**Official Integra Forum Members' Type S Reviews**

[SilverRocket]

Instead of having a few hundred separate threads, I was hoping to have a compendium of members thoughts in one thread. Basically post your thoughts on the car whether it's after your first test drive or your evolving opinion, feel free to share and let the discussions flow as it will not be anyone's specific thread.

I'll go first:

Context. I've only owned 2 cars, the ITS now being the third and I'm coming from daily driving a 9th gen Civic Si. I've had the chance to drive over the years a Challenger R/T, Z4M, Golf GTI among other cars, but just here and there, nothing owned or driven regularly.

First thoughts on the car...the reviews weren't wrong. Insert Jeremy Clarkson "What a machiiiine". I didn't have much seat time and the roads to drive home were pretty mundane but even then I can feel how capable the car is. For example there's a sweeping turn on the highway where the limit is 100kph (62mph) and I may or may not have been going it a little faster but the way it felt, I would probably be comfortable doing it at twice the speed..... with one hand on the wheel (not that I would). The few right handers I took fast felt surreal. Basically the inertia on your body makes it feel like the Wile E Coyote dynamic with rocket skates, it's already through the turn and you're about to catch up.

In full transparency, I kept it under 4.5k RPM and I using the throttle position gauge, I never went above 50%, so I will reserve my full assessment for after break in but for the time being there are two initial comments related to the go pedal. One, if this thing is this fast at 50%, it should really boogie when you really get into it. That said, I'm happy I'm keeping my Si too. While the ITS runs circles around it, the initial millimeter of pedal travel of the ITS is spongy in regards to acceleration. Yes I know it's the turbo (versus NA) but that is the one down side in my books.

On that note, funny enough, despite being able to far exceed the speed limits even on half throttle and under 4.5k RPM, I found myself overall driving slower than I do in my Si. If they were songs, the SI is Kickstart My Heart by the Motley Crew versus the 1812 Overture of the ITS. It's still got panache and a grandiose feeling to it, but not nearly as frenetic. Maybe this opinion will change once I get to ring out the ITS, but for the moment it's my first impression. Speaking of music, the sound system is amazing. Drastic improvement versus the 10 year old Bose system in the Civic. Feeling Good by The Sheepdogs came on in the shuffle, so I cranked it and damn was I feeling good.

With regards to the nanny systems, everything can be toned down or turned off but the CMBS annoys the crap out of me. Thankfully it doesn't actually engage the brakes but you can't creep close enough to let the left lane camper know "GTFO of my way" without it throwing warnings at you. It's a slight annoyance that you have to disable it every time you start the car and there's no physical button either. If Hondata or tuning could change this, I'd do it for that alone, but it's definitely not a deal breaker.

Overall, no regrets what so ever. The car is spectacular, worth every penny and if I had traded in my Si, I would only be slightly reminisced since the overall package is a HUGE upgrade for me.

 

[lumper]

Is that the Lunar silver?
Great pics.
Solid short review.

 

[SilverRocket]

Is that the Lunar silver?
Great pics.
Solid short review.

Thank you.

Yes, it's Lunar Silver and I love it. I chose it as a homage to my first civic, a barebones LX in Vogue Silver. That and the name "Lunar Silver" has meaning to me, not to mention silver hides dirt amazingly well.

However, despite it being the pleb "non premium" color, it's got this amazing ability to shift hue. In normal white light, it's clearly a pure silver but with different lighting/conditions it changes.

Take a look at the picture from the passenger side. In low light, it (rear bumper) become alot like LCM and then if it's under blue skies, it reflects it to be a bluish tint and similarly the sunset gives it a golden glow. The effect is even more pronounced IRL.

I think the best thing though so far, beyond anything the car can do for me directly, I had a proud papa moment today when my young daughter, without coaxing asked me to go for a drive. We went for that drive

 

[lumper]

I like it.
My first choice for the ITS when I take delivery is Lunar silver with Ebony interior, second choice white with ebony, third Tigers eye with ebony and lastly, Apex blue with ebony interior, in that order.

 

[bisquick]

Congrats on the purchase! LSM is the best color, but I'm biased.

 

[SilverRocket]

While the ITS runs circles around it, the initial millimeter of pedal travel of the ITS is spongy in regards to acceleration. Yes I know it's the turbo (versus NA) but that is the one down side in my books.

Small correction of my initial assessment. After playing with all the modes and cycling them back to back to back 15-30 seconds each, I've come to realize most of the issue is caused by comfort mode. When I noted the slower throttle response I must have been in comfort mode (after startup) which significantly reduces the response of the accelerator. Good for saving gas I guess.

In Sport+ mode it's almost completely illiminated but not 100%. If you're not used to driving a good NA manual powertrain, I'm almost certain most people would not even know and consider it leaps and bounds better than most cars out there.

Also getting back into the Civic, it now feels "slow" but the VTEC crossover still provides the fizz.

 

[akoza]

I made an initial list when I bought the car but have been waiting for a thread like this and more
seat time before posting anything.

Here are my thoughts (in no particular order):

- I agree with you, Comfort vs Sport+ does make a noticeable difference in throttle response. I find myself mostly driving in Individual (Sport+ for engine and gauges, mainly for the crackles and pops; and Comfort for suspension and steering). The power delivery is fantastic. I noticed a little bit of turbo lag at first and it felt like it was slow to get up to speed, but I, like you, was keeping it under 4k rpm for the break-in, and mostly driving in Comfort. After the break-in though, I've been having a lot more fun and can't complain. My wife, who drives a plug-in hybrid, actually complimented me on the exhaust note when I brought the car home - normally she just rolls her eyes at me in kWh.

- The shifter feel is superb. Everyone praises the notchy shift feel and I think they're right. Many other cars (especially BMW) have a more rubbery feeling and kind of feels like you have to force it in a little bit. The ITS is such a joy to shift.

- I thought I'd hate auto rev matching and really wanted to hate it. I gave it a week and haven't turned it off since. It works quite well and I don't feel much rev-hang. I feel it works best with slow everyday shifting - if you pause for a second before letting go of the clutch, it's buttery smooth. Let go any quicker and there can be a bit of a jerk.

- The torque steer management is pretty good. I've taken quite a few turns a bit spiritedly and have yet to see any torque steer. It's an absolute joy compared to some less-capable cars I've driven.

- The TPMS is very well done. I recently installed my winter tire setup with new TPMS sensors. Didn't have to reprogram anything manually. Just drive the car for a few minutes and car recalibrates everything on its own. Well done, Acura!

- I've seen quite a few people complain about how the heated seats aren't warm enough or take too long to heat up. I've found the opposite - they get nice and warm (without being too hot) and I can feel the heat almost immediately. I also enjoy that even though it's a button and not a rocker switch, you can set it once and forget it for the rest of the winter. Cooled seats would be a nice addition too but I never had them before so I don't know what I'm missing and I'm not complaining.

- I like that there's an option for the heated steering wheel. I plan on installing one eventually. What I don't like is that in the US, this only comes with black stitching when the rest of the car has either red or white stitching. Canada, on the other hand, has the heated wheel standard on their cars AND they come with red stitching. I haven't found a way to get one in the US yet. This is the only thing stopping me from buying a heated wheel. I hope Acura can remedy this in the coming model years.

- I never really cared for blue before but the Apex Blue Pearl just pops, in every type of lighting. Almost everyone who strikes up a conversation about my car mentions the color. I find myself looking back at it almost every time I park.

- I'm probably one of the few people who are actually happy that the car has no sunroof. I've owned four cars prior to my ITS, all with a sunroof. Three had sunroof issues at one point or another, and I didn't own the fourth long enough to run into an issue. I found myself almost never using the sunroofs and I don't miss having one.

- Rear seat space seems bigger than in my MK7 GTI, even though there are only 4 seats in the car. In my GTI, my 2 year old was able to kick the front seat when it was adjusted to a normal seating position. In my ITS (same seating position) he has a few more inches to go before his legs will reach the seat.

- I'm quite surprised at how well the adaptive cruise works, even in a manual. I think the attention to detail Acura put into the little car display in the center screen is pretty cool - the brake lights, headlights, and turn signals in the display all mirror the car's actual lights. Also, it does a superb job at distinguishing between cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The LKAS is a nice touch too, especially that you can keep it on without turning on adaptive cruise.

- The plastic trim where my right knee sits is hard and could use some padding. This bothered me the first few weeks I owned the car but I've gotten over it and don't notice it as much now.

- The wireless charger sucks. My iPhone 12 Pro gets hot and I've found that it sometimes even loses charge when I'm using directions in CarPlay. I think this is a combination of non-Apple chargers putting out a slower charge than official Apple MagSafe chargers, and that the lack of magnets makes you have to guess to exact right spot on the charging pad. I've remedied this by 3D printing an adapter that lets you plug in a MagSafe charger and neatly hide the cord underneath. I also started selling these on Etsy in case anyone is interested.

- The backup camera is a bit grainy compared to my GTI's camera. Also the GTI camera was hidden in the badge and only came out while in reverse, so I've never once had to wash it in the 7 years I owned the car. I know this isn't the norm and VW set the bar high here, but it's something that takes a bit of getting used to.

- The turning radius is larger than the GTI's and took a bit of getting used to. The car is longer than my wife's RAV4, which I found surprising for a car in this class.

- The 60/40 rear seat split is on the opposite side (right) of where my GTI had it. I thought this would be great since my kid's car seat is on the right side and would allow me to fit wider items back there, but I found the cupholder in the child seat gets in the way of the seat folding all the way down. I understand this probably won't be the case will all car seats, and eventually my kid will no longer need the car seat, so not the worst thing.

- The front seats don't bother me as much as they do some people. Yes, on sharp cornering they don't hold you in as well as the CTR seats probably do, but I'll take the comfort of heated seats and power adjustable (driver) seats over the CTR's bare bones racecar seats considering probably 99% of my driving will be on the streets.

- I don't like that Acura left out the memory seat function and left a blank switch in its place. I don't think it would add that much more complexity, cost, or weight to the car.

- The AcuraLink app is trash. My car's info is often a few days behind, and the only data I can see is the fuel level, oil percentage, and mileage - all things that I can see every time I get into the car and aren't really useful to me outside of the car. Especially considering the A-spec lets you do/see a lot more things with it.

- I wasn't thrilled that the car didn't come with a HomeLink mirror, but I installed one from the current generation Accord two days after buying the car and made a YouTube video detailing the process.

- The piano black trim around the shifter is horrendous. Fingerprints appear everything if you look at it funny - not sure why auto manufacturers think this is "luxurious" or good-looking. I wrapped mine in a matte black vinyl and have not noticed or complained about it since.

- The car didn't come with power folding mirrors but I installed the Mikstore kit and have been happy with it since. I had power folding mirrors on my GTI and it's one of those "once you've had it, you'll miss it" kind of features.

 

[TheRas900]

As an Apex Blue A Spec 6MT owner, I agree with almost all of these pros and cons. Interesting to see they remain the same, if maybe at a higher degree, in the Type S.

 

[koatic]

In full transparency, I kept it under 4.5k RPM and I using the throttle position gauge, I never went above 50%, so I will reserve my full assessment for after break in but for the time being there are two initial comments related to the go pedal. One, if this thing is this fast at 50%, it should really boogie when you really get into it.

I thought the same thing but after owning mine for 2 months and a few outings of aggressive driving I have found (In My opinion) that part of the difference in tune with the DE5 is the torque is quite heavy between 3-5k at 50% throttle. Yes of course it goes up with more throttle, but it is not near the thought of 100% throttle will be twice as much. That being said even after the break-in period I do not often go above 50-60% throttle. I can say I guess I was spoiled driving my naturally aspirated B18C with instant throttle response. I feel (another opinion) that the turbo lag takes forever in my ITS. DONT GET ME WRONG I LOVE MY ITS!!!!!!
I have purchased a bunch of bolt-ons (none installed yet. only PLR intercooler and front pipe have arrived. everything else still on backorder) mainly in an effort to reduce the turbo lag rather than generate more power. (school of thought more air flow intake/exhuast allows turbo to spool faster?) {ready for the flaming} haha we will see..