Okay!
So I went and test drove a CRZ this afternoon.
I DO like the look and the cockpit wraps around you like the CRX does. The interior feels like the CRX. Then I drove it.
First gear had some getty-up and then 2nd and 3rd were just there and by 4th I had lost interest. I tried it in “sports mode” (it has a button for that) and I even turned off the air-conditioner. I will say. If I had never driven a CRX Si I would probably have liked it. I mean you could really sort of feel the ghost of the CRX in the build of the CRZ but it was really just a faint image of it.
I told all this to the twenty something salesman who was riding with me and I could see he really wanted to roll his eyes. So I ask him, “Have you ever driven a CRX?” He hadn’t. "The do me a favor and drive mine."
We climbed into my Si and he hadn’t got 50feet from the parking lot before he said “Wow”. I laughed.
He commented that it really had a lot of power and I pointed out that it had nearly 30HP less then the CRZ we were just in. HE then had a fun test drive.
When we got back I ask him if Honda made anything like that and he just said flat out “No”. He did say that the 2012 Civic Si would be worth a try as it had a 100 more HP then the CRZ and only weighed about 200lbs more(about 1000lb more then the CRX) … but he still didn’t think it would the same level of “fun” as the CRX. He also had no idea when they’d be getting those in so I couldn’t test drive one.
BTW - I ask about the CRV Mugen and he said that package was mostly body mods and not really performance. We both thought that was a strange departure for Mugen.