2020 Honda Civic Si Coupe Review: Put A Smile On Your Face

Honda's iconic Civic has been around since the great oil crisis of the 1970s and has been so successful in assimilating into American culture, that these days you'll find more people with Civic tattoos in Southern California than people with tribal tattoos. Jokes aside, the Civic, and more importantly, the Si, has become a significant gateway car for those getting into competitive motorsports - whether it be track days or quarter-mile drag racing. It could be considered one of the most popular hotrods of the last two to three decades. The 2020 Civic Si Coupe continues to carry this torch proudly by offering a beautifully balanced driver's car with punchy performance and legendary Honda build quality at a price that's hard to believe. For only $25,000, you'll get a turbocharged Honda sports car with a six-speed manual transmission, bucket seats, adaptive suspension, and a massive smile on your face. The 2020 car goes up against the likes of the legendary Volkswagen Golf GTI and the young blood in the performance game, the Hyundai Veloster Turbo.

What's the Price of the 2020 Honda Civic Si Coupe?

It's hard to comprehend how Honda has managed to pack so much value into such an affordable package. Starting with an MSRP of $25,000 excluding a destination fee of $930, the Civic Si Coupe has to be one of the performance car bargains of the year. For $25,000 are you not only getting a 205-hp turbocharged performance coupe, but you're getting Honda reliability, practicality, and a general sense of satisfaction in the knowledge that you've made a sound purchasing decision. The Golf GTI in base form costs $2,595 more and doesn't include half of the active driver assistance or interior convenience features that you'd find in the Si Coupe. Fully equipped with every conceivable extra, the Si Coupe will set you back just over $30,600.

Handling and Driving Impressions

You know Honda is serious about the Civic Si Coupe's handling capabilities when they offer a Honda Factory Performance package in the options list. The Si Coupe isn't as hardcore as the Type R, which provides a compromised everyday driving experience for the sake of excellent on-track dynamics. Instead, Honda offers a sporty coupe that displays excellent driving dynamics on and off the track without ever having to compromise on everyday comfort. Select sport mode, and the Si loads up the steering feel, stiffens up the suspension, and becomes a razor-sharp corner carving tool that feels just as sharp as the Golf GTI. Steering weight is about as good as it gets and allows you to point and follow the nose of the Si with impressive accuracy. Guiding the chassis with throttle-lift steering is a laugh a minute, and once committed to a steering line, the Si Coupe will hang on for dear life. What Honda has managed to do is build a car that's easy, and more importantly, fun to drive fast and should feel entirely natural for lovers of the old generation of fast Civic, CRX, and Integra cars.

Verdict: Is the 2020 Honda Civic Si Coupe A Good car?

It's a well-known fact that the Honda Civic, in any form, is a solid bet if you're in the market for a compact car; they're built to last for hundreds of thousands of miles and have traditionally offered a great balance of performance, economy, safety, and practicality. So what do you get when you take all of those elements and throw in some fun? The Civic Si Coupe must be one of the best performance bargains on the market today; for only $25,000, you get a turbocharged, 205-hp sports coupe, which will stick with much more expensive hardware through the corners, and still get 30 mpg. The exterior styling might be slightly contentious, but it's not the ugliest sports coupe we've ever tested (Chrysler Crossfire - never forget, #RIP), and once you experience how dynamic the Si Coupe is, you'll be sold. The interior has a quality feel to it, there is enough trunk space to make it a viable daily driver for a small family or single parent, and you get all the bells and whistles too, from auto on/off LED headlights and a power moonroof to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration to automatic forward emergency braking and adaptive cruise control. If you're in the market for something fun and practical for 25K or under, the Si Coupe is the only choice.

What Honda Civic Si Coupe Model Should I Buy?

There's only one to buy, so here's why you should: at its price point, the Civic Si Coupe offers one of the best value propositions in the sports coupe class, period. You won't be able to find a car this accomplished, fun, and practical for less than $25,000. The Si Coupe was designed with spirited driving in mind, that's why the 205-hp turbocharged four-cylinder engine is available exclusively with a six-speed manual transmission, and the adaptive suspension setup and perfectly weighted steering are set up not for the most comfortable city driving experience, but for wholesome sports driving. As the headlining performance Civic for 2020, the Si Coupe is flush with standard equipment and tech features; for 2020, all Si Coupes come with standard LED lighting and sporty 18-inch all-black alloy wheels. Keyless entry, climate control, Bluetooth streaming, and satellite radio are a few features worth mentioning that makes living with the Si such a pleasure, and it will keep you safe too, thanks to standard adaptive cruise control, auto emergency braking and more.

2020 Honda Civic Si Coupe Comparisons

2020 Honda Civic Si Coupe vs Volkswagen Golf GTI

The Volkswagen Golf GTI might have been one of the first hot hatches to hit the streets, but since the glory days of the Mk1 Rabbit, a large number of competitors have stepped up to the plate. For 2020, the GTI offers the same value proposition as it has for the last decade or so; a sporty chassis, punchy turbo engine, and class-leading refinement, which translates into a car that might not feel as edgy as some, but does everything so well that it's almost impossible to complain. The Si Coupe doesn't share its classic hatchback styling, but both cars offer similar driving experiences and are closely priced. The GTI is the more powerful, and better-performing car thanks to its 228 hp 2.0-liter turbocharged four-pot engine, but won't be able to shake the Honda through a set of twisty back roads. A combined fuel consumption figure of 27 mpg is impressive, but can't match the Honda. Inside, the Golf offers superior refinement and comfort, but in base, or even mid-range spec, can't match the Civic's offering of standard features. You'll have to go for the $31,795 SE model to get all the active driver assistance and comfort features. The Golf does what the Si Coupe does, but in greater comfort, and at a higher asking price. Your move.

2020 Honda Civic Si Coupe vs Subaru WRX Sedan

Yes, it's got four doors, but the WRX and Si Coupe, both performance-minded models, are closely priced and offer a lot of the same thrills, but both bring their own strong and weak points to the table. The 2020 Subaru WRX is powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter flat-four boxer engine producing a notable 268 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque, which is significantly more power than you get out of the Si Coupe. Power is sent to all four wheels via a six-speed manual transmission, which allows it to sprint to sixty in the mid-five-second range, and on to a fuel consumption figure of 21/27/23 mpg, which is the price it pays for all that straight-line performance. The WRX's four-door design makes it the obvious winner in terms of practicality, but that's pretty much where the buck stops. The Civic offers a higher quality interior, more standard features, and active driver assistance tech. Out on the road, the WRX is a pleasure to live with and offers an entertaining driving experience - despite not being as engaging as the Si Coupe. The WRX offers more space, straight-line punch, and AWD, but the Civic feels like a better product in terms of build quality, available features, and driver engagement.