2017 Honda Civic Si A Doubleclutch.ca Review With T.H.
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00:00A fellow DoubleClutch.ca writer had the 2017 Civic Si on test this week, so I ran down
00:10and stole it for a day or two.
00:12With all the hype of the Type R floating around, I was interested to see what the good ol'
00:16Si was like this year.
00:18In the Si trim, you get the same engine as the model below it, but with a different compression
00:22ratio and some tuning, it makes 205 horsepower from its 1.5 liter turbocharged 4-cylinder,
00:27which is pretty much the same as the previous-gen naturally aspirated Si.
00:31However, the turbo gives it a good kick of low-down torque, 192 pound-feet from 2,100
00:36RPM.
00:37You also get a helical limited-slip differential in the front and some 18-inch wheels.
00:41But the question I have is with all of the small, fast all-wheel drive vehicles which
00:45seem to be heading the charge lately, is there still a place for light, fun front-wheel drive
00:50cars?
00:51So while the Si is obviously very aggressively styled and is very, very red, how is it to
00:56drive?
00:57Good.
00:58Very good, actually.
01:00I recently drove the Type R and there's a lot of elements of that car in this one.
01:04Honda did a really good job of just making it fun to drive around at low speeds, basically.
01:10My favorite part of the car is the steering, like right off the bat.
01:13There's a really strong on-center feel and the weight builds very well as you go into
01:17a corner.
01:18And that's not even in sport mode.
01:20In normal mode, it still feels good.
01:22There is actually feedback coming through from the road, which is so rare nowadays.
01:28It really is.
01:30There's very few cars that aren't like specially designed sports cars or supercars that actually
01:36retain steering feel like we used to back when everything was hydraulic.
01:42And then I push the sport button down here and things light up in red and it looks really
01:46exciting on the dashboard.
01:48It adds weight to the steering, stiffens up the suspension, and sharpens some stuff about
01:51the drivetrain.
01:52But you know what?
01:53Sport mode is actually quite practical for just driving around because I wouldn't call
01:59myself an aggressive driver, but I'm definitely one who likes to be able to make a snap decision
02:07in traffic.
02:08This car responds incredibly well to that type of driving.
02:11So the steering feels fast.
02:13By fast, I mean the ratio feels quick.
02:15Whether or not it actually is quick or it's just the way that the weight comes on, I can't
02:19tell, but it feels like you add a little bit of steering lock and the car just darts into
02:22the corner.
02:23Really, really good front-end grip.
02:25Really crisp turn-in.
02:26Okay?
02:27So we're going to go to back roads in a second so I can feel that even better, but just on
02:31the road, like just moving around, I put my right turn signal on, a little screen comes
02:35up here, tells me there's no one in my blind spot, I can see there, and I make a lane change.
02:40Like that.
02:41Done.
02:42See?
02:43Very satisfying, actually.
02:44The whole car is actually quite engaging.
02:46Okay, I'm going to complain about something now.
02:49Something that the other writers at DoubleClutch.ca completely disagree with me on.
02:53I'm not actually writing this car up on DoubleClutch, Adi Desai is going to be doing the written
02:57review on this one, so you can read his thoughts there, and he's going to flatly disagree with
03:01me on one point.
03:02I do not like the shifter and clutch in this car.
03:06Actually, I don't like the shifting experience at all, to be perfectly honest.
03:10So I'll agree, yes, the shifter is very snappy and positive.
03:15It clicks into gear, feels very Honda-like.
03:20But it feels kind of cheap, alright?
03:23What I mean by that is, I've isolated this, I sat there just quietly shifting back and
03:28forth trying to figure out what it is that I don't like about the shifter.
03:31It feels like the rods that are connecting it to the transmission, and like the actual
03:37turret that selects the gears in the transmission, feels like it's pencil thin.
03:42I have a feeling that it is, because when you select a gear, there's like this flex
03:47to it.
03:48It just bounces.
03:49It feels cheap to me, actually.
03:52Yes, it's very quick, it's very positive, it's very easy to put it into gear, but it
03:55feels cheap.
03:56Now the clutch is way too light.
04:00It is way too light.
04:03There is a feel where you can overcome the pressure plate.
04:06There's a point where you go, okay, now I'm released and now I'm engaged, which is actually
04:12uncommon.
04:13So I'll give it that, it has a good feel.
04:15But it just feels like, it honestly feels like I could take the pressure plate and the
04:17transmission and go like this, whoop, whoop, whoop, and just move it with my hand.
04:21There's no resistance in the clutch whatsoever.
04:25Even though it has decent feel, the lightness of it makes the car not feel sporty, okay?
04:32So the shifter, I don't really like.
04:34The clutch, I don't really like.
04:36And the way that it changes gears, also don't really like, because there's kind of a catastrophic
04:40amount of rev hang.
04:42So shifting from first to second, second to third, you have to wait a long time for
04:47the revs to fall before you can select the next gear.
04:51And it's almost rivaling Subaru in the amount of rev hang it's got going on.
04:56This is how we kill the manual transmission.
04:58And I completely disagree with adding a manual for the sake of adding a manual.
05:04The manual should be one of the highlights of a car if you advertise the car with a manual
05:09transmission, okay?
05:11So shifting out of the way, the rest of the car is very, very lovely.
05:15I actually really, really like all other aspects of this car.
05:20The interior, really well laid out.
05:23I like the look of everything in here.
05:25So the fabrics on the seat and the console here, they're kind of like a, I'm complaining
05:31again, I realize that.
05:32So the fabrics are kind of like a, like a low thread count, I guess, right?
05:36Like a low thread count sheet.
05:38And essentially, they look like they would collect dirt very easily, right?
05:43They look kind of cool, but it reminds me of like, you know, when you go to Mark's Work
05:47Warehouse and you get a pair of like work pants, like that a security guard would wear,
05:53those, that fabric that's supposed to look dressy, but is durable.
05:57That's kind of what this looks like.
05:59I'm not a big fan.
06:00However, from here up, everything looks great.
06:03Love the dashboard.
06:04I love this, the screen, the way the screen is integrated into the dash.
06:07Very good.
06:09The feature digital readout looks fantastic, and I've got a bunch of useless options here.
06:12I call them useless because you don't actually need a timer, a G readout meter, unless you're
06:19logging that, logging the data.
06:20You don't need to be able to see your G. In the middle of a corner, you shouldn't be looking
06:24at your dashboard.
06:25Anyway, there's a boost gauge and like load gauge and load gauge, like an engine load.
06:31None of these are very useful.
06:32This is telling me my fuel mileage though, which I am getting seven liters per hundred
06:36kilometers in the city and the highway combined.
06:39That's really, really good for a car with 200 horsepower.
06:42That's this peppy.
06:44I really, really, really like this drive train.
06:46Look at that.
06:47Third gear, boom.
06:49Boost comes on right away.
06:50It's not like the old Honda engines you had to wait and shift frequently to keep them
06:53way up in the power band because of VTEC.
06:55The turbo gives you torque way lower down, and I actually really, really like this engine,
07:03but it still has kind of that high revving Honda sound to it, so you're not losing it
07:10because it's turbocharged.
07:11You're not losing out on the need to run it to the red line for fun, right?
07:18And I shift up sport mode, two lights flashing me there, it sounds good.
07:25I like the sound of this car.
07:27I'm not a big fan of the exhaust note they've put on it, but I like the noise coming from
07:31under the hood.
07:32It's very, very cool.
07:33Now, the way this car turns in for me is one of the highlights because I really, really
07:45like front wheel drive cars that rotate on corner entry, so cars that will corner entry
07:52oversteer, which means that as I turn into the corner, maybe under a little bit of brakes
07:57or off the throttle completely, the car will naturally start to go into a slide or go into
08:01oversteer.
08:02This car does that, not as aggressively as a Fiesta ST or even the Focus ST, but it still
08:07does that.
08:08It gives you that feeling of balance, like it just wants to dart its nose in through
08:11the corners.
08:12I really, really like that aspect of it.
08:14So when you get into the corner, you get on the throttle, it has a helical limits of differential,
08:20so you actually are getting the power down coming out.
08:23You will understeer wide if you get on the power too early in a car like this, and this
08:27one is exactly the same way, and it does that.
08:30Unfortunately, yes, it's front wheel drive, you can't get around it, you have to be patient
08:33with the throttle coming out of a fast corner, but it still has that fun, a kind of excited
08:39nature going into the corner.
08:41It's not something that I can't really describe that to you, and you've had a chance to drive
08:44a good front wheel drive car.
08:46It kind of just dances into the corner, it darts in.
08:48I would be really happy to autocross this car.
08:51I would have a really good time just kind of going around the cones and kind of going
08:54around really tight stuff.
08:57It's a fun little car.
09:00I feel like it probably could have had a little bit more horsepower.
09:04I think they maybe could have done 230 horsepower, I would have been okay with 230, maybe 225,
09:10but 200 is a little bit low because it's a huge jump between this and the Type R.
09:15They probably did that on purpose, right?
09:17I've driven the Type R, and it feels fast, it feels really fast.
09:22It's tons and tons of fun, but this car just feels a little bit less quick than you would
09:29want it to be.
09:31So I drove this car all the way up north from where I live, and then I drove it all the
09:36way back, almost a full tank of gas, about 600 kilometers, and I enjoyed all of it to
09:43be perfectly honest.
09:44It's a really good car for just kind of commuting in.
09:46The seats are comfortable, they're really well bolstered, but they actually made them
09:50wide enough for a normal human, right?
09:53I'm looking at you, Focus ST.
09:55Now what about the styling?
09:57That's really, really up to the individual.
10:00This is not the car for you if you are a business person, or you're calm, collected, and sensible.
10:06It doesn't look like that.
10:08It looks boy racer.
10:10I don't really care.
10:12It's fun.
10:13I like that it's red, the gauges are red, there's red stitching, there's lots of red
10:17and it says SI, everything's red, and I don't know, it's just fun.
10:21I don't have any issue with that whatsoever.
10:24I've never been one to care that much what other people think about me while driving
10:28a car.
10:29I just drive the cars that I like.
10:30All right, we're on a back road, so we can kind of see a little bit more of how this
10:35car reacts to quick turn-in.
10:37Watch, I'll show you how fast this car turns in.
10:40I mean, I'll try and show you.
10:43Heel-toe in a second.
10:47Yeah, there we go.
10:50Good.
10:51Traction control on or traction control off.
10:54It does rotate on corner entry.
10:56Backup camera's good.
10:57It also has a blind spot camera, so when I put my right turn signal on, the camera on
11:01the rear view mirror looks where I would normally look.
11:04I don't trust it though.
11:05I still always look anyway, and I can turn that camera on and off with a button somewhere
11:11on the dashboard.
11:12I don't remember where it is.
11:15I literally can't remember where it is.
11:16So there's a button somewhere that I can push it, it can turn that camera on, like when
11:19I'm on the highway or something, and it can show me what's there.
11:22So I hope you enjoyed this review.
11:24If you did, like and subscribe.
11:26Make sure you look out for Addy Desai's review on DoubleClutch.ca.
11:29He will probably disagree with me on a few points, and you can see what he has to say
11:33about the car.
11:35But if you did like this review, please subscribe, and there'll be more stuff like this coming
11:38for you.
11:39I have the Type R versus Focus RS versus STI review for OneTrackMind coming out very soon
11:47on the track.
11:48So you're going to want to watch that one, because the results are a little bit different
11:52than you would think.
11:54So until then, thanks for watching.