Is it hard to tell that I find the exterior styling a little bland? Not that I'm wishing for a giant whale tail spoiler or gimmicky aero add-ons, quite the opposite actually. It's just that the general shape of the car shouts economy, especially compared to a few of the new crop of competitors.
Oh yes, times have changed since the previous Honda hatch was riding its big wave of popularity in the late 1980's and early to mid 1990's. Now there's an onslaught of super compacts hitting the market, vying for the eyeballs and pocketbooks of Canada's young and spirited. A tight knit group of new hatchbacks, led by the ultra-cool BMW built 163-hp Mini Cooper S and followed closely by Ford's racy new 170-hp Focus SVT, is fighting it out in the streets with a slew of compact 4-doors including the 227-hp AWD Subaru Impreza WRX, 175-hp Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, 170-hp MazdaSpeed Protegé and Dodge's new 205-hp SRT4, causing a melee all their own. And of course we can't forget about VW's venerable GTI, which was recently bumped up in horsepower to 180 in the 1.8T and 200 in the VR6. Did I leave any out? Probably.
Its relatively stealth design did come in handy though. While I did find it odd that school kids and tuner-car owners alike hardly took notice even in its bright red paint scheme, the police just let me zip right on by despite being a touch over the allowable speed limit grace zone - fortunate indeed. And zip it does! Sure it only has 160-hp, the lowest rating of all its chief competitors, but it sounds sensational up in the high rev ranges and accelerates with uncanny energy. The SiR uses a 2.0-L DOHC 16-valve 4-cylinder with iVTEC valve timing technology, which essentially varies cam lift and valve actuation together via sensors within the engine. Honda has added a new camshaft Variable Timing Control (VTC) to allow continuously variable camshaft phasing throughout the complete power band. Rev the engine and an actuator, managed by an engine-control union that monitors cam position, ignition timing, and throttle position, advances or retards the intake cam, optimizing engine output and reducing emissions. Its peak 160 horsepower is available at 6,000 rpm while 132 lb-ft of torque arrives at 5,000 rpm. What's more important is its refined delivery, spinning up to redline effortlessly between each shift interval.