Auto News and Reviews

The 2006 Honda Civic Si has been called the best Civic ever, and more than once. The frumpy itty bitty minivan look has been abandoned for an all new coupe body style. Power has been increased to 197 hp, generated by a 2.0 liter 16v inline 4. This is pretty much the same engine found in the RSX Type-S, for significantly less money. The all new Civic Si starts at just a hair under $20,000.

As with the RSX Type S, the new engine in the 2006 Civic Si is a screamer. 197 hp is achieved by revving the thing to 7800 rpm. iVTEC kicks in at about 6200 rpm, giving a small turbo-like boost all the way up to the redline. While this is certainly fun, if you’re trundling around town in 5th gear at 30 mph, you’ll likely find that punching the throttle does next to nothing.

Overall the 2006 Civic Si is a huge improvement over the previous model, both in style and performance.

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The Honda Accord Hybrid offers spirited performance in a package comfortable for four adults. And it does this while giving you the gas mileage of a gasoline-only Civic. Honda claims 30 mpg in the city, 37 on the highway. Unlike the inflated numbers from the Prius, these should actually be about right.

The engine is a 240 hp 3.0 liter V6, pretty much the same as found on your ordinary Accord. The electric engine delivers another 16 hp and 100 lb-ft of torque. So you actually end up with better performance than with the standard Accord, particularly on the low end. Honda claims 0-60 time is improved by 0.5 seconds, to 7.5 seconds. Not too bad for a family sedan that gets 37 mpg.

Prices start at just under $30,000, about $3,300 more than the non-hybrid Accord.

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