Honda Civic Si: Inside the Pocket Rocket

CR Engineer Thomas Mutchler, a human factors specialist, offers his perspective on the new Honda Civic cabin:

Honda typically builds very refined--but conservative--cars. Only rarely does the company do quirky, like the Honda Element . So, you have to wonder about the decidedly “unique” styling of the new Civic's interior. The cabin works pretty well ergonomically, with a high-mounted digital speedometer right in the driver’s line of sight, but it breaks no new ground. 

All through the 1950s, car companies added tailfins and other protuberances, all to mimic jets and rockets. Now, that trend seems to be coming to the inside of the Civic. After driving our soon-to-be tested Civic Si to work this morning, the dash layout reminded me of Spaceman Spiff’s rocket ship from the sadly-defunct Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. I’m not alone in those thoughts; one online ConsumerReports.org Discussions post compared the interior to a “rental spaceship.” (I’m not sure how rental spaceships differ from those people actually purchase.) Seriously, more than one forum member has been turned off by the Civic’s interior, so we’ll see if sales wind up being affected or whether or not they’ll “take off.”

A full test of the Civic Si will be available soon to ConsumerReports.org subscribers. We’re testing it head to head against a supercharged Scion tC and Volkswagen GTI.

--Tom Mutchler