just about everything it does, too. For day to day duties, you won't notice the weight and size difference between them, but you WILL notice everything else. I wouldn't be surprised to see that the TSX is the cheapest to insure and probably gets the best/same mileage in the real world.

The TSX is on my short list to own next.

I guess beans didn't read the latest post. Congrats on the purchase hotchoc. I loved my 8th gen. It's all about your preference not what others want. IMO the 8th gen has a much more visceral feel than the 9th gen.

Nice. I'm a year into my '09 LX-S sedan and even with the lowly R18 I'm happy with the car.

I for one love the dash and dread driving cars with conventional dash boards.

neon4891 wrote: Nice. I'm a year into my '09 LX-S sedan and even with the lowly R18 I'm happy with the car. I for one love the dash and dread driving cars with conventional dash boards.

Same here, it's the toughest thing in my new car search. I just love the spaceship dash.