It’s not a small car and is generally shitty? I dunno how fair a fight it would be, tbh.

There will be plenty of votes from the traditional FIAT 500 (I’m partial to the hilariously-sounding Abarth myself)/Mini/Smart crowd. So allow me to introduce a bit of French flair: the Citroen DS3, especially the first-gen one which looks a bit less overwrought than the restyled version.

It’s a giant missed opportunity for them, IMO. Fuck, forget even the horsepower. Even offering the Si in a hatch body style with some fun color choices would have been enough to grab more than a few sales away from VW, because all that sweet Honda reliability somesuch nonsense. Instead...this.

All of which you can get on a GTI - with more power, to boot.

In which case Honda’s product strategy with respect to its “performance” derivatives makes even less sense. The Sport Touring is literally the only way to get the 1.5T with a stick - why in G-d’s arse is this the case? There cannot possibly be a larger number of customers who want all those accoutrements AND the stick…

Oh, sweet. Not sure how I missed that. Can’t wait for that $37K price tag with the same engine.

The fact that we’re in the U.S. doesn’t mean we’re blind to what is happening elsewhere in the world. The GRMN Yaris is deliciously anti-Toyota, so precedent has been established.

The new ‘rex won’t stay $27.5K. And this thing isn’t going to be $25K, either.

Don’t think the Integra has been confirmed as a hatch yet, has it? Either way, if you think it’ll be comparable in price to the Si, you’re shroomin’.

Project cars are the opposite of what I want. If the WRX came in a wagon, that would be my perfect car. Perhaps even with the CVT so that the missus could drive it if need be.

I suspect you’re right. But it still would have been nice to have options. If for no other reason than to have something fun and different to rent from Turo when I make my semi-annual Los Angeles trip. Alas.

Especially if it comes in that blue of the current hatch. Yes, it’s THAT important.

1. Don’t know much about the cars they are selling

The Sport Touring hatch with a 1.5T and a stick is $29K or thereabouts (can’t be arsed to find Mercedes’s article from yesterday or traipse through Honda’s heavy website to find the actual number).

As a driver of a stick car with a good amount of power to the rear wheels -

What’s even the point of it now, given the Sport exists, comes in a stick and hatch, and is only 20 hp down on this thing? On the dumb decision meter this is somewhere between not offering the Si in hatchback form and not offering the hatch with a 1.5 and a stick in colors that aren’t.

Hard CP at any price.

(Full Disclosure: Honda invited me out to Ann Arbor, Michigan to play with a pair of Civic Hatchbacks. I paid for my own travel, but Honda put me up in a nice hotel after learning that I woke up super early to drive the cars.)

“Personal speculations”. That’s rich.

You want to point me to where AWD is mentioned here?