mid term results
You probably guessed where we come to that question after 10,000 miles in the saddle. In that entire time, not a single staffer has actually commented enthusiastically about the turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which is rated at 200 horsepower, which is 3 hp more than what you’d get in 2006. A fellow praised, faintly, the “usable torque” that the turbo brings. But the same was true of the previous generation Civic Si’s turbo mill, which coincidentally had a slightly better 205 hp.
In the pre-turbo days, of course, the Civic Si was the life of the party, forever daring the driver to touch 8,000 rpm before the next shift. “Love the sound of this engine!” We rocked in our test notes on the 2009 Civic Si sedan. After that, the raw acceleration numbers of the Volkswagen GTI, which was already trailing, seemed less important because the car was so much fun.
Trouble is, the advent of turbocharging has robbed today’s Civic Si of its visceral thrills without adding any measurable speed. But there’s an easy solution, isn’t there? Why not improve the software and bump this engine up to at least 220 hp, or how about 240 hp to match the latest GTI? That kind of turbocharged thrust is bound to get us fired up.
Hey, as they used to say in Chicago, there’s always next year.
by numbers
“Wait a minute,” you might have said, “isn’t the new Civic Si actually faster on average than the one from the 2000s?” Yes true. We have Edmunds track tests of the last three Civic Si generations on file, and here’s what they tell us.