NASHVILLE, Tennessee — If I lived here in America’s Music City, I would buy a manual 2025 Honda Civic Si, move south of the city and take the twisted, vacant Natchez Trace Highway into work every day. SPORT mode. BWAAAUUWWWWW! Shift to 4th. BWAAAUUWWWWW! Downshift to 3rd with rev match. BWAP! Back on the throttle. BWAAAUUWWWWW! Glorious.

If I lived in Los Angeles? I would buy a sippy 2025 Honda Civic Sport Touring Hatchback hybrid. ECON mode. In bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-5, the hybrid would creep silently on electric power under 15 mph. When the traffic freed up, I’d activate adaptive cruise control and slipstream behind traffic getting 47 mpg. Take that, $5-a-gallon gas.

If I had a 16-year-old in Oakland County, Michigan? I’d buy them a $25K Civic LX. Honda Sensing suite of safety systems standard: collision mitigation braking, lane-departure warning, driver-attention monitor, auto high-beam headlights, adaptive-cruise control. Fun, safe.

King Civic has long been at the top of the compact retail sales game because it appeals to a wide swath of drivers from youthful to frugal to those with a need for speed (me).

For the 2025 model year, the 11 th-generation Civic is a microcosm of where the U.S. auto market is headed.

The manual gearbox was once the standard transmission for compact automobiles due to its affordability and superior fuel mileage. No more. Multi-speed and continuously-variable automatic trannies are not only easier to use, they're more efficient — saving dollars over the lifetime of a car.

Sticks have become an enthusiast niche. #SaveTheManual, we cry. Performance markers have listened. Porsche’s GT3 sportscar offers a manual. So does Mazda’s Miata and Mazda3 cars. Civic saves the manuals for its enthusiast-focused Si and Type R pocket rockets.

Old Hillsboro Road near Natchez Trace looks like a twisted USB cable, its asphalt ribbon gnarled with dips and turns. Happily, the Civic Si’s manual is one of the industry’s best, matching Porsche and Mazda with crisp, short throws. Adding to the joy for 2025 are shift lights and rev-matching.

Like a modern race car, the digital tachometer’s horizontal display lit up yellow as I approached the 6,200-RPM redline, blinking red at the shift point. I rowed the box hard through the curves, never missing a shift — maximizing the car’s 192 pound-feet of torque.

Which ahem, is 66 less than the 2025 VW Jetta GLI that I recently tested. And 117 less than the Mazda3 Turbo. Hmmm.

Honda has been stubborn about upping Si power output with the horsepower number stuck at 200 since, well, the ol’ 2006 Civic Si in my driveway. No wonder the ’25 model has shift lights to keep it in the meat of the torque band.

Si continues to develop in other areas like the chassis, which has been stiffened — and in smooth, satisfying, rev-matching downshifts. Flying low across the Tennessee landscape, it was hard to notice that the Si was a FWD car, so natural is its rotation through corners.

If it’s more torque you want, check out the Civic Hybrid hatchback. It’s Honda’s answer to the Toyota Prius hatchback.

The 232-torque battery-electric compact is a pivotal development in Honda’s history. The Japanese brand has dabbled in hybrids before, debuting the nerdy Insight alongside Toyota’s (more successful) Pious — er, Prius — from 2000-06 and maintained a steady, niche diet of green-focused hybrids since.

Insight made a repeat performance from 2010–14 and again in 2019–22. Civic even adopted a hybrid from 2003-15. Now hybrids are fringe nerd-mobiles no more. They’ve become lineup essentials to meet tightening government emissions regs — even as governments punish other alternative-powertrains like diesel.

Hybrids are as mainstream as bread and butter, and Honda targets 40% sales of its core Civic, Accord, CR-V models to be gas-electric.

Gone is the upmarket 180-horse, turbo-4 engine that Civic previously offered alongside the base, 150-horsepower/133 torque, 2.0-liter gas-burner. Instead, Honda paired the 36-mpg base mill with a battery and electric motor, and — voila!— a 47-mpg highway hybrid available for Sport hatchback and Sport Touring hatchback/sedan trims.

I silently crept out onto Nashville’s city streets before the gas engine kicked in. Merging onto I-40, I nailed the throttle and the electric motor’s torque pushed my blue Sport Touring Hybrid hatch effortlessly into morning traffic.

Batteries and electric motors don’t come cheap, and the Hybrid upgrade will set you back an additional $2,000 over its gas counterpart. That cost is in line with the upscale Prius, not the cheaper $29K Toyota Corolla Hybrid. Honda sweetens the deal with goodies like a 9-inch infotainment screen, leather seats, moonroof and wireless Apple CarPlay/Android Auto complemented by wireless charging so my Android’s battery didn’t expire while it navigated me south.

If hybrids are now mainstream, then Honda wants you to know that, over the next decade, it’s going all-electric. Dubbed the “Second Founding,” the brand’s methodical battery-powered makeover is foreshadowed by the Civic Hybrid’s twin regen paddles.

Rolling up to stoplight, I used the left paddle for maximum, four-level regen — slowing the car with the electric motor without touching the brake. Fun toy. Other neat features include a pull-over shade to hide valuables under the hatchback, Google Built-in software and rad 18-inch wheels.

One feature the Hybrid model doesn’t have is a spare tire. Blame the heavy battery’s need for space.

But the base LX model has a spare. Just the sort of thing you want for your teen’s (or any owner’s) first car. I’ve had two flats in the last two years — one of them on a remote drive — and it’s nice to have a spare on hand.

Indeed, there are few compromises to buying the standard, most-affordable $25K Civic. 36 mpg? Check. A suite of safety features? Check. Good rear seat room for your tall basketball pals? Check. Good looks? Yup.

With its clean lines (and a little plastic surgery to the ‘22 Civic’s hood overbite), Civic models a timeless, athletic look. Inside, steering wheel ergonomics are first class, as is the premium-looking horizontal dash that’s a step from class competitors. Dude, check out the honeycomb dash detail.

All those standard items and premium touches have inflated the Civic’s bottom line. This is no entry-level bargain like, say, Chevy’s terrific $21,495 Trax SUV. Then again, Trax can’t offer you a bargain, corner-carving, manual like $31K pocket rocket Si.

The electrified era looms, but there’s nothing that satisfies like a good ol’ fashioned stick on a country road.

2025 Honda Civic/Civic Si

Vehicle type: Front-engine, front-wheel-drive, five-passenger sedan

Price: $25,345, including $1,095 destination fee ($34,045 Hybrid Sport Touring Hatchback and $31,045 Si as tested)

Powerplant: 2.0-liter 4-cylinder; hybrid, 2.0-liter 4-cylinder mated to twin electric motors and lithium-ion battery; 1.5-liter turbo-4 (Si)

Power: 150 horsepower, 133 pound-feet of torque (2.0L); 200 horsepower, 232 pound-feet of torque (Hybrid); 200 horsepower, 192 pound-feet of torque (Si)

Transmission: Automatic, continuously-variable transmission (2.0L); electronic continuously-variable transmission (Hybrid); six-speed manual (Si)

Performance: 0-60 mph (Hybrid 6.2 sec., Car and Driver); top speed, 114 mph; 0-60 mph (Si 6.6 sec., Car and Driver); top speed, 135 mph

Weight: 3,225 pounds (Hybrid); 3,000 pounds (Si, est.)

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