A United Auto Group dealer in my area had a red one in yesterday AM, so I thought I might should do my duty and go ahead and give her a whurl. ;-)

Dig this: Sticker shock... oops.. I mean "price" was over $26K which included (I can't remember exactly what it was) a $1200-1600 mark-up for "Limited Availability ..." B.S.

It was only equipped with the "additional" options of fog lights, the 18" HFP rims, and the aero body trim. The rear spoiler is actually "standard" on the Si according to this dealership.

It has the 2.0 i-VTEC as opposed to the 1.8 of the rest of the Civic family.

The Civics have really come a long way with fit and features. It's very nice on the inside, still not Accord-level but closer than before. The "heads up" display includes a digital temp. guage, fuel guage, and speedometer. The tach. is below and fortunately still analog. Just a very nice, comfy package on the inside with more room than you might think there would be. This is true for all the Civics this year.

I got to drive it both on some curvy, back roads as well as for a shot up a freeway. The car is surprising quiet though a bit revvy. Very revvy, seemed to me. The steering input is sharp and VERY quick with the 18" rims. The braking seems good and the throttle response, though lacking feel/feedback, is good. The visibility out of the car is good too.

I will say that 6th gear on the highway is nothing more than an OD. The car has absolutely NO pick-up in 6th. Drop it back down into 5th and it's all revvy again. 3rd gear is the best. It goes and goes and then at whatever point (I didn't pay attention), the VTEC kicks in and it wants to GOOOOOO.

It's a great all around package but I would have to get used to it because nothing else I've driven is quite like it. I am not 110% sold on it yet (especially if that's the pricing points to be expected).

This whole throttle-by-wire, if that's what I was experiencing, is the part I'm not sure of yet. The car is so smooth and so quiet (with the exception of being rev happy) that you almost can't bond with the car because you don't get a whole lot of feedback from it. Press the clutch in to shift up gears and the revs do not drop off. Heel-toe on the way down and there is no throttle response on the rev-matching. It's bizzare. It's like you would have to hold the gas pedal down for a couple of secs or hit it several times on your downshifts to even hear or feel the revs.

I would say the car drives great but there seems to be very little feel of the road, if that makes sense.

The car is, IMO, sharp. It's ultra smooth, quiet and pretty comfy. I'll be test driving another one soon.

Go try one. You'll see what I mean.