HX 2dr Coupe
1999 Honda Civic

This will not be one of those "meet your heroes" types of retro car reviews. There was no poster of a 1999 Honda Civic Si on my wall, and it certainly wasn't on the shortlist (or even long one) of contenders for my first car. Yet, with a closet full of car magazines and a drivers' license about to be acquired, I do quite vividly remember the Civic Si coming out and the rave reviews it received. And frankly, I didn't get it. It had only 160 horsepower, the interior of any old Civic, and I distinctly remember thinking the omission of ABS was absurd. Admittedly, the Electron Blue Pearl paint was pretty cool. Smash cut to 21 years later, and there's a '99 Civic Si in my driveway, looking exactly like the ones that graced those car magazines at the turn of the century. Hell, it might have literally been one of those cars had it been sentenced to the gantlet of Honda's press fleet rather than a pampered life inside the company's HQ museum. There are only 1,178 miles on the odometer, which is less than what the vast majority of new cars we test at Autoblog have. In fact, it has precisely 2,836 fewer miles than the 2020 Honda Civic Si that's also parked out front. This isn't a comparison, though. The '20 is here for some historical context and to provide one last chance to enjoy the current-generation Si and the coupe in general before they sail into the sunset for good. Opening my garage door feels like peering through time. The Si's paint gleams, the interior is flawless, the wheels are without blemish … it's in the same condition as any of those new press cars that pass through. Yet, it's also obviously old, and unlike other flawless old cars, this one was affordable and hardly an exotic when new. Opening the Si's tinny door only deepens the time portal vibe. There's the standard Honda steering wheel of the time with its horn buttons, spokes annoyingly lower than 3 and 9, and a diameter that's a half-inch wider than the 2020's. At least the Si's is wrapped in leather. Turning the skinny key engages a shrill beeeep instantly familiar to Honda vets of the time, and should you then open the door, there's the equally telltale beep-beep-beep-beep / beep-beep-beep-beep. To the left of the wheel is Honda's ubiquitous drop-down plastic coin bin, the cruise control On button (the Set/Accel and Resume/Decel buttons are on the wheel itself) and of course, the sunroof controls, in the head-scratching location Honda/Acura would keep them until deep into the 2000s. The headrests have holes in them, which was special to the Si in the Civic lineup, but common elsewhere in the Honda family. The multi-color upholstery and amber-illuminated gauges are really the only Si-specific design flourishes (outside, a mesh grille insert, front spoiler, enlarged sills and badging differentiate what was a freshened look for every '99 Civic). Once under …
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