Nice reviews. I test drove another SI last night and was delighted with the car, I was a bit worried at all the comments I had been reading on this site which pretty much make the car out to seem like a KIA. The first time I drove it I wasn't overly impressed but it was a cold, misty, crappy day on crappy roads with a shitty sales guy who was an ass. Last night was totally different, I fell in love with the car. The quality is top notch, a lot higher than I expected after all I had been reading. The plastics where nice, the dash had a nice soft covering on it, along with the door panels. I saw some of the scuff marks people are calling unacceptable on a showroom car and said to myself are you kidding? That's what I'd expect to happen if a shoe came in contact with a door panel. The ride was great, sporty and sure footed, but not jarring and clunky when going over bumps.
The engine sounded pretty good, I'm used to my 207 lbs of V6 torque, but I still liked it, reving up to 8100 is VERY fun
The shifting was smooth, and the clutch was like butter. The car also had a great radio, although it'd be coming out shortly.
Underhood everything appeared to be high quality, lots of fasteners holding everything down, underhood plastics where thick and strong. Coming from a Fully loaded Ford Taurus I'm losing a lot of features such as leather seats, heated mirrors, auto dimming rear mirror, dual power seats, automatic headlights, etc but going from the Civic to my car afterwards made my car feel crappy. The quality just isn't there with the ford, and it shows when driving the honda. The civic is a nice car! I'm hopefully buying it this weekend :)