Small sporty sedans

The Honda Civic Si and the Volkswagen Jetta GLI (shown) are sporty versions of more mundane small sedans. With their recent redesigns, the basic Civic and Jetta experienced the largest drops in our Ratings that we have seen in recent years. As a result, we no longer recommend either. But sportier versions of small sedans are often significantly upgraded, combining practicality, fuel economy, and fun. And in the Civic Si and Jetta GLI, those treatments have notably boosted test scores. We now recommend the Civic Si because it scores high enough and reliability is likely to be above average, based on previous Civics. Even though the Jetta GLI scored higher than the Civic Si in our tests, it's too new for us to have reliability data.

Take the basic Civic and kick it up a notch with a larger, higher-revving, four-cylinder engine, and you'll have the Si, which sings sweetly all the way to its 7,000-rpm redline. Its six-speed manual transmission is a joy to shift. Unfortunately, the car suffers from many of the same drawbacks as other Civics: vague steering, cheap plastics, a jittery ride, and lots of noise. It's also available as a coupe.

With the GLI, Volkswagen made some substantive improvements to its basic Jetta. The sportier version gets an independent rear suspension, rear disc brakes, and a different steering system. The GLI has a nicely padded dashboard and stitched seats and steering wheel, upgrades over more basic Jettas. All that, plus Volkswagen's powerful, efficient, turbocharged, four-cylinder engine, make the GLI a practical and more-affordable alternative to the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4.

We paid $23,175 for our Civic Si and $26,835 for our Jetta GLI.

Read our complete Honda Civic Si and the Volkswagen Jetta GLI road tests, and review our sporty car buying advice and Ratings (available to subscribers). If you're in the market for a new car, get a no-haggle quote from our Build & Buy service.