2022 Honda Civic Si PVOTY Review: Authentic, Approachable, Attainable
The car we all quietly appreciated.
Pros
- Six-speed manual is pure joy
- Light, tactile handling
- Incredible value proposition
Cons
- Brakes need more staying power
- High and vague clutch engagement point
- Revs can hang
For the as-tested price of the Lamborghini Huracán STO, you could buy 15-and-a-half Si-badged Honda Civics, the lowest-priced, least powerful, and third-lightest contender vying for our PVOTY calipers. Did a humble, sub-$30K, front-wheel-drive economy sedan making only 200 horsepower have a chance against all the Black Series/Wings, M's, V's, GTs and GT3s?
0:00 / 0:00
Abso-friggin-lutely.
In fact, many of the supposed shortcomings of the 2022 Honda Civic Si made it stand out in our field of monstrously powered beasts. Subtracting brute force and head-snapping thrust—and much of the associated sound and fury—sharpened our judges' perception of other attributes. "There's something really tactile and raw about the Civic Si that gets me going," director of editorial operations Mike Floyd said. "Its four-cylinder at full chat just sounds so lean and mean."
The Civic Si makes a strong value and fuel economy statement, and the Si's mini-Accord styling adds maturity missing from the previous-generation Civic. Engineering excellence is everywhere you look and touch; every judge called out the light, communicative steering and the "delightful" feel and "super-precise" throws of the Si's six-speed manual transmission, as they extracted all 192 lb-ft from the 1.5-liter turbo inline-four.
"More low-end torque and a longer horsepower peak are exactly what this engine needed," features editor Scott Evans said. "The torque makes it nicer to drive at every speed, and the power no longer falls off at the top end."
To be clear, at nearly 15 pounds per horsepower (more than double the load of some other competitors), the Si is slow, but "Who cares?" was the prevailing sentiment. "It's just so stable and confident in a corner," Evans said. "You just want to drive it faster and faster because it's so rewarding. It's still a momentum car, and that's great because it really makes you work on your driving to get the most out of it."
Amid the pages of notes on all our competitors, the adjectives "authentic," "approachable," and "attainable" were reserved for the Si. It was the performance vehicle everyone could quietly appreciate. "There is something appealing about seeing myself in an Si that makes me like it even more in this competition, which is loaded with vehicles I could never hope to actually own in my lifetime," deputy editor Alex Stoklosa said.
So why wasn't it even a finalist? For one thing, the only other front-driver in the mix, the Hyundai Veloster N, delivered an even more intriguing and irresistible combination of turbo-boosted fun. And there were some blemishes on the Civic Si's otherwise smooth 'n' sporty driving experience. Squishy at first dab, the Si's brakes faded for some judges by the end of the handling course. Although that's a non-factor on the street, it did not bode well for the at-the-limit track sessions the finalists would encounter. Judges also called out the clutch's light pedal and its high and vague engagement point. The engine's tendency to hang onto revs also drew criticism.
For some, the Si just wasn't a big enough step up from the already sublime 11th-generation Civic. Other judges were tantalized but left thirsty for the sharper edge and much-needed power boost promised by the coming Civic Type R. So we shall wait for next year.
I used to go kick tires with my dad at local car dealerships. I was the kid quizzing the sales guys on horsepower and 0-60 times, while Dad wandered around undisturbed. When the salesmen finally cornered him, I'd grab as much of the glossy product literature as I could carry. One that still stands out to this day: the beautiful booklet on the Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX that favorably compared it to the Porsches of the era. I would pore over the prose, pictures, specs, trim levels, even the fine print, never once thinking that I might someday be responsible for the asterisked figures "*as tested by Motor Trend magazine." My parents, immigrants from Hong Kong, worked their way from St. Louis, Missouri (where I was born) to sunny Camarillo, California, in the early 1970s. Along the way, Dad managed to get us into some interesting, iconic family vehicles, including a 1973 Super Beetle (first year of the curved windshield!), 1976 Volvo 240, the 1977 Chevrolet Caprice Classic station wagon, and 1984 VW Vanagon. Dad imbued a love of sports cars and fast sedans as well. I remember sitting on the package shelf of his 1981 Mazda RX-7, listening to him explain to my Mom - for Nth time - what made the rotary engine so special. I remember bracing myself for the laggy whoosh of his turbo diesel Mercedes-Benz 300D, and later, his '87 Porsche Turbo. We were a Toyota family in my coming-of-age years. At 15 years and 6 months, I scored 100 percent on my driving license test, behind the wheel of Mom's 1991 Toyota Previa. As a reward, I was handed the keys to my brother's 1986 Celica GT-S. Six months and three speeding tickets later, I was booted off the family insurance policy and into a 1983 Toyota 4x4 (Hilux, baby). It took me through the rest of college and most of my time at USC, where I worked for the Daily Trojan newspaper and graduated with a biology degree and business minor. Cars took a back seat during my stint as a science teacher for Teach for America. I considered a third year of teaching high school science, coaching volleyball, and helping out with the newspaper and yearbook, but after two years of telling teenagers to follow their dreams, when I wasn't following mine, I decided to pursue a career in freelance photography. After starving for 6 months, I was picked up by a tiny tuning magazine in Orange County that was covering "The Fast and the Furious" subculture years before it went mainstream. I went from photographer-for-hire to editor-in-chief in three years, and rewarded myself with a clapped-out 1989 Nissan 240SX. I subsequently picked up a 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ60) to haul parts and camera gear. Both vehicles took me to a more mainstream car magazine, where I first sipped from the firehose of press cars. Soon after, the Land Cruiser was abandoned. After a short stint there, I became editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Sport Compact Car just after turning 30. My editorial director at the time was some long-haired dude with a funny accent named Angus MacKenzie. After 18 months learning from the best, Angus asked me to join Motor Trend as senior editor. That was in 2007, and I've loved every second ever since.
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