Long Term Test: 2007 Honda S2000 Post #9 (Happy Anniversary!)

Current Miles: 93,800

Happy 10th Anniversary to my beloved S2000! I know I joke about this a lot, but this is the longest, most stable, and least expensive relationship I have ever been in. A little bit of background on my S2000:

The Honda S2000 had always been a dream car of mine. I didn't really think about the prospect of owning one until my senior year of college, during which I was actually more focused on saving money to buy a new eighth generation Honda Civic Si. After graduating and starting work in 2008, I saved every penny I could to put a down payment on a Civic Si. I finally reached my goal around the beginning of 2010, when I started actively looking at getting a new 2010 Civic Si Sedan. After looking for a while though, I started to notice the price on used Honda S2000s. For the same amount of money each month, I could get myself into my dream car. My thought process was basically, "I'm in my early twenties, I live on my own, I'm not going to be starting a family with my girlfriend any time soon, and this is a dream car...why the hell not?" After a bit of searching, I found the beautiful Laguna Blue Pearl 2007 Honda S2000 you see here at Santa Monica Honda, being sold as a certified pre-owned vehicle. When I arrived, Santa Monica Honda also had a Berlina Black 2007 S2000 in their showroom, but I immediately drawn to the blue. And so, in May of 2010, I went home with my S2000 with 38,900 miles on the clock. Funny how I still ended up with a Civic Si years later anyway.

Since owning the S2000, I've driven it nearly 55,000 miles, gone through two job changes, moved three times, and went through a long and failed relationship. Yet, despite all of this, the S2000 has always been there for me. Sure, I've had a few minor issues with it along the way. The clutch master cylinder has given out twice since owning it (first time my local Honda dealer replaced it, the second time East Brother and I did the work ourselves). The soft top tore on both the passenger and driver side at the joints (which was thankfully replaced for a mere $100 thanks to an existing service bulletin regarding the top). I had to replace the original wheels with a set of Enkei RPF1 after an idiot decided he needed gas and nearly t-boned me, causing me to dodge and bounce off a curb. About six months ago, my alternator began suffering from the common issue of a bad rectifier in the alternator (causing my dash to flicker uncontrollably), so I purchased a refurbished alternator and replaced it myself. I have also unfortunately been involved in three minor accidents, two of which involved me getting rear ended and one of which a careless senior couple side swiped my car in a parking lot. Still, despite all of this, the car is still there and in great running shape. 

A couple of minor changes have also occurred since my last update. I purchased two interior items from a small company specializing in S2000 interior accessories called Modifry. One was a built in phone mount and the other was a built in cup holder (because, let's face it, you can't really call the space behind the gear lever "cup holders"). These items integrate very well into the S2000 and almost look straight out of the factory. The cup holder is nice as I'm now actually able to have somewhere to put a drink when I take the S2000 out and not have to worry about it getting in the way of my arm when I go to change gears. The phone mount is especially nice since I use Android Auto a lot and having my phone at an angle where it's in my peripheral vision is very handy.   


Since obtaining my 2020 Civic Si, the S2000 has gone back to weekend only duties. I decided that since the S2000 is becoming more rare and the price of the car is still slowly climbing back up, I might as well keep the mileage as low as I can. With what has been going on in the world as of late, keeping the miles low has definitely become a non-issue. I have, unfortunately, not driven the S2000 in about two months now. I definitely miss driving it, but the only reason I leave my house now is to get supplies, and the Si is frankly much more practical for that job. But, once we are allowed to leave our houses and go enjoy life again, the first thing I will do is drop the top on the S2000 and take it out for a nice, long drive.

Future plans for the S2000? I've been saying this for a while now, but the only immediate plans I
have for the S2000 are to get a CT Engineering cold air intake and a GReddy Supreme SP exhaust for the car. After getting the FlashPro for the Civic, I've decided that I might get another one for the S2000 as well. I have no immediate plans to lower the car (I scrape enough driveways at stock height) or do anything quite so drastic with it. If money were no object (which it is, unfortunately. I'm trying to save to buy a house in Los Angeles County...if you live here, you know what I'm talking about), I would definitely turn the S2000 into a track ready project car. CT Engineering supercharger, coilovers, Brembo big brake kit, a Seibon carbon fiber hard top, and the list goes on.

For now, I'm more than content with how the S2000 is, and I hope to enjoy it for another 10 years.

Long Term Test: 2020 Honda Civic Si Sedan post #2

In my first post about my 2020 Honda Civic Si, I mentioned that I had decided to do some modifications to it. Today, I'm here to talk about what I've done and why I did it. My original plan was to leave the car completely bone stock as this was meant to be my daily driver. The more I drove it and the more I looked at it though, I wanted to make some small changes to the car that would improve its looks and performance. And so, a hobby (and extreme money pit) that I thought I had left behind in college reared its head once again. Unlike my college days though, where I wanted to modify almost every aspect of my then 1997 Honda Accord LX, I decided to be much more subtle about it. Here's what I've done so far.

Wheels

As mentioned in my first post, I wasn't exactly a big fan of the updated wheels on the 2020 Civic Si. I felt they were too busy and probably heavier than they should be. Lucky for me, through an available connection at work, I was able to get a set of brand new Vöxx Lumi wheels. The five "Y" spoke design resembles that of the Civic Type-R wheels, but in a much more tire friendly 18 inch size instead of the Type-R's 20 inch wheels wrapped with rubber bands. What makes these wheels even better is that they are approximately four pounds lighter than the factory wheels. Though it might not seem like much, the total 16 pound weight loss netted me a very, very small gas mileage gain (probably around 0.1 mpg). With the wheels installed, the car was already looking significantly better. As my car made the social media rounds though, one common comment was, "wheels look great, car needs to be lowered," or some variation of that comment. 

Suspension

After mulling on it for nearly a month after installing the new wheels, I finally caved to social media pressure and decided to lower the car. I didn't take this decision lightly though. Since the Civic Si has adaptive dampers, I would need to find a lowering spring kit that worked with the adaptive dampers and wouldn't negatively affect the car in any way. After much research and a calls to various suspension component manufacturers, I settled on the Eibach Pro Kit lowering springs. Eibach had done extensive testing with the Civic Si prior to releasing the kit. Knowing that the kit was designed with the adaptive dampers in mind, this made me confident in my purchase and I had them installed. With the car lowered around an inch front and rear, the car now looks much better and much more aggressive. The best part is that the ride quality has not suffered at all, and I can happily report that the adaptive dampers still work just as well as the day I purchased the car. Unfortunately, any sort of long term testing will have to be put on hold. Two weeks after the install, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced the shelter-in-place order to flatten the COVID-19 infection curve that was rapidly rising in California. As a result, the Civic has been sitting on my driveway for about a month now, with the only the occasional jaunt around the neighborhood to keep my sanity in check. Once the order is lifted and we can all move about somewhat normally again, I plan on taking the Civic out for a road trip to see how much the handling characteristics have changed.

More Power

Does the Civic Si need more power? Probably not. Even though the Si has not actually gained all that much power since the 8th generation, its torque has increased dramatically since then. Going from a naturally aspirated engine in the past two generations to a turbocharged engine meant a very significant torque increase. During the first few weeks of driving the car, I was admittedly intoxicated with the turbo torque. Freeway merging and passing is so much easier in this car, and Honda has done a very good job of keeping turbo lag to a minimum. Despite this, there was always that nagging feeling that the car had so much more potential with the factory components than what Honda was allowing. Of course, by this time, famed Honda ECU tuning company, Hondata, had already created an ECU flash for the 10th generation Civic Si. Curious at the Si's actual potential, I went ahead and purchased a Flashpro from Hondata. According to the Hondata website, the CARB legal tune increases performance by about 27 horsepower and 40 lb./ft. of torque. It also increases mid-range power delivery, allows for "full-throttle shifting" (being able to shift gears without releasing the gas pedal), and removes the speed limiter. All of these changes are made for the car's sport mode so that when driving in normal mode, gas mileage remains completely unaffected. Being the idiot that I am, I made this purchase about two weeks into the shelter-in-place order. I did end up receiving the Flashpro unit a week later, but with the looming threat of a hefty fine from law enforcement for being out when I'm not supposed to, I only managed to take the Civic out for a quick spin. Updating the car's factory tune was a breeze and took no more than 15 minutes. After taking the car out, my butt dyno confirmed that the extra power was for real and definitely serious. Turning VSA off, I was actually able to chirp the tires throughout all of first and most of second gear. While that was fun, I'm definitely not going to be doing it again any time soon. As things return to normal in the world, we'll see how much of a difference the Hondata tune has made in my car.

So the question remains whether or not I'm going to do anything else with this car. At this time, no. This is, after all, supposed to be my daily commuter car. I should be saving my funding for modifying and tuning the S2000, especially since I may have accidentally made the Si faster in a straight line. But as most of my fellow car enthusiasts know, once you start modifying a car, it's really hard to stop. Time will tell...

Long Term Test: 2020 Honda Civic Si Sedan

I first test drove the current generation of the Civic Si almost 3 years ago when it first debuted. It was a 2017 Civic Si Coupe that I was actually quite impressed with and had sort of thrown around the idea of bringing home with me. Ultimately, I decided against it, especially since the S2000 was still in great shape, and the Accord Touring was still less than a year old at the time. In 2018, I test drove the Si again, except this time in Sedan form, and back-to-back against a 2018 Accord Touring 2.0T. I was still very much impressed with the vehicle, but there were some things missing that really kept me from wanting to take one home right then and there.

Enter the 2020 Civic Si. The 10th generation Civic, now having been on the market for nearly four years, was finally due for its mid-cycle refresh. For 2020, Honda finally added some of the features that I had been wanting on the Civic Si, including LED headlights and the Honda Sensing driver assist suite. Coupled with a revised and much more aggressive looking front and rear end, new wheels (which I am admittedly not a huge fan of), and some additional tech goodies, I finally decided that if I was going to get another daily driver, this would be it. As my S2000 crossed the 93,000 mile mark, my fear of the car losing a large portion of its value at the 100,000 mark drove me to the decision to bite the bullet and get the newly updated Si. And so, on a rainy day in December of last year, I ventured out to a local Honda dealer and took home a Modern Steel Metallic Civic Si Sedan.

It's now been four months since I've had the Civic and has been my daily commuter during this time. In those four months, I believe I'm able to sum up my thoughts about this car in one sentence: Despite some minor gripes, I believe this car is worth every penny.

OK...done...end of article...

Oh, you're still here? Well then, let me give you some more details on why I think this car has been worth every penny, and those minor gripes that I have.

When it comes to vehicle content, the Civic Si probably has some of the best content in its class.
Standard LED headlights, standard driver assist features (radar cruise, lane keep assist, collision mitigating braking), standard touch screen infotainment with Android Auto/Apple CarPlay, standard heated front seats, and the list goes on. Let's not also forget that this might be the only car that has adaptive dampers for under $30,000. Of course, this does lead me back to my old complaint about Acura and why Honda continues to sell Acura vehicles with less content than their Honda counterparts.

Then come the way the car drives. A smooth, turbocharged 1.5 liter inline-4 mated to a six-speed manual with limited slip differential, along with the aforementioned adaptive dampers make this car drive incredibly well. I mean, sure, it doesn't quite handle as sharply or quickly as a certain Honda sports car that I own, but for a front wheel drive people mover, it handles extremely well. The best part is the fact that despite its handling characteristics, the Si is not uncomfortable to drive at all! Leave the car in its normal mode, and it is just about as comfortable as the 2016 Accord Touring I once previously drove. Put it into sport mode, and the car really transforms with enhanced throttle response, tighter steering, and the adaptive dampers keeping the handling tight and flat.

And what about the car's looks? Let's put it this way. One of the questions I often get asked is why I didn't sell my S2000 and just get a Type-R instead. While I think the Type-R is a cool looking car, it does feel a little juvenile considering my age. The Si offers an aggressive and sporty look without looking like I've fallen back into my rice rocket phase of the early 2000s. It looks just sporty enough that people can tell the car is different in some way without drawing a ton of attention like the Type-R does. But, there are two design elements that I'm not a huge fan of, and so begins my minor gripes about the Civic Si.

The one major design element that Honda carried over from before the mid-cycle refresh is that large, center exit exhaust tip. At first, it didn't bother me much, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought it looked extremely familiar. Then, one day, when I told a friend that I was looking at getting a new Si, his first comment was, "oh, so you're getting the Honda HDMI?" At first, I was confused, thinking he meant Honda includes an HDMI port in the car somewhere. He then showed me a picture of the rear of the car and it dawned on me. He was talking about the exhaust. After seeing the car on a daily basis for four months, I've grown accustomed to it. There is, however, one more design element that I was not a fan of. In fact, it bothered me enough that around February of this year, I decided to go aftermarket with it: the wheels. The pre-refreshed Civic Si wheels were a very good looking split five-spoke design. For whatever reason, Honda decided to go with a much busier multi-spoke design for the refresh. It's something I probably could have lived with, but I decided to go in a different direction when the wheels became available. I'll reveal what those wheels are in my next post.

Two more gripes I have about the car are related to the transmission and exhaust (again). This was something I mentioned in both of my previous reviews of the Si, and I believe it deserves to be repeated once more: the clutch pedal is way too light. It takes barely any force for me to completely depress the clutch pedal and does leave the engagement point feeling a bit on the vague side. Once I was used to it, it was fine, but coming from driving the S2000 on a regular basis, it felt downright strange at first. Lastly, we have a secondary exhaust issue. The Civic Si actually sounds pretty good. I like that it has a fairly deep rumble at idle and makes some great noise at full throttle. My gripe has to do with putting the car into sport mode. Rather than a valve of some sort that opens up in sport mode to make the exhaust louder, Honda opted to pipe in additional sound via the sound system. So while the car may sound louder inside, it sounds exactly the same from the outside. In short, it's stupid and Honda should feel bad about it.

In the four months I've had this car, I have also fallen down the rabbit hole of modifying it. What started with just the wheels ended up with me going beyond what I expected to do with the car (which was supposed to be nothing). I'll reveal what I've done with the Civic in my next post, but let's just say I think I may have inadvertently made it faster than my S2000, but just in a straight line. At some point, when we're all allowed to leave our houses again, East Brother and I will go out and test this theory, but for now, I think I have the car at a point where I want it and I'm just hoping I don't start getting the itch again. Besides, I should be working on my S2000, not my daily driver! 

East-West Brother's Garage Update

It has definitely been a long time since we last posted anything. With life generally catching up to both East Brother and myself, we lost touch with this blog and let it slowly wither away. Now that most of the country is in lock down due to COVID-19, there is definitely one thing that we all have much more of these days: time. Even though the automotive industry is at more or less of a standstill, there is still lots to report on, whether it's general industry news, or our own automotive adventures (that happened before California's shelter-in-place order).

When we last left you, we reported that we had parted ways with our 2016 Honda Accord Touring long term vehicle and some new changes were coming to our long term and personal garages. Since then, our long term fleet, which was technically empty when our last post went up, has seen the addition of a 2019 Infiniti QX50. We're definitely not big fans of any sort of CUV, but the decision was really out of our hand. Reviews for this vehicle were in the works prior to our leave of absence, but both East Brother and I struggled to find much good to say about the vehicle. With life happening, the reviews were shelved, but it still might be good to share some insight on this...fairly mediocre and somewhat overpriced re-badged Nissan.

Another addition, which is actually a personal addition to my own garage, comes in the form of a 2020 Honda Civic Si Sedan. This was actually a somewhat recent addition, purchased in December of 2019. My decision behind obtaining the Civic came because my S2000, which was being daily driven again after parting with the Accord, was starting to slowly lose its value as I inched closer and closer to 100,000 miles on the odometer. Also, maintenance on the vehicle was starting to become cumbersome, especially since I started doing much of the maintenance myself. I found myself having to replace some critical parts, which became longer than anticipated projects. Rather than running the risk of encountering a project that would take me multiple days to complete and being stuck without a vehicle, I decided to get a daily driver that would be fun and reliable while allowing me to take as much time as I needed to work on the S2000.

As for East Brother, his garage has not changed since we last posted. The Chevrolet Bolt and BMW K1200S are definitely still there. Will there be any changes in the near future? If there are, I'll let him write something up.

So that leaves the final question: are we officially back? Only time will tell. I may post sporadically throughout the next couple of months as time allows, but who knows? With the extreme uncertainty in our world right now, it's hard to say what's going to happen next...

Comparison: 2018 Honda Accord Sport 2.0T vs 2018 Honda Civic Si Sedan

Ever since Honda announced in 2013 that the Accord would come in a Sport trim, with available six-speed manual transmission, I've often wondered if the Accord Sport would be a better deal than the Civic Si. For starters, both cars were very similarly priced and had essentially the same engine. For the price, the Civic did come with more features, a little more horsepower, sharper handling, and a limited slip differential. With the Accord, you got a much larger and more grown-up looking car, and that was pretty much it. Ninth gen versus ninth gen, I would have gladly taken a Civic Si home before taking the Accord Sport home.

Things are different with the tenth generation though. Both cars are much more feature rich than their predecessors, and the Accord Sport now actually has two engine options: a slightly up-tuned version of the 1.5 liter turbo four from the Civic coupe, sedan, and hatchback, and a de-tuned version of the 2.0 liter turbo four from the Civic Type-R. Unlike the previous generation though, the price difference has become much more significant. The Accord Sport 1.5T starts at an MSRP of $25,700 while the Civic Si stars at an MSRP of $24,100. I actually looked at the Accord Sport 2.0T, which adds an additional $4,580 on top of the base MSRP, making the Accord Sport 2.0T a $30,000 car. So the question isn't so much which is the better car for roughly the same price. The question has now become, "is the Accord Sport worth the extra $6,000 over the Civic Si?" As luck would have it, a local Honda dealer had both an Accord Sport 2.0T and a Civic Si Sedan available, so I decided to take a look at the cars side-by-side to determine if the Accord is worth the extra money.

Test Drive: 2017 Honda Civic Si Coupe

It's been three years since I last tested a Honda Civic Si. The last model I tested was the second refresh of the ninth generation Si coupe. Equipped with a K24 2.4 liter four-cylinder, this particular Si felt somewhat neutered compared to the eighth generation Si. For the 10th generation, Honda opted for a beefier version of the 1.5 liter, turbo four-cylinder out of the Civic sedan, coupe, and hatchback. I was originally fairly skeptical when it was announced that Honda would be using this smaller engine since everyone in the enthusiast community was expecting a de-tuned version of the Type-R's 2.0 liter turbo four. Now that I've had the chance to experience the car with the turbo 1.5, do I still think it needs the Type-R's motor? I'll get to that in a bit. Let's start with the rest of the car.

Test Drive: 2014 Honda Civic Si Coupe

Since the year 2011, I have test driven a new Civic Si every year. In 2011, I test drove the final model year of the eighth generation Civic Si sedan. In 2012, I test drove and reviewed the new ninth generation Civic Si sedan. Because of the 2012 model's negative reception, Honda refreshed the Civic, and I test drove and reviewed the updated 2013 Civc Si last year. 2014 marks the Civic's mid-cycle refresh, which means another all new Civic Si to test drive. Yes, that is four different version of the Civic Si in four years.

For 2014, the Civic Si gets a more aggressive looking front end, big wing in the rear, standard 18 inch wheels, a slightly revised suspension, and a bit more power under the hood. Other changes include a standard touchscreen infotainment unit along with a standard right side blind-spot camera. What I was interested in was whether or not the minor performance enhancements would help inject a little bit of that Honda spirit back into the Si that the eighth generation car had.

Editorial: Does Honda need to find their Bob Lutz?

Image courtesy of Acura.com

Honda has lost its soul.

As a long-time owner of Honda and Acura vehicles, it brings me no pleasure to have to point this out, but as an enthusiast, I feel it is my duty to do just that. Nothing that either brand has introduced of late inspires much enthusiasm and the upcoming 2015 NSX has yet to hit dealerships, so I am not counting that chicken until it hatches. After all, we all saw what happened with the vaporware that was the last supposed NSX successor. In fact, the rest of the automotive market does not seem the least worried by the 2015 Acura NSX, prompting Audi to start a Twitter war with Acura and calling the 2015 NSX vaporware just like its V10 powered predecessor. And even if it does materialize, that still only leaves a single car with any serious performance profile in the entire line-up, which is nothing to be proud of.

Looking back through Honda's history, there have almost always been a number of more performance oriented models in their line-up, either in the form of nearly race-spec versions of conventional models, a la the Integra Type-R, or dedicated models such as the S2000 and Honda Prelude. Light weight, sharp handling, and an engaging driving experience were characteristics that spread to all models and the company's racing lineage shone through in the continued use of double-wishbone suspensions front and rear to provide chassis dynamics that were exceptional. However, as the years went on, the Prelude and all Type-R models disappeared from the American market, the Integra was replaced with a strut suspension based RSX, and both the S2000 and NSX were allowed to fade away without successors. Now, we are left with only a very mediocre Civic Si to carry on the Honda performance car banner in North America, with the rest of the global market having absolutely nothing performance oriented coming out of Honda's factories.

Test Drive: 2013 Honda Civic Si Sedan

MSRP: $22,715
Price as Tested: $24,215


Not too long ago, I reviewed the 2012 Honda Civic Si Sedan. The result of Honda's decision to cut costs on the 9th generation Civic resulted in a slew of criticism regarding its cheapened interior and boring design. Luckily, Honda had already begun work on refreshing the 9th generation Civic before the car even hit the market. The result of the refresh is the 2013 Honda Civic, with a revised interior and an exterior face lift. Are these changes enough to fix the Civic's tarnished reputation? Would I consider buying one now that the car is less boring looking and actually has a decent interior? Continue reading after the jump to find out.

Test Drive: 2012 Honda Civic Si Sedan

I may be a little late to the 2012 Honda Civic Si "hate parade," but I mention the 2012 Civic Si quite a number of times in our review of the 2013 Acura ILX, so it only seems fair to give the Civic Si Sedan a proper shakedown as well.

In late 2011, Honda introduced the 9th generation Civic for the 2012 model year. The new 9th generation Civic comes with a revised interior and exterior, and for the Si model, a new motor as well. The Si comes equipped with the K24Z7 2.4 liter, DOHC i-VTEC inline-4, making 201 hp and 170 lb./ft. For those of you that know your Honda engine codes, yes, this is the same motor that is equipped in Acura's all new for 2013 ILX 2.4 and is the base motor for the Acura TSX. Besides the electronic features that come standard on all Civics, other standard features for the Si include a 6 speed manual transmission (the only transmission choice), limited slip differential, 17 inch alloy wheels, performance all-season tires, cloth interior with Si exclusive red stitching and Si badges. The only available options for the Si are summer tires and a Honda Link navigation system.