From the May 2018 issue

A prediction: When the robocar revolution ultimately proves to be less than revolutionary, we will blame its Level 5 endgame. After all, you can get only so excited about napping or working, and there’s just not that much worth watching on Netflix. Doing mundane stuff in a moving car will be amazing once, maybe twice, and then the novelty will wear off. People will start looking around for a steering wheel.

Because driving is exciting. Cars are machines that allow people to do inconceivable things. With the mastery of just a few simple controls, we can travel at impossible speeds and feel sensations otherwise unavailable in our terrestrial existence. Cars don’t need to become robots; they already are robots. Only after an intense study of the literature—vintage science-fiction novels, Bronze Age comic books, and plenty of Knight Rider reruns—do we come to the conclusion that robotics is best applied to making humans better, stronger, faster. Think Steve Austin.

View Photos Greg Pajo Car and Driver

Indeed, the best cars act as extensions of our own bodies, and in what is still thankfully a predominantly Level 0 world, you don’t need $6 million to own one. Cue this story’s battlebots, the Honda Civic Si and the Volkswagen Golf GTI. We drove this pair of machines through the mountains of Southern California’s Los Padres National Forest, ignoring their dissimilarity in body style to focus on their shared enthusiast-friendly mission. Of course you will also recognize these two from their appearances on our most recent 10Best Cars list, a reward both cars earned, in part, for their high ratio of performance per dollar.

The 2017 Si sedan we drove stickered for just $24,990 all in, which is a mere 71 percent of the average cost of a new vehicle. This includes its optional Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 summer tires, a $200 upcharge that’s a relative steal—it’s about what it would cost to have a single replacement shipped to you. Tires aside, Honda doesn’t offer any choices with the Si after you pick your color, although you could get a coupe. Regardless of door count, every Si comes with a six-speed manual gearbox mated to a tweaked version of the standard Civic’s turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder. An extra 3.8 psi of boost produces 205 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque—gains of 31 and 25, respectively.

View Photos Greg Pajo Car and Driver

The four-door hatchback GTI is more expensive, with the base S trim starting at $27,265. Our test car was the one-rung-higher SE with a $31,320 starting price. That $4055 differential pays for, well, the differential for starters, an electronically controlled limited-slip unit. Also bigger brakes from the Golf R, as well as a sunroof and blind-spot monitoring. Plus the SE ditches the standard halogen headlights in favor of LEDs and swaps the stock 6.5-inch infotainment screen for an 8.0-inch system. Bridgestone Potenza S001 summer tires are a no-cost swap from the stock all-seasons.

Buying an SE also allows you to spend $695 on leather, as our test car demonstrates. But doing so is a mistake, as a GTI without plaid upholstery is like a GTI without a manual transmission. Luckily, our $32,015 test car had the latter, although a dual-clutch gearbox is also available. All 2018 models now make 220 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque from VW’s venerable EA888 turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four.

Yes, Oscar Goldman, we do have the technology.

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Slipping behind the wheel of the Si is like donning a mighty exoskeleton; it makes you feel invincible on the road, as if you have suddenly become a much better driver. Like its big brother, the Type R, its chassis is its greatest strength. The Si pips the GTI’s 0.95 g of lateral grip on the skidpad, where its lower stance and wider tires help it achieve 0.97 g. More significantly, the Si is 1 mph faster through our slalom, proving its quicker reflexes.

The Civic’s strengths feel even greater on the street, where the Honda’s larger size serves to amplify the brilliance of its underpinnings. You drop down into the Si’s perfectly sculpted sport seats as if you’re behind the wheel of a sports car rather than a sedan. And yet it is the longer car by more than a foot, with a wheelbase that stretches nearly three inches farther than the VW’s. But most of the time it drives as if it’s a class smaller, rather than one larger. Weighing just 2904 pounds, the mid-size Si undercuts the compact GTI by 280 pounds. Climbing into the upright chair of the Volkswagen feels as if you’re boarding one of the company’s Microbuses by comparison.

View Photos Greg Pajo Car and Driver

The character of their handling follows the pattern. Where the Si corners flat, promising never-ending grip, the GTI leans, warning the driver to back off earlier than necessary. Whereas the Si dives into corners with an almost twitchy eagerness to rotate, the GTI is more methodical in its attack, taking its set and then relying on its helical limited-slip differential to pull itself around the bend. But the Si crashes over broken pavement, while the firm but seemingly infinitely elastic GTI suspension just swallows it without upsetting the pace.

Yes, the Civic’s prime asset is also a crucial weakness; even with its adaptive dampers in their normal setting, its flinty ride can batter the driver. Steering effort is high—higher still in Sport mode—and there’s no respite from the always-on demands of its quick-witted helm. Add in the roar of the wind, the relentless thrum of its tires, and a poorly insulated firewall that permits too much of the four-cylinder engine’s buzz through, and the Si grows as exhausting to drive as it is to look at.

View Photos The Honda’s engine is 25 percent smaller than the VW’s, but you wouldn’t know it from its midrange flexibility. Its weight-to-power ratio is better, too. Greg Pajo Car and Driver

Nothing more need be written about the Civic’s styling; the photos on these pages should suffice. But what you can’t quite see in the photos is how wide and uneven the panel gaps were on our test car. Or how phony the fake-carbon-fiber interior trim looks, which is still not as bad as the molded plastic “stitching” on the dashboard. Even the fabric used to dress up the Si’s seats and in­teri­or feels unnecessarily cheap. Some of this is inherent in the Si being a hot-rodded version of a car with a starting price below $20,000, yet the GTI has similar budget bones in the Golf. And Volkswagen still manages to convincingly stretch that Golf into a much higher price bracket.

We’ll give Honda credit for keeping the sticker of the Si so affordable—you can actually spend more on a regular Civic—but we’d still like the Si to be more refined. If that makes it slightly more expensive, we’d consider it money well spent.

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If the Si is the robot for those whose own programming is still incomplete, a car for the young and impetuous, the GTI is the machine you would choose to have your brain transplanted into after you die, thereby transcending human existence and achieving eternal life. Yes, that idea is ridiculous enough that there are researchers actually working on it. To whom we would suggest that there are few cars more livable than the GTI. It has more bandwidth than Google Fiber.

Its silky ride had us negotiating who got to drive it back from the canyons to civilization, where knife-edge handling matters less than Swiss Army knife utility. The GTI’s greater comfort is due to more than its suspension, as better sightlines from its large greenhouse and a higher seating position for rear passengers make it a more enjoyable place to spend time. Despite its smaller size, we found the Volkswagen just as capable of carrying four adults as the Honda, though neither car is well suited for a full complement of five.

View Photos Greg Pajo Car and Driver

The GTI is noticeably quieter at cruising speed. Carpeted door pockets quell rattles and give the impression that Volkswagen engineers have obsessed over every last detail. Like how, at full throttle, the GTI’s deep exhaust note—though measuring louder than the buzzy Si’s—stays focused behind the driver where it belongs.

And where it can be enjoyed, too. Because, as with every other facet of Volkswagen’s diamond, the GTI’s turbocharged 2.0-liter four has been polished to perfection. Its 258 pound-feet of peak torque arrives at just 1500 rpm, nearly as instantly as an electric motor’s. Throttle response is telepathic, with no discernible turbo lag. Even a lazy driver can lug the engine around in high gear, letting that great wall of torque bail him out. And the GTI just walks away from the Si in straight-line acceleration, regardless of the Honda’s on-paper weight-to-power advantage. Hitting 60 mph in 5.7 seconds places the GTI 0.7 second ahead of the Si. That gap closes by only 0.1 second through the quarter-mile, as the GTI crosses the line in 14.3 seconds.

View Photos Hello, old friend. You’re looking well. Are you Botoxing? Cryosculpting? Microneedling? Whatever it is, keep doing it. It’s working. Greg Pajo Car and Driver

The GTI also has the better-sounding audio system and the superior infotainment interface, which isn’t saying much compared with Honda’s confusing and glitchy mess. There’s a lesson here, too: When the GTI launched, its infotainment was outdated junk, but VW has updated it with its newest tech, with multiple ways to access most functions. Honda should do likewise and gift the Civic with the improved infotainment system it uses in the new Accord.

The GTI is not perfect. Its bigger engine did consume more fuel than the Civic’s. And the GTI’s brake pedal is too soft at the top of its rather long stroke. But these are small complaints.

The Civic was exceptional in the canyons, where the GTI was still quite good, nearly its equal. Everywhere else, doing everything else, however, the GTI is the better car.

It had better be. From here to eternity is a long drive.

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