Yahoo Autos Sport-Compact Showdown: Honda Civic Si vs. VW GTI!
From the May 2018 issue
A prediction: When the robocar revolution ultimately proves to be less than revolutionary, we will blame its Level 5 endgame. After all, you can get only so excited about napping or working, and there’s just not that much worth watching on Netflix. Doing mundane stuff in a moving car will be amazing once, maybe twice, and then the novelty will wear off. People will start looking around for a steering wheel.
Because driving is exciting. Cars are machines that allow people to do inconceivable things. With the mastery of just a few simple controls, we can travel at impossible speeds and feel sensations otherwise unavailable in our terrestrial existence. Cars don’t need to become robots; they already are robots. Only after an intense study of the literature-vintage science-fiction novels, Bronze Age comic books, and plenty of Knight Rider reruns-do we come to the conclusion that robotics is best applied to making humans better, stronger, faster. Think Steve Austin.
Indeed, the best cars act as extensions of our own bodies, and in what is still thankfully a predominantly Level 0 world, you don’t need $6 million to own one. Cue this story’s battlebots, the Honda Civic Si and the Volkswagen Golf GTI. We drove this pair of machines through the mountains of Southern California’s Los Padres National Forest, ignoring their dissimilarity in body style to focus on their shared enthusiast-friendly mission. Of course you will also recognize these two from their appearances on our most recent 10Best list, a reward both cars earned, in part, for their high ratio of performance per dollar.
The 2017 Si sedan we drove stickered for just $24,990 all in, which is a mere 71 percent of the average cost of a new vehicle. This includes its optional Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 summer tires, a $200 upcharge that’s a relative steal-it’s about what it would cost to have a single replacement shipped to you. Tires aside, Honda doesn’t offer any choices with the Si after you pick your color, although you could get a coupe. Regardless of door count, every Si comes with a six-speed manual gearbox mated to a tweaked version of the standard Civic’s turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder. An extra 3.8 psi of boost produces 205 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque-gains of 31 and 25, respectively.
The four-door hatchback GTI is more expensive, with the base S trim starting at $27,265. Our test car was the one-rung-higher SE with a $31,320 starting price. That $4055 differential pays for, well, the differential for starters, an electronically controlled limited-slip unit. Also bigger brakes from the Golf R, as well as a sunroof and blind-spot monitoring. Plus the SE ditches the standard halogen headlights in favor of LEDs and swaps the stock 6.5-inch infotainment screen for an 8.0-inch system. Bridgestone Potenza S001 summer tires are a no-cost swap from the stock all-seasons.
Buying an SE also allows you to spend $695 on leather, as our test car demonstrates. But doing so is a mistake, as a GTI without plaid upholstery is like a GTI without a manual transmission. Luckily, our $32,015 test car had the latter, although a dual-clutch gearbox is also available. All 2018 models now make 220 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque from VW’s venerable EA888 turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four.
Yes, Oscar Goldman, we do have the technology.
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