2025 Honda Civic Si Is Proof That Bullying Works

When the FE1 Honda Civic Si first went on sale a few years ago, people tended to love the way it drove and the way it looked, but they complained it was missing out on certain features the car should have absolutely had. Stuff like a full-digital gauge cluster, an LED shift indicator (from the Type R) and heated seats were notably absent from the U.S.-spec version of Honda’s hot sedan. With the Civic’s 2025 facelift, those features are all standard on the Si. Oh, happy days.

To me, this is proof that bullying works. Honda saw everyone and their mothers complaining about how the Civic Si in other markets like Canada got those features and decided to shut us up by just giving them to us. Those new — and very welcome — additions in tandem with nicer wheels, revised front and rear fascias, a more rigid body and slightly retuned suspension make the already fantastic Civic Si just that little bit better. By better, I mean it’s one of the budget-friendly driver’s cars you can buy today.

Full Disclosure: Honda flew me down to Nashville, put me up in a swanky hotel and treated me to everything the Music City had to offer just so I could drive the refreshed Civic Si.

Sure, it’s great that Honda added way more standard equipment to the 2025 Civic Si, but that’s all pointless if it’s not a fun car to drive. I’m happy to report the new Si is indeed an extremely fun car to drive with two major highlights. Even if you ignore the $31,345 base price (including destination), there are very few cars that are stronger handlers or have a better shifter feel than the 2025 Si.

Every single shift up and down the standard six-speed manual gearbox is tight and crisp. During my drive, I found myself shifting even when I didn’t have to because of how wonderful of an experience the transmission is. To make you appear as an even better driver than you already are, the 2025 Civic Si comes with auto rev-matching downshifts, now available on every gear — older FE1s didn’t have it on the second-to-first shift. The system perfectly blips the throttle every single time, and passengers who don’t know the rev-matching is automatic are going to think you’re a great driver. As the revs climb, so does the intensity of the gauge cluster–mounted shift lights. At the 6,600 RPM redline, they flash and beep, letting you know to shift up and enjoy the experience again.

The other massive highlight of this car is the way it steers and goes around a corner. As with every Civic Si, the steering feel is fantastic. It’s perfectly weighted, especially in the Sport mode which gives it some extra heft that I quite like. You get tons of feedback through the small-diameter steering wheel, letting you know where the edge of adhesion is without ever having to second guess whether or not you’re about to start understeering.

This wonderful feel also translates to the chassis and body control. Honda upped the Civic Si’s rigidity for 2025, making it even tighter than it was before. I drove this car in the wet and dry, and even at higher speeds it’s just so damn confidence-inspiring that you never want the twisties to end. There are very few sedans — regardless of price — that go around a corner even half as well as the Civic Si. I mean that.

The way this car drives is so goddamn good that you’ll almost forget you aren’t moving very fast. One of the few elements of the Civic Si not to see any changes for 2025 is the powerplant. It’s the same turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-4 used in the pre-facelift car, still putting out 200 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque. That may not sound like much (because it isn’t, especially compared to the competition), but it’s plenty for this car. Honda says the 2025 Civic Si still weighs under 3,000 pounds even with its added equipment. That is quite an achievement.

Anyway, because of its lightweight characteristics and fantastic handling setup, the Civic Si flourishes as a momentum car. Sure, it takes a little bit to get up to speed — about 6.8 seconds to 60 mph if you’re really good at shifting — but once you’re going, the sensations you feel are pretty much second to none. When folks talk about “slow car fast is better than fast car slow,” I usually tell them to shut up and stop being nerds, but the Civic Si adds a lot of credence to that argument. It certainly doesn’t sound slow either. For 2025, Honda added some enhanced fake engine noise that makes the Si sound a hell of a lot like the Civic Type R. I’m usually not a fan of this type of stuff, but it sounds pretty convincing.

The 2025 Si’s interior received a few more features and some thoughtful updates thanks to the bullying Honda went through for not just giving them to us in the first place. The big ones come in the form of a 10.2-inch LCD gauge cluster, pulled from other Civics and the Acura Integra, that replaces the old half-LCD-half-analog gauge cluster the U.S.-spec Civic Si was saddled with. Like in all of its other applications, the cluster is pretty customizable and extremely easy to use. You can set it to show all of the information your little heart could ever want. It’s certainly a welcome addition.

The second big addition is the heated front seats. That’s right baby, now even the U.S. gets warm asses up front. Toasty butts are no longer reserved just for Canadians. See, you guys, bullying works. Sometimes automakers actually listen to what journalists and customers want. It’s a beautiful thing to watch happen. Luckily, the addition of heat is the only thing that’s changed about the otherwise lovely cloth bucket seats.

For about $32,000, it’s hard to find a comfier, more well-bolstered seat. Sure, it would be nice if they were electrically adjustable, but that would probably push the Civic Si over 3,000 pounds, and nobody wants that.

On the tech side of things, Honda added Google Built-In to its 9-inch touchscreen, which integrates the Play store, Google Maps and Google’s dogshit assistant thing, if that’s something you’d be into. The Si also comes with a complementary three-year data plan to keep all of this running, but once that’s over, you’ve got to pay up. Honda also added two USB-C ports up front, and who doesn’t love that? (Especially because there’s no wireless charger available.)

Other than that, the Civic Si’s interior remains the same for 2025, not that there’s anything wrong with it. The Civic has one of the best non-luxury interiors you can buy today, so I’m not exactly broken up over the fact that Honda didn’t fuck it up. Pretty much all of the materials feel lovely, and you and three of your adult-sized friends will have no problem fitting in the car. Headroom is ever so slightly limited in the rear seats for me at 6-foot1, but other than that, every seat (except for the bitch seat in the middle) is comfy enough for a chubby adult. There’s even plenty of room in the trunk for your stuff and things. Who could ask for more?

The only real changes on the outside for 2025 are a revised front fascia that is meant to look a bit more aggressive, a darker tint to the taillights and a new matte-black wheel design. You’ll be hard-pressed to see these differences unless you’re some sort of Civic nerd, but that’s OK if you ask me. The 11th generation Civic has always been a handsome little car in both sedan and hatchback form, and that remains true for the new car. There are no options available for the Si, just white or gray paint for $455 — red and black are standard.

Folks, the updated Civic Si is a wonderful little sedan. It has always been since the FE1 first hit the scene, but it’s just really nice to see an automaker listen to its customers about issues (that were small, admittedly) and remedy them. With the addition of key features like a better gauge cluster, a more well-sorted suspension, heated seats and sick-ass shift lights, the Civic Si went from being one of the best cheap enthusiast cars you can buy to a car that is punching well above its weight class regardless of price.