Michigan is not known for its great driving roads. There are a few hills, dips, twists, and turns in the south-central region known as the Irish Hills, and if you travel up to the northwestern part around Traverse City you’ll get undulating topography that forces the road to bend and kink, but around Detroit it’s all straight lines and frost heaves. This is the land where the cloverleaf highway ramp becomes the highlight of an enthusiast’s day. Since this is the environment in which we first drove the Honda Civic Si Sedan, you may need to take these comments about the car’s capabilities with a grain of salt until we flog one around our normal Malibu Canyon stomping grounds. That said, somehow, this car seems more special as a sedan. It’s tight, entertaining, comfortable, and terrific to drive around town. It’s also less claustrophobic than the Civic Si Coupe thanks to the added glass and roomier interior. Plus, there’s something appealing about a four-door with this kind of attitude.

The Honda Civic Si Sedan’s steering, suspension, and brakes all make city driving a joy. In first and second gears, the Si Sedan is lively and seems to be less affected by the engine’s need to rev through the ceiling to extract maximum power than when passing on the highway. Steering is quick, crisp, and offers great feel despite its electric rather than hydraulic assist system. The brakes are a bit touchy until you acclimate to the pedal, then they’re as responsive and dependable as a best friend, and shifting is a joy thanks to the silky short-throw gearbox and easy-to-engage clutch.

Still, despite all this wholesome goodness, the Civic Si suffers a dearth of power under 6,000 rpm. This lack of oomph is especially frustrating when passing on the freeway. Downshift from sixth gear into fourth and punch it! Now the car is making a bunch of noise but not really going anywhere. Plus, well, you’ve gotta downshift two gears to get this lack of response. Wait a moment or two, and the Civic’s motor finally screams up into its sweet spot, and you get what you came looking for – it just takes awhile. A Volkswagen Jetta GLI, by contrast, just whooshes right along.

Due to the sheer lack of decent pavement on which to drive in Dearborn, Honda set up an autocross road course in the Hyatt hotel’s parking lot. The Civic Si Sedan proved to be a good time when threading through the cones, displaying a decidedly tossable and almost driftable nature. The course was seemingly designed to highlight the car’s second-gear performance, so in this environment any powerband deficiencies were masked, but we assume that the sedan experiences the same issues we’ve had with the Coupe out in the real world. On the autocross, there was more roll and tire squeal than we expected, and the brake handle resumed its role as the world’s worst acupuncturist, but the brakes held up superbly and the stability control worked nicely to reign my ass in when I exceeded my limited talent and judgment levels.