New Acura Integra Prototype Revealed! Priced ~$30,000, 1.5L VTEC Turbo

[bullitt]

Robb, good post but let me take you back to 1986. I was trading in my little CR-X for something a bit better. I looked at the Mazda RX7, Civic Si and the Acura Integra. As you said, the Integra was always based on the Civic platform but back then, the look was totally different.

The Si hatch was almost station wagon-like.

I fell in love with the Integra's sharper look.

Actually looking at it more it looks like they took the Civic, and just pinched down on the front and rear and called it an Integra.

 

[RobbJK]

Actually looking at it more it looks like they took the Civic, and just pinched down on the front and rear and called it an Integra.

More or less. Almost everything below that black bumper/side trim line is identical to the civic. The front end headlight area got changed, hood remolded, and the hatch turned into a liftback. Arguably... the new integra is going to have more visual differences than the original did from it's civic cousin, it's just that the overall shape/silhouette is more or less the same on the new models, but none of the outward body panels are.

Also worth noting... we're comparing these cars side by side. Similarities are going to be obvious. The majority of car buyers, unless the civic and integra were parked right next to eachother, won't even realize they share the same bones. The car enthusiast crowd is going to be able to pick out these kinds of things way more than the general public ever will... but we don't exactly make up the majority of car buyers.

 

[turbo lover]

When has the Integra EVER done anything different from the Civic but have a better interior?

Considering the North American models, the Integra and RSX had a 3-door liftback body style on a slightly different platform with different wheelbase than the Civic. They also offered engines that weren't available in Civics here. It was more than a Civic with a better interior.

How was the ILX different from any previous Integra?

It only came as a 4-door sedan

 

[bullitt]

Considering the North American models, the Integra and RSX had a 3-door liftback body style on a slightly different platform with different wheelbase than the Civic. They also offered engines that weren't available in Civics here. It was more than a Civic with a better interior.


It only came as a 4-door sedan

The integra also had 4 door sedan as an option since its girst generation. The 3rd gen Integra sedan was EXACTLY the same wheelbase as the Civic, and the RSX was only 0.4in different from the Civic Si it was based on. Also, the base RSX engine was the Civic Si engine of the time. It was only the Type-S that had another engine not offered in the US Civic. It was the then Civic Type-R engine, which is what the NEW integra is expected to get in the new Type-S.

So.. yes its a Civic with better interior lol

 

[RRP RSX-S]

What a joke. They take the Civic hatchback and call it an integra by putting their ugly front and rear facias on it?

This is literally every integra. I swear. You people are hilarious. You have these massive expectations because of 1 trim level available for 2 out of 20 years of the car’s existence. Acting like the integra name is holy and only suited for a car God himself hand built. It’s a nice civic. Always has been. If you think it’s a joke than LATAAAAA! No one is forcing you to buy it. And don’t try the “but I love the integra and expected more as a fan” bs. If that was true you’d understand and be happy with this release.

 

[KoukiVAB]

It only came as a 4-door sedan

The RSX, AKA 4th gen "Integra," only came as a 3-door coupe yet everyone seems to be OK with that.

 

[RRP RSX-S]

What makes a car an Integra isn’t how it looks. I wish people would stop getting caught up on that. The 01 looks nothing like the 86. Designs change. What made the integra name so special is that it was a nice affordable car that was fun to drive and practical. Has zero to do with looks.

The ILX etc “Acura civics” are boring. This car has style and will be fun to drive, everything the spirit of the integra name represents.

You can be disappointed because you weren’t paying attention and had unrealistic expectations. But you can’t be mad or say it’s not worthy of the name. Because that’s factually wrong and means that you fundamentally misunderstand what the integra is and always has been.

 

[frontlinegeek]

With a name like the Integra, I was expecting a sporty lightweight competitor to the GT 86 or something similar.

Well, considering such a thing never existed in the Acura line, you were fated for disappointment. The closest to that from Honda has been the CRX or the DelSol.

As a Civic and an Integra owner, I was hoping for something closer to the Integra coupe or RSX, and not a new ILX or CSX.

Well, as pointed out in the below quote, coupes are dead in the mainstream and Honda made that crystal clear well over a year ago.

The fact Honda KILLED every coupe they have, and that Acura themselves showed an image that it was a 4door should have been two HUGE hints that it was going to be a 4 door. I'd have liked a Coupe too, but I also accept reality of todays markets.

Liftback vs Hatch back aside really the issues are that popup headlights are no longer allowed on cars, and that sloping front ends do worse in crash tests so they really don't exist anymore.

Ya, I pointed at this earlier and for sure, a massive amount of design options from the late 80s and 90s are just plain gone due to safety for both the occupants and the pedestrians. They are things that are just never ever going to happen again.

They just need to find a way to differentiate some of the bodylines that are FAR too samey with the Civic.

 

[Steve182022]

The integra was always just a dressed up civic... it may have existed with a different ethos than the civic... but just for fun I pulled up some pictures of the 95 civic coupe and a 95 integra coupe. Guess what? They're essentially the same cars with the exception of the front/rear fascias and the liftback on the integra. They were always just civic Si's with tweaked styling and nicer interior finishes, they were always the gateway into the Acura brand. And by those standards, this new Integra is exactly that. By hoping that it was somehow going to morph into something akin to the GR86 or Nissan Z goes completely against what the Integra always has been. Would it maybe have been closer to what enthusiasts really wanted? Closer in size and weight to the original? Sure, but it wouldn't have actually been anymore or less "Integra" than what they're coming out with. Compact cars have changed in the last 20 years.. they're not the super lightweight tin cans they were, and that's not Honda/Acura's fault. Also, sales and money matter. Acura is a company, one that has been on the brink for some time and needs something that will sell to more than just a handful of enthusiasts.

What people really want is for Honda/Acura to pull their heads out of their asses and introduce an actual dedicated sports coupe (prelude, S2000, CRX, etc). As a fan of Honda it's hard to look at Toyota that has 2 dedicated sports coupes (with a third MR2 replacement in the works) and wonder why Honda can't give us just ONE sports coupe in some form. Even if they made an Integra coupe, it would still be essentially exactly what we're getting minus 2 doors. But toyota developed those cars with other companies in order to cut costs... and people still complain (especially on the supra) that it isn't a worthy replacement for the models that existed previously. If Acura/Honda teamed up and decided to build a sports coupe with say... VW or Hyundai... people would still complain it wasn't a true replacement. And in a world where niche vehicles cost more than they can ever make up in sales... there's very few viable options brands can take without taking a huge loss.

The FWD coupe market is DEAD. Sad but true. The only remaining FWD "coupe" is the Veloster (of which 2 of its main trims just got the axe) and I honestly doubt they'll make a 3rd generation of it even in the N guise. Could they have made a RWD coupe instead to compete with the likes of the Z or 86? Sure, and sales would be further bottlenecked because RWD isn't DD friendly when you live in places with snowy icy winters. They could've also done a fully SH-AWD integra coupe... but say goodbye to that $30k starting price. At this point, we should appreciate that Honda and others still see smaller cars as profitable and they didn't just release a small crossover called the Integra-Cross. I'm not saying it's fair, or fun that we ended up in this Crossover obsessed situation... but companies have to adapt to current markets.

Great analysis.

"Integra Cross" ! You're killing me!

 

[KoukiVAB]

he issue is in the styling. The new Integra is exceedingly clearly a Civic Hatch with different front and rear clips.

If they REALLY wanted to differentiate, then they would have come up with a hatchified version of the sedan (Meaning near the same body line as the sedan rather than the sportback of the hatch) and slapped a wing on the rear.

It's not a Civic Hatch with different front and rear clips.
Yes, all the hard points are in the same spot as they share the basic structure.

But if you look closely, all the parting lines are in fact different.
This means that the doors, fenders, side skirts, roof, etc. are not interchangeable.
IF it was a civic hatch with different front and back, all of those would fit with right in with out any cutting or trimming.

Design wise, I think the Integra is much closer to the TLX than the Civic, but those structural similarities of where thing are make it pretty obvious that it's indeed based on the civic, not the TLX.
The issue here is that the side profiles of Acura and Honda sedans these days are just not different enough to make people ignore those structural similarities.
1st gen TLX and 1st gen (and only) ILX were designed the same way. Same structure, no shared sheet metal.
But back then Acura and Honda looked clearly different from the side so that was never an issue.

Again, "similar"' doesn't always mean shared parts. A lot of people think that the A5 and the Arteon are related, but they use completely unrelated platforms.

 

[frontlinegeek]

But if you look closely, all the parting lines are in fact different.
This means that the doors, fenders, side skirts, roof, etc. are not interchangeable.
IF it was a civic hatch with different front and back, all of those would fit with right in with out any cutting or trimming.

Dude... Do you understand what is being argued? No one, including me is claiming that it is a full on, hyper precise, lazy replacement of plastic.

The vehicles are insanely similar and that is what matters to the eye. The vast majority of the lines are the same as the Civic, not counting for the bumpers.

Let me put it this way for you...

The Bronco Sport and the Escape are on the same platform but are VERY distinctly different.

Other than bumpers, there are only two lines on the Integra that are very distinct, that being the extra crease on the hood and the line on the upper part of the doors.

Also, when people look at products, they don't sit there with protractors and rulers to know for sure about this line or that. They see extreme similarity and start asking questions about why spend more.

 

[clevernamehere]

To me, the '87 Accord 3-door was much closer in design to the '87 Integra, though a bit larger. I was all set to pull the trigger on the Accord when I noticed the new Acura dealer down the street (we didn't get the Integra until 1987 in Canada). I preferred the style of the Integra & the fact it had a bit more hp (113 vs 98!) pushed me to the Integra. If I recall, they where within a couple hundred $ for the base models.
I splurged and added an Acura-branded Alpine stereo, the right side mirror, floor mats and front splash guards.

The car was a ton of fun even though I new it was "just a civic" underneath. It blew the doors off my brother's '80 Camaro (until around 60km/h when he blew past me, but still..)

The prototype looks pretty good to me. When I saw the new Civic, I thought "if they could just fix that front grill & ditch the CVT for a proper auto or DCT, I'd buy it. Looks like this new Acura may be what I was looking for.

 

[RRP RSX-S]

And yet my designer eye still sees more similarities than differences.... a different headlight treatment, and a different back end shape... the rest is VERY similar if not the same. I used the 90s versions as a point because those are the ones I remember (being born in 88).

Maybe they should've made the new Civic hatch a bit more "hatch" like so that the Integra could exist more with the coupe-like silhouette? They look the same at first glance, but the Integra prototype shares ZERO body panels with the civic hatch... they made more small changes than I think we've really been able to see from the very limited amount of images we have so far. Maybe the issue isn't the final form of the Integra, but that Honda didn't do more to differentiate the civic from it's cousin.

Where I agree it would be nice if the civic hatch didn’t exist for example. So it was sedan only and the integra was lift back only. BUT I’m kind of looking forward to the new type r which is hatch only and the type s being twinzies.

 

[KoukiVAB]

Dude... Do you understand what is being argued? No one, including me is claiming that it is a full on, hyper precise, lazy replacement of plastic.

The vehicles are insanely similar and that is what matters to the eye. The vast majority of the lines are the same as the Civic, not counting for the bumpers.

Let me put it this way for you...

The Bronco Sport and the Escape are on the same platform but are VERY distinctly different.

Other than bumpers, there are only two lines on the Integra that are very distinct, that being the extra crease on the hood and the line on the upper part of the doors.

Also, when people look at products, they don't sit there with protractors and rulers to know for sure about this line or that. They see extreme similarity and start asking questions about why spend more.

Not really sure if you read my post.
The problem here is that Acura failed to differentiate the side profile of their Sedans from the ones from Honda.
I'm arguing that the Integra looks that way because of the TLX, not the Civic.
Tell me how many of those lines are shared only with the Civic, and not the TLX.

I also wish that the Integra, or Acura sedans in general, had clearly different side profile than the Hondas.
But the TLX is already here, and Acura wouldn't want something that looks completely different.

Bronco and Escape are both sold by Ford. They look different because they are catered to different audiences.
But I get your point. Escape and Corsair would be a good example tho.

I do agree that the average consumers don't measure the cars to find out the difference. (Probably why the A5 v Arteon happens)
But those who question "why spend more" would probably be at a Honda or German dealerships, not Acura lol

 

[RRP RSX-S]

Actually looking at it more it looks like they took the Civic, and just pinched down on the front and rear and called it an Integra.

Entire A pillar, door, and side mirror are identical too.