Gadgetory

well guess is don't need to give me any buttering up when they hit our garage I used to love my 87 see our exercise but this is it's long-distance cousin the 2012 Honda Civic Coupe si let's see if the DNA made it all the way down the family tree and check out this 2012 while we check the text now the SI has three or four differences in cabin tech I want to point out to you since a standard Civic crossed our garage door a few months ago first of all you see that that I mid display they call it there that's like a four inch LCD it's kind of cool this information button runs it you have one additional screen though in an SI and that's this dubiously useful power monitor so so much I guess horsepower you're using and it's got the little VTech diagram next to it that I thought was gonna change colors depending on my rpm but no the shift point stuff takes place on that screen on the left you've got yellow lights that come on as you approach red line and then the last two are red they kick in from 5200 to 7,000 rpm kind of a graduated shift light and the red light right next to the Ivy Tech word tells you when the Ivy Tech valvetrain has kicked in yo other imid screens include one where you can put up a wallpaper it would be the black one there I don't do that nonsense you got a clock with date your media screen and a fuel-economy screen now to the head unit mildly revised same crappy map that Honda's been hobbling their cars with for ages but you do have some nice media choices now including the ability to do bluetooth streaming and when you do so at least on my Droid I'm getting nice meta tag information to flow through and pretty good transport control the rest of your choices include am/fm but no HD radio you've got satellite radio down here is a aux and then here in the cabin in the console little pigtail for USB or iPod now that navigation screen dated as it is with satellite radio and traffic is a $1,500 up charge I'd go for the standard head unit and I'd go do something aftermarket and put a few hundred in your pockets now of course an SI is largely about its motor this is Honda's 2.4 litre inline-four with their famed Ivy Tech variable valve timing and geometry that's one of the key things here cuz there's no turbo no supercharger no silly games being played it's kind of a conventional motor little guy turns out 201 horsepower 170 foot-pounds of torque gets this 2900 pound car up to 60 in a few tenths below 7 seconds while delivering 22:31 MPG the drivetrain is also very simple front wheel drive only this laterally mounted engine although the SI does get a limited-slip deer box okay your way the first thing I notice about the si is that it really loves to be opened up this car is a breather not a grunter not a big torque box but it just runs all the way to the what 7000 rpm redline quite happily a nice smooth power delivery through it they've bumped up the actual amount of power and torque on this car a little bit from the last generation but it still tends to be a little boggy below 4 grand it's a river it's all there is to it you don't drive it that way it becomes kind of a drag because of the low amount of power down below three or four thousand and the fact that the engine kind of makes them unpleasant or at least uninspiring noises down there when you open it up is when you get that nice little snap and snarl but regardless of how and when you drive it I find the most annoying trait of this motor is incredible rpm float when you go to get the next gear you put the clutch in you come off the accelerator entirely or mostly the needle just sits there like someone stuck some masking tape on it handling is good but I feel at the rear end is a little bit light little tail happy and it feels like what it is it's a front-wheel drive particular sophisticated drivetrain technology that said it's a nimble refined fun little sporting car just not top of the class perhaps anymore look I like the SI coupe a lot I just don't love it the way I would have a number of years ago it no longer defines the category like it used to that said here's how I do it 23 grand base for an SI coupe it's nicely done in terms of audio system and most of the gear and I'd hold it right there skip that $1500 nav system waste of your money go aftermarket or just go smartphone and skip the hfp tuner package you don't become a tuner by having the factory do your package that's not a tuner at all