My thoughts after almost 1 year of ownership

amirza786

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In June it will be one year since I bought my 2018 Si, and I wanted to share my thoughts on this car so far. First I want to go over likes, dislikes, and annoyances:

Likes:
It's priced just right with a lot of equipment standard such as LSD
Economical
Enough power from it's 1.5L Turbocharged engine in stock configuration for everyday driving and some fun
Now that it's tuned with Ktuner/TSP Stage 1 it's even funner to drive
Fun 6 Speed MT
Fairly comfortable and roomy for a sub $24K car
Excellent daily driver
Huge aftermarket support for this vehicle
My favorite...no vehicle mitigation/crash avoidance crap to get in your way. If I want to crash, I want to do it on my own dammit

Dislikes:
Infotainment system (I know I'm going to get some flack on this one)
No physical HVAC fan buttons in the 2018 model (when the infotainment system dies, how am I going to control the fan?)
Fake vents (they don't really bother me, but they are still a dislike)
A few panel gaps

Annoyances:
Ocasional rattles in the A pillar that come and go as they please
occasional notchy 1st to second gear and 3rd to 4th gear shifts
sometimes moody performance (more on this later)
Gas mileage not always consistent between drives
on days when I'm really tired or had a long day, hit heavy traffic, driving can be burdensome

What I am referring to when I mentioned moody performance is that some days, and I think this may be based on weather conditions, temp, humidity etc., it seems to not perform as well, and most days it just feels amazing. I don't know, that is the best way to explain it. This is the same with gas mileage. Some days it's averaging 30 mpg and some days it's getting 26 driving the same roads, speeds, driving the same way.

There are times when I wish I had bought the Toyota Camry (one of the cars I was looking at) instead due to it being much quieter, smoother and much more refined (almost no road noise, you can hardly feel bumps in the road), but ultimately I wanted something more sporty and fun to drive with a MT. Overall I am extremely happy with this car and if you are one of those on the fence looking at buying an Si, this car is a great choice, you will not be sorry. This is a car that is fun stock, but with a few minor modifications you can continue to make it better, and if you really want to race those WRX's, GTI's and STI's...the right mod and tune will get you there if you are adventurous
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TPA_CivicSi

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I'm just a few days away from 6 months in my '19 and agree with nearly everything.

While I do have physical buttons for the HVAC, I really think that if the infotainment system stops working the buttons will probably stop working as well. Hope to never find out for sure.

I also know what you're getting at with the moody performance. Usually when I tell the car it's time to move NOW it does what I want, but sometimes, it's more like the car just doesn't feel like it right now. As far as the mileage goes, I've been using the mileage gauge on the speedo more (instead of the boost gauge) and find that the constant reminder helps me keep the MPG up.
 

NeoZeed

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7 months in, and I'm very curious about complaints with the A/C controls. I don't even use the digital fan control, just the physical temp knob. Using the climate control knob will control the fan speed and I just kind of set it and forget it. I turn the A/C off completely if the fans are annoying me or it's getting too hot/cold. What's the advantage of using the digital/manual AC controls?
 

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These cars stock are pretty "moody" with the hot and humid weather--tuning the car with no heat mitigation (turbo/pipe blankets, aftermarket grille, upgraded intercooler, CAI, etc) just totally exacerbates it.

My car saw some crazy IAT's last summer when all I had was a tune. At some points the heat soak was so bad that I saw 50 degrees over ambient on IAT2, and this was with pretty mild driving.

Now after having the "ebay grille," the highest IAT2 I've seen so far is 30 over ambient when stuck in stop and go traffic. Once moving, the PRL intercooler brings the IAT's back down several degrees again.

I think for a quick, easy, and inexpensive fix, go with the grille and wrap the turbo and DP (my next mod).

The grille alone helped so much with the IAT's that I think at this point it's a no-brainer ancillary mod for anyone that's not going to keep their car stock.
 

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2 years later and I still stop and admire my car before getting in

My annoyances are the same in that the access to the HVAC is very annoying. You literally have to wait until you can hit the okay on that stupid notification and then can get into climate control. I really am considering doing the swap and lose out on the dual climate control for the fan knob.

I also am considering changing out the steering wheel volume control to the swipe one.

Other than that, I love this car and hope it will last for awhile.
 


ne0guri

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These cars stock are pretty "moody" with the hot and humid weather--tuning the car with no heat mitigation (turbo/pipe blankets, aftermarket grille, upgraded intercooler, CAI, etc) just totally exacerbates it.

My car saw some crazy IAT's last summer when all I had was a tune. At some points the heat soak was so bad that I saw 50 degrees over ambient on IAT2, and this was with pretty mild driving.

Now after having the "ebay grille," the highest IAT2 I've seen so far is 30 over ambient when stuck in stop and go traffic. Once moving, the PRL intercooler brings the IAT's back down several degrees again.

I think for a quick, easy, and inexpensive fix, go with the grille and wrap the turbo and DP (my next mod).

The grille alone helped so much with the IAT's that I think at this point it's a no-brainer ancillary mod for anyone that's not going to keep their car stock.
Which grille are you referring to? ProCivic’s?
 

FLOPPER

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Which grille are you referring to? ProCivic’s?
I have ProCivic's, but there's tons of these being sold on ebay, Amazon, etc that are supposedly just as good but a little cheaper.

I went with ProCivic because I've had good dealings with them and I know they're not gonna jerk me around if there's any issues.
 
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amirza786

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These cars stock are pretty "moody" with the hot and humid weather--tuning the car with no heat mitigation (turbo/pipe blankets, aftermarket grille, upgraded intercooler, CAI, etc) just totally exacerbates it.

My car saw some crazy IAT's last summer when all I had was a tune. At some points the heat soak was so bad that I saw 50 degrees over ambient on IAT2, and this was with pretty mild driving.

Now after having the "ebay grille," the highest IAT2 I've seen so far is 30 over ambient when stuck in stop and go traffic. Once moving, the PRL intercooler brings the IAT's back down several degrees again.

I think for a quick, easy, and inexpensive fix, go with the grille and wrap the turbo and DP (my next mod).

The grille alone helped so much with the IAT's that I think at this point it's a no-brainer ancillary mod for anyone that's not going to keep their car stock.
Actually I don't have any issues with heat or hot days, I find performance seems to be a bit down when it's cold and damp. Between 55 degrees and 90 degrees F performance seems better. Thankfully we do not have humid summers
 

FLOPPER

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Actually I don't have any issues with heat or hot days, I find performance seems to be a bit down when it's cold and damp. Between 55 degrees and 90 degrees F performance seems better. Thankfully we do not have humid summers
Performance goes down at lower temps, but the sweet spot is between around 50 and 70. Anything higher than 70 starts to heat soak like crazy.

You haven't had your car very long so I doubt you've had it in hot weather yet, and correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you just recently tune it? Like I said in my first post, a stock tune doesn't have to worry too much about heat.
 
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amirza786

amirza786

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Performance goes down at lower temps, but the sweet spot is between around 50 and 70. Anything higher than 70 starts to heat soak like crazy.

You haven't had your car very long so I doubt you've had it in hot weather yet, and correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you just recently tune it? Like I said in my first post, a stock tune doesn't have to worry too much about heat.
I bought it in June 2018, so I am about a couple of weeks away from a year! I have made several trips between Northern Cal and Southern Cal (360 miles each way) in extreme temps. On one of my trips last summer I drove thru the Central Valley which was about 110F for 7 hours with no issues. The only time I experienced "heat soak" was when I got into Los Angeles traffic, it was about 98F and humid, going for almost 8 hours 80 mph to almost completely stopped traffic, than I felt some sluggishness, but this could have also been perception from driving 80 mph for hours to suddenly 5 mph traffic
 


FLOPPER

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I bought it in June 2018, so I am about a couple of weeks away from a year! I have made several trips between Northern Cal and Southern Cal (360 miles each way) in extreme temps. On one of my trips last summer I drove thru the Central Valley which was about 110F for 7 hours with no issues. The only time I experienced "heat soak" was when I got into Los Angeles traffic, it was about 98F and humid, going for almost 8 hours 80 mph to almost completely stopped traffic, than I felt some sluggishness, but this could have also been perception from driving 80 mph for hours to suddenly 5 mph traffic
That's not surprising--heat soak doesn't really happen if you're coasting/cruising, for obvious reasons.

I guarantee your IAT's skyrocketed in that LA stop and go, and the car's performance likely plummeted.

But the question left unanswered--when did you get it tuned? If you haven't driven in heat with a good load on the engine and something other than stock tune, the performance doesn't really decrease because. . . well, there's really not much performance with the stock tune.

The factory cooling systems, quite unsurprisingly, do relatively well until tunes and performance bolt-ons start being added.
 

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Moody performance......a good description I've been trying to articulate. I've had my 19 Si for two weeks and about 600 miles now and that describes it best. It seems that some days a push on the go pedal to the same degree produces something "more" than other days. Same tank of gas, weather might be a little different, same road to work, etc.... It's just different from drive-to-drive. Interesting. Perhaps it's the turbo involvement. I've never owned a car with a turbo. I do know if you're fairly aggressive with the gas pedal it flat out pulls hard! I haven't pressed it too much because it's still technically in the break-in period.
 
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amirza786

amirza786

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That's not surprising--heat soak doesn't really happen if you're coasting/cruising, for obvious reasons.

I guarantee your IAT's skyrocketed in that LA stop and go, and the car's performance likely plummeted.

But the question left unanswered--when did you get it tuned? If you haven't driven in heat with a good load on the engine and something other than stock tune, the performance doesn't really decrease because. . . well, there's really not much performance with the stock tune.

The factory cooling systems, quite unsurprisingly, do relatively well until tunes and performance bolt-ons start being added.
I believe it was tuned in March, since then I have been using the TSP stage 1 tune. On my last trip to Los Angeles I used Map 1 on the drive there (less gas) and when I was in LA I switched between map 1 and map 2. I was there for a week, and two of the days it reached 89F, using Map 2 I didn't have any performance issues or heat soaking. I didn't do any datalogging, so I am not sure what performance looked like from that perspective
 

FLOPPER

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This moodiness could also partly be attributed to the fly-by-wire throttle. Sometimes I have to push a lot more on the accelerator to get the same response I had only moments before.

The throttle takes in a lot more variables than your foot pressure on the accelerator to determine how far to open the throttle plate.

There's another active thread on the board right now discussing the throttle responsiveness.
 
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amirza786

amirza786

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This moodiness could also partly be attributed to the fly-by-wire throttle. Sometimes I have to push a lot more on the accelerator to get the same response I had only moments before.

The throttle takes in a lot more variables than your foot pressure on the accelerator to determine how far to open the throttle plate.

There's another active thread on the board right now discussing the throttle responsiveness.
That is definitely a possibility
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