HONDA must seem crazy pitching a mainstream five-door hatchback against long-established chi-chi small-car luminaries such as the BMW 1 Series, Audi A3 and up-spec VW Golf.
And the Civic Si hatch – for all its striking design and packaging solutions – does seem expensive against the premium Europeans.
But Honda has always engineered its evergreen Civic to a standard that has always felt a cut above the everyday runabout, and the English-built Si – from $38,990 – does have plenty of standard features included.