FC3L15B7
I'm a machine.
- First Name
- Daniel
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2019
- Threads
- 15
- Messages
- 557
- Reaction score
- 312
- Location
- Toronto
- Website
- www.youtube.com
- Vehicle(s)
- 2020 Honda Civic 2 Door Coupe Si / 1993 Chrysler Intrepid 3.5L
- Thread starter
- #1
The 2020 Si based on poster's complaints and misconceptions.
I bought a 2020 Civic 2 Door Coupe Si almost a month ago. I was less than 12-hours away from buying a 2019 when I saw the 2020s.
For those of you questioning the 2020 updates, I can simplify them for you a bit, as I've been following the Si since 2017 and all the major complaints.
First off, the change in final drive ratio. Everyone knows it's shorter by 6%, but the actual specification is 4.35:1, which differs from 4.11:1 in the 2017-2019s. The 2020 is rated at an estimated 26 mpg city/36 mpg highway/30 mpg combined. At the following speeds per gear, I've achieved a best combined city/highway fuel mileage with a full fuel tank of 5.4 L/100 KM (43.56 MPG) @ 110 KPH highway speeds in my 2020:
(in KPH)
1st 0-14
2nd 15-24
3rd 25-39
4th 40-59
5th 60-74
6th 75+
The short answer is, it's more how you drive than the difference in the final drive ratio. I don't really care that the estimated EPA rating is 2 mpg lower than 2017-2019 when I'm smashing the highway rating in combined economy.
Another common question is about Honda Sensing and I've read a lot of people saying they were glad to have a 2019 instead of a 2020 because they didn't want Honda Sensing. It doesn't make any Sense. You can disable Honda Sensing features, but just having them there should lower your insurance premium. In most driving conditions, they don’t usually interfere.
The Lane Keeping Assist System [Lane Keeping Assist function] is wonderful when you're tired. Or, when you access something else in the car. I call it the "Coffee Button", so when I reach for my hot coffee, if I'm not already using the LKAS Lane Keeping, I turn it on so I can focus more on not spilling my coffee. =D
From time to time, they do interfere and these are the issues I've had with it:
- false sensing with Adaptive Cruise Control around a curve where it detects a vehicle in a different lane, believing it's in front of me and slowing down the car temporarily; usually for just a second (rarely occurs)
- false sensing with Lane Keeping Assist System [Lane Departure Warning function] when hugging one side of the lane to avoid debris from heavy trucks (moderately occurs, depending on type of traffic I'm in)
- people cutting in front of me from another lane and invoking a hard-brake situation with Adaptive Cruise Control (commonly occurs - but I will also state, it's hardly the system's fault - avoid it by shortening the number of car lengths configured with your ACC or put your foot on the accelerator when someone does that to temporarily cancel the automatic braking)
The Collision Mitigating Braking System is a no-brainer. The insurance companies love cars that don't just run over people or into things when the driver isn't paying attention. Let's face it, no one is paying attention 100% of the time and if they "are", they're actually just staring into the abyss.
These systems can be turned on and off individually for the most part. Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keeping Assist System (including Collision Mitigation) can remain enabled or disabled all the time, depending on its status when you last drove. Take my advice though and leave Lane Keeping Assist System ENABLED anyway, so if you have a medical emergency that prevents you from controlling the car, it will assist you. Worst case scenario, if you're leaving the road, LKAS will keep you in the lane and if you do manage to force the car off onto the shoulder or do not stop for a car or object, Collision Mitigation will slow and try to stop the car if necessary. It would really suck to have a survivable medical emergency and die in an accident or write off your car. Honda listened to reason and installed Honda Sensing Suite to the Si in 2020 because that's what it was missing most.
Now, moving on to exterior/interior aesthetics and functions. Most of this is personal taste, but I will explain why I feel the way I feel about these aspects of the car.
The updating/removal of front honeycomb fake vents/fog light housings: GOOD
Reason? Fake vents never look good, no matter what kind of car. The "accents" on the new fog light housings are air deflectors. There is a space and an indentation - each on their respective side of the car, under the deflectors - behind the fog light housings where the fake honeycomb used to be for the full Honda Sensing Suite. It looks much better than the passenger side open-honeycombs in previous years and looks more symmetrical.
Ditching the halogens for standard LED low/high/fog beams: GOOD
Reason? LEDs lenses look cooler when the headlights are off during the day. They have superior lighting in the dark. You can see so well ahead of you and directly in front of you with the fog lamps. Also, the cleanest white light is beautiful, especially with reflective delineators and cat eyes on the highway. There are no more projector lights - 2020 Si models have LED lights all around. The LEDs had been updated in 2019 from the poorly rated ones in 2017-2018, so as of 2019, the poor ratings for the LED headlights should no longer be applicable, even though the ratings on the IIHS website say it's 2020 applicable. If it were, the halogen projector low beams and halogen reflector high beams wouldn't be on the list under the Si trim, so screw the IIHS because their information on this is flawed and unreliable.
Additional red accent and stitching: it caused me to changed my choice of paint color
Due to the additional red interior, I bought a black car instead of the blue I originally wanted. I just didn't want a car that was blue with chrome accent with a black, silver, red and faux carbon fiber interior. The black looked better with the addition of red, but this is just my personal take on it. It also looks nice in white, or if you like a red car, that would match well. If you do want a blue car, you can upgrade the dashboard accents to blue (or black), but I haven't seen an option for blue or black seat accents, so for the cost, you may just want to leave it red. It's really down to personal taste, but options are available.
Standard black wheels: GOOD
While I like the black with machined face of the previous years, the 18" matte black wheels look meaner and have thinner spokes, showing more brake hardware and hinting they may be lighter. To me, they look sportier. Winter tire option: 17" Enkei Draco Blacks – they’re expensive, but keeps up a mean look.
Updated infotainment system: GOOD
Reason? Although the system itself is still suffers a bit of latency, the 2019 addition of a manual volume knob has further additions in control buttons for 2020. These allow for some changes to be applied immediately as they do not rely on the infotainment system to apply them.
Addition of "engine sound" through speakers: I used to care, but after owning the 2020, I no longer care.
Reason? The exhaust noise through the speakers is not "faked", but rather, it's "piped in". It's the actual exhaust note, but very subtle, so for those worried about it, don't even think about it, either negatively or positively. It won’t matter because you won’t be able to tell anyway.
I hope this overview of these changes and features clears up some conjecture by those who don't own one. If you're happy with your 2017-2019, who cares what I think - after all, it's individual preference. On the other hand, if you don't own one yet and you're debating whether or not you want a pre-2020 or get the 2020, you may want to consider the true answers from someone who was going to get the 2019 that actually bought a 2020 to address these debated questions before you make up your mind. For me, I immediately decided to buy a 2020 over a 2019 the moment I saw the updates. The difference in cost was negligible. Feel free to PM me any questions. Start living your dreams – or rather, your Earth Dreams.
I bought a 2020 Civic 2 Door Coupe Si almost a month ago. I was less than 12-hours away from buying a 2019 when I saw the 2020s.
For those of you questioning the 2020 updates, I can simplify them for you a bit, as I've been following the Si since 2017 and all the major complaints.
First off, the change in final drive ratio. Everyone knows it's shorter by 6%, but the actual specification is 4.35:1, which differs from 4.11:1 in the 2017-2019s. The 2020 is rated at an estimated 26 mpg city/36 mpg highway/30 mpg combined. At the following speeds per gear, I've achieved a best combined city/highway fuel mileage with a full fuel tank of 5.4 L/100 KM (43.56 MPG) @ 110 KPH highway speeds in my 2020:
(in KPH)
1st 0-14
2nd 15-24
3rd 25-39
4th 40-59
5th 60-74
6th 75+
The short answer is, it's more how you drive than the difference in the final drive ratio. I don't really care that the estimated EPA rating is 2 mpg lower than 2017-2019 when I'm smashing the highway rating in combined economy.
Another common question is about Honda Sensing and I've read a lot of people saying they were glad to have a 2019 instead of a 2020 because they didn't want Honda Sensing. It doesn't make any Sense. You can disable Honda Sensing features, but just having them there should lower your insurance premium. In most driving conditions, they don’t usually interfere.
The Lane Keeping Assist System [Lane Keeping Assist function] is wonderful when you're tired. Or, when you access something else in the car. I call it the "Coffee Button", so when I reach for my hot coffee, if I'm not already using the LKAS Lane Keeping, I turn it on so I can focus more on not spilling my coffee. =D
From time to time, they do interfere and these are the issues I've had with it:
- false sensing with Adaptive Cruise Control around a curve where it detects a vehicle in a different lane, believing it's in front of me and slowing down the car temporarily; usually for just a second (rarely occurs)
- false sensing with Lane Keeping Assist System [Lane Departure Warning function] when hugging one side of the lane to avoid debris from heavy trucks (moderately occurs, depending on type of traffic I'm in)
- people cutting in front of me from another lane and invoking a hard-brake situation with Adaptive Cruise Control (commonly occurs - but I will also state, it's hardly the system's fault - avoid it by shortening the number of car lengths configured with your ACC or put your foot on the accelerator when someone does that to temporarily cancel the automatic braking)
The Collision Mitigating Braking System is a no-brainer. The insurance companies love cars that don't just run over people or into things when the driver isn't paying attention. Let's face it, no one is paying attention 100% of the time and if they "are", they're actually just staring into the abyss.
These systems can be turned on and off individually for the most part. Adaptive Cruise Control and Lane Keeping Assist System (including Collision Mitigation) can remain enabled or disabled all the time, depending on its status when you last drove. Take my advice though and leave Lane Keeping Assist System ENABLED anyway, so if you have a medical emergency that prevents you from controlling the car, it will assist you. Worst case scenario, if you're leaving the road, LKAS will keep you in the lane and if you do manage to force the car off onto the shoulder or do not stop for a car or object, Collision Mitigation will slow and try to stop the car if necessary. It would really suck to have a survivable medical emergency and die in an accident or write off your car. Honda listened to reason and installed Honda Sensing Suite to the Si in 2020 because that's what it was missing most.
Now, moving on to exterior/interior aesthetics and functions. Most of this is personal taste, but I will explain why I feel the way I feel about these aspects of the car.
The updating/removal of front honeycomb fake vents/fog light housings: GOOD
Reason? Fake vents never look good, no matter what kind of car. The "accents" on the new fog light housings are air deflectors. There is a space and an indentation - each on their respective side of the car, under the deflectors - behind the fog light housings where the fake honeycomb used to be for the full Honda Sensing Suite. It looks much better than the passenger side open-honeycombs in previous years and looks more symmetrical.
Ditching the halogens for standard LED low/high/fog beams: GOOD
Reason? LEDs lenses look cooler when the headlights are off during the day. They have superior lighting in the dark. You can see so well ahead of you and directly in front of you with the fog lamps. Also, the cleanest white light is beautiful, especially with reflective delineators and cat eyes on the highway. There are no more projector lights - 2020 Si models have LED lights all around. The LEDs had been updated in 2019 from the poorly rated ones in 2017-2018, so as of 2019, the poor ratings for the LED headlights should no longer be applicable, even though the ratings on the IIHS website say it's 2020 applicable. If it were, the halogen projector low beams and halogen reflector high beams wouldn't be on the list under the Si trim, so screw the IIHS because their information on this is flawed and unreliable.
Additional red accent and stitching: it caused me to changed my choice of paint color
Due to the additional red interior, I bought a black car instead of the blue I originally wanted. I just didn't want a car that was blue with chrome accent with a black, silver, red and faux carbon fiber interior. The black looked better with the addition of red, but this is just my personal take on it. It also looks nice in white, or if you like a red car, that would match well. If you do want a blue car, you can upgrade the dashboard accents to blue (or black), but I haven't seen an option for blue or black seat accents, so for the cost, you may just want to leave it red. It's really down to personal taste, but options are available.
Standard black wheels: GOOD
While I like the black with machined face of the previous years, the 18" matte black wheels look meaner and have thinner spokes, showing more brake hardware and hinting they may be lighter. To me, they look sportier. Winter tire option: 17" Enkei Draco Blacks – they’re expensive, but keeps up a mean look.
Updated infotainment system: GOOD
Reason? Although the system itself is still suffers a bit of latency, the 2019 addition of a manual volume knob has further additions in control buttons for 2020. These allow for some changes to be applied immediately as they do not rely on the infotainment system to apply them.
Addition of "engine sound" through speakers: I used to care, but after owning the 2020, I no longer care.
Reason? The exhaust noise through the speakers is not "faked", but rather, it's "piped in". It's the actual exhaust note, but very subtle, so for those worried about it, don't even think about it, either negatively or positively. It won’t matter because you won’t be able to tell anyway.
I hope this overview of these changes and features clears up some conjecture by those who don't own one. If you're happy with your 2017-2019, who cares what I think - after all, it's individual preference. On the other hand, if you don't own one yet and you're debating whether or not you want a pre-2020 or get the 2020, you may want to consider the true answers from someone who was going to get the 2019 that actually bought a 2020 to address these debated questions before you make up your mind. For me, I immediately decided to buy a 2020 over a 2019 the moment I saw the updates. The difference in cost was negligible. Feel free to PM me any questions. Start living your dreams – or rather, your Earth Dreams.
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