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December 18, 2008 9:50 AM PST

2009 Honda Civic Si (review)

by Wayne Cunningham
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After our reviews of previous model year Civic Sis, we're always happy to get another one in the garage. The 2009 model turned out to be as fun as we expected, with precise shifting and handling that kept us in the driver's seat for long stretches as searched out mountain roads. The car's navigation system makes exploring easy--any time we saw a particularly crooked road on the map, we would head that way--and it's also useful for spotting sharp turns on unfamiliar roads before you get to them. Even better with this generation of Civic Si, it has a USB port, so we could load up a USB drive full of MP3s to work as a soundtrack for sport driving.

Check out one of the best values in a tech car.

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by SaltyLady December 22, 2008 5:27 AM PST
I took this car for a test drive and fell in love with it. I was told you can put regular unleaded in it, it just diminishes the HP by about 5. Is this accurate? Also, according to regular drivers, what is the actual mpg you find?
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by GoBeavs2010 April 25, 2009 9:21 AM PDT
Salty Lady- I use my 2007 civic si sedan as a daily commuter. I've put 50,000 miles on and loved every second. As for putting 87 octane in it, I wouldn't. I tried a tank of regular Shell gas and my check engine light came on after 100 miles or so. Same thing with premium at Arco. You really need to put a premium quality fuel into this car, as it is very high compression (11:1) and revs to 8300 RPM. I've been getting 27-28 for highway miles. When I take it for s "spirited" run through the mountains, I've gotten as low as 18. Keep in mind, that is driving wide open up a twisty mountain road.

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