I understand Rick's point with how much horsepower a Civic has versus the Echo, but there's a few things he has to remember.

Honda Has:

1) More tuning potential in the engine (at least in this comparo, although the 7th gen. Civic with VTEC-E sucks...hard to tune. The last gen. Civic HX had VTEC-E as well).

2) Engine swaps

3) Aftermarket potential