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My First Day of Ownership - Impressions

6.3K views 11 replies 10 participants last post by  Allen  
#1 · (Edited)
Hey everyone, I recently bought a BOP Canadian version Si from the dealer showroom. I picked it up today and was pleasantly surprised to only find 5kms on the odometer, so no one really drove it other than me, the dealer did me proud. A lot of dealers get a bad wrap out there but Westgate Honda in London Ontario was fantastic, call Greg Witchell if you want great service, he and the sale manager were top notch.

I test drove an Si a few weeks ago at one dealer and then I bought one from this dealer as it was sitting in stock and in he showroom. Today was my first opportunity to drive it a for a decent amount of time. Here are some observations in no particular order:

  • Cabin is pretty quiet, not too quiet but perfect for an older guy, just enough exhaust sound.
  • Handling is great, the ride is a perfect balance between stiff and comfort.
  • The tranny, shifter, and LSD is perfect - fantastic execution by Honda.
  • The car is fast enough for the road, but it isn't a stoplight drag racer if that is what some people are expecting. It is a perfect balance for power, fuel economy, and it is definitely fun, making nice sounds.
  • The car is very tossable, still relatively light given all of the options stuffed into this car.
-The car is feature rich, I don't know if I would ever use every feature put into this car, it is a crazy high amount. The owner manual is 760 pages long, that is crazy, and shows how many features this car has.
  • Seats are nice, interior is pretty near perfect.
  • Heated steering wheel doesn't really warm up all that much, and not really that fast to heat up, but nice to have.
  • Seat heaters work okay, not overly fast to heat up either but also nice to have if you like those heaters.
-Climate control works well.
-Safety systems are fantastic, well engineered.
  • Brakes feel great for a relatively basic set of brakes, they work surprisingly well.
  • I hate auto stop, and it seems like you have to deactivate it every time you get into the car, no permanent shut off ? It won't come on in sport mode but you have to select sport mode on each drive.
  • Sport steering is pretty heavy, I think I like the normal steering just fine.
-Sport engine settings are much better than normal.
- I can't tell a difference in exhaust sound, it all sounds the same to me between the different settings, and I like it overall. The exhaust system is very cool.
-Technology systems all work as intended, relatively easy to use, and all of the buttons and knobs have a high quality feel to them.
  • Driving in very slick winter weather today with winter tires felt pretty stable and confidence inspiring with good traction, the LSD seems to help and work well.
  • The car reverts to normal setting every time you get into the car, you can't keep it on a permanent setting of your choice.
  • The car is very roomy, with a big trunk, the overall size of the car is as large as I would want it, I would not want it any bigger than it is.
  • Shift lights start working after 5000 rpms, I wish the engine revved to 7k+, 6500 is a tad low IMO.
-Auto rev match downshift is perfect, they could not engineer it any better and it works better than my feet and hands could accomplish by far, it is just a fantastic system if you can appreciate it.
-Hill start-assist worked well a couple times when I was on an incline.
-I hate electronic parking brakes, the manual handle versions in my Subarus are so much better.
-The Bose stereo system is decent, not as good as I expected , and my wife didn't think it was all that great. It is good enough for me , but I don't listen to loud music , it sounds decent enough.

That is it for now, I look forward to spending more time behind the week going forward. Thanks for reading.
 
#3 ·
Nice review! Matches up with experience as well. Good to hear we're not missing too much with the heated seats and steering wheel here in the US.

I agree on the auto stop start being annoying, but to me that is a "feature" that we can blame on efficiency/emissions regulations, not on Honda.
To be fair, one of the few annoyances of my 2016 Civic was that it idled just 100rpm too low, putting a lot of vibration through the car. It could be fixed by turning on the A/C, but that's not really a good solution. I think that was also probably a efficiency tweak, so I can't say auto start stop is any worse.

Also interesting to hear the ride is quiet with the standard tires. I have a noticeable amount of road noise with the summer tires. Getting some Continental all seasons put on soon, we'll see if that changes anything.
 
#4 ·
I'm running Michelin x-ice snow tires, I assume they would be louder than the factory all-seasons and still no complaints about cabin noise. I will see how the oem rims make out when warm weather months arrive. My 2019 Subaru WRX is noisy as all hell when I compare the two, the Civic sounds like being in a library compared to the WRX lol.

I have zero complaints about the rev-hang, I see so many people mentioning it, yes it exists on this car but it doesn't affect my driving whatsoever, my upshifts are always silky smooth. I can live with it as it doesn't affect my driving experience.

Loving the car more each day I drive it. Zero complaints thus far. I don't want to stop driving it.
 
#5 ·
Hey everyone, I recently bought a BOP Canadian version Si from the dealer showroom. I picked it up today and was pleasantly surprised to only find 5kms on the odometer, so no one really drove it other than me, the dealer did me proud. A lot of dealers get a bad wrap out there but Westgate Honda in London Ontario was fantastic, call Greg Witchell if you want great service, he and the sale manager were top notch.

I test drove an Si a few weeks ago at one dealer and then I bought one from this dealer as it was sitting in stock and in he showroom. Today was my first opportunity to drive it a for a decent amount of time. Here are some observations in no particular order:

  • Cabin is pretty quiet, not too quiet but perfect for an older guy, just enough exhaust sound.
  • Handling is great, the ride is a perfect balance between stiff and comfort.
  • The tranny, shifter, and LSD is perfect - fantastic execution by Honda.
  • The car is fast enough for the road, but it isn't a stoplight drag racer if that is what some people are expecting. It is a perfect balance for power, fuel economy, and it is definitely fun, making nice sounds.
  • The car is very tossable, still relatively light given all of the options stuffed into this car.
-The car is feature rich, I don't know if I would ever use every feature put into this car, it is a crazy high amount. The owner manual is 760 pages long, that is crazy, and shows how many features this car has.
  • Seats are nice, interior is pretty near perfect.
  • Heated steering wheel doesn't really warm up all that much, and not really that fast to heat up, but nice to have.
  • Seat heaters work okay, not overly fast to heat up either but also nice to have if you like those heaters.
-Climate control works well.
-Safety systems are fantastic, well engineered.
  • Brakes feel great for a relatively basic set of brakes, they work surprisingly well.
  • I hate auto stop, and it seems like you have to deactivate it every time you get into the car, no permanent shut off ? It won't come on in sport mode but you have to select sport mode on each drive.
  • Sport steering is pretty heavy, I think I like the normal steering just fine.
-Sport engine settings are much better than normal.
- I can't tell a difference in exhaust sound, it all sounds the same to me between the different settings, and I like it overall. The exhaust system is very cool.
-Technology systems all work as intended, relatively easy to use, and all of the buttons and knobs have a high quality feel to them.
  • Driving in very slick winter weather today with winter tires felt pretty stable and confidence inspiring with good traction, the LSD seems to help and work well.
  • The car reverts to normal setting every time you get into the car, you can't keep it on a permanent setting of your choice.
  • The car is very roomy, with a big trunk, the overall size of the car is as large as I would want it, I would not want it any bigger than it is.
  • Shift lights start working after 5000 rpms, I wish the engine revved to 7k+, 6500 is a tad low IMO.
-Auto rev match downshift is perfect, they could not engineer it any better and it works better than my feet and hands could accomplish by far, it is just a fantastic system if you can appreciate it.
-Hill start-assist worked well a couple times when I was on an incline.
-I hate electronic parking brakes, the manual handle versions in my Subarus are so much better.
-The Bose stereo system is decent, not as good as I expected , and my wife didn't think it was all that great. It is good enough for me , but I don't listen to loud music , it sounds decent enough.

That is it for now, I look forward to spending more time behind the week going forward. Thanks for reading.
Nice comprehensive review. For anyone wondering about tire/ wheel set up. I put on a set of Continental Extreme Contact DWS 06 Plus tires mounted on Enkei Kojin five spoke black satin wheels. Each tire mounted on a wheel weighs 7.8 lbs lighter than stock rims with Goodyear All Season tire using a bathroom scale. That’s a significant difference of almost 32 lbs of unsprung weight. I got 32.5 mpg on my first run of 247 miles in mixed city and backroad driving. I didn’t push it being in break in mode. So far can’t be happier!
 
#8 ·
What kind of music do you listen to? I'm super curious how this system sounds, and the type of music can affect that. My stock '15 Si sounds HORRIBLE unless I run my music through Bluetooth, and change the EQ settings on my phone. It's way to much treble otherwise, even with cranking the bass all the way up. I'm a rock/metal kind of guy.
 
#9 ·
What kind of music do you listen to? I'm super curious how this system sounds, and the type of music can affect that. My stock '15 Si sounds HORRIBLE unless I run my music through Bluetooth, and change the EQ settings on my phone. It's way to much treble otherwise, even with cranking the bass all the way up. I'm a rock/metal kind of guy.
I personally listen to hip-hop & r&b-type music and the sound system in my ‘22 Sport sounds pretty bad. It is not enough bass, despite going into the EQ and turning the bass up. I hadn’t thought about messing with the EQ settings in Spotify, so that may be slightly helpful. Overall though, I think the speakers just aren’t that good. Maybe the Bose speakers sound better?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#10 ·
I have a new Si. The Bose is above average for the price point, I think, but not premium speakers. I came from a current gen Accord and it’s better than that but you can hit its limits in bass, for sure. I have a buzz in my a-pillar speaker on my passenger side that even buzzes from the Active Sound Control with low volume music playing at high revs in 3rd and 4th gears, right at 5,000 rpm in 3rd haha. Need to take it in but it’s a nice cue that I’m at 5,000. In my opinion, really good in clarity and higher frequency, wouldn’t be the greatest choice for hip hop, just my opinion. I suppose all the Civics are the same, but Apple CarPlay Siri interaction is only through the tinny-sounding central speaker by the screen - not sure why they did that because my Accord was through all of the speakers; Siri seems trapped in a metal coffin.
 
#11 ·
Hey everyone, I recently bought a BOP Canadian version Si from the dealer showroom. .
Good solid review. I had the US version of the 2022 Si which is missing a ton of things that are on the Canadian version but you captured what the Si is about quite well. i’m not sure what’s going on with your Bose sound system but it’s much better than my last few cars. Maybe the equalizer has been messed with.

As far as the Auto Start Stop, there is a permanent killswitch available for Gen 11 Civics. Automatically disables the function but also retains the ability to USE the system if desired. There are install YouTube‘s available through the supplier.

www.idlestopper.com