We love our Canadian fam up north, but what gives!! What’s going on here and why did we get a de-contented Honda Civic Si? We picked up our new 22 Si US model just a few short months ago. Let’s check out the differences between the 11th generation Si in the US and Canada.

Exterior:

On the outside, the changes are subtle, but obvious if you know what to look for. U.S. spec cars omit the foglights, parking sensors, and the LED side mirrors that our Canadian neighbors get. It does get pretty dark up in Canada so maybe they need all the visibility they can get. Parking sensors? With all that snow up north, how are those sensors even supposed to function properly? See the “fogs” below? They’re just blanks!

Interior:

On the inside, the big miss is the screen cluster that houses the gauges. Canadian spec Si’s get a full digital 10.2 inch display in the cluster. That screen displays both tachometer and speedometer gauges along with shift light indicators. Us U.S. folks get saddled with the more conservative split analog style display shown below. On the left side, we do see a digital display, but on the right side where the speedometer is displayed, we get analog markers. Are we not worthy of full digital goodness Honda? The next difference is the availability of heated seats, heated steering wheel and dual climate controls. Now, you can argue that when you’re bombing down your favorite back road or race track, you don’t need no stinking heated seats, but they are a nice touch. Rounding out the changes, we see no availability of wireless charging or auto-dimming mirrors. Again, maybe Honda knows that we U.S. consumers are more hard core and don’t need these comforts. 

Price:

To put the final nail in the coffin, adjusted for the current exchange rate, the Canadian spec Si comes in as less expensive than the U.S. version. In the U.S. the MSRP lands at $27,300 while in Canada it’s $33,150CAD or about $26,000 USD (at the time of this blog). To boot, you’ve all seen the markups we’ve had to deal with at most dealers in the U.S. 

The big question is WHY all these differences? Well, behind the scenes of a large company like Honda, there are dozens of people across different departments conducting massive amounts of market research. Think pages and pages of interviews conducted with all sorts of people that buy cars like the Honda Civic Si. This research likely showed some very particular preferences on what options enthusiasts such as ourselves prefer. The second part of this is profitability. If a feature is deemed to be low priority, a case can be made to cut it from a standard list of options. Add to that the shortage of microchips that feed screens and climate units and you get a recipe for these differences.

Should you buy one anyways? That’s a big heck yeah from us. Even with the missing options, this US Spec car is still a hoot to daily and drive on the track. Look, importing an Si from Canada is not really feasible and this platform has huge potential. Check out the upgrades we already offer here and keep an eye out for what we have in the pipeline. 

Any idea why Honda decided to incorporate some of these changes? Let us know in the comments below.

REDEFINE the Aftermarket 

-Vlad