2023 Acura Integra First Drive: Unexpectedly Like the Original Sport Compact
42023 Acura Integra First Drive: Unexpectedly Like the Original Sport Compact
The new Integra isn’t overtly nostalgic, but its values haven’t changed since ’86.
Say you're looking for a right-size new car that's not boring, with four doors for everyday practicality, and make it premium because, hey, you deserve it. With the average price of a new vehicle having recently risen to nearly 50 grand, something around the pre-supply-chain-crunch average price tag of about $35,000 would be aces. Provided you haven't already locked on a fully loaded mainstream family sedan or an SUV, the 2023 Acura Integra is definitely worth a look.
This Acura resurrects an iconic name to compete in an entry-luxury segment defined by tiny, luxury-badged offerings such as the BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe, Mercedes A-Class, and Audi A3. Mostly, those are cynical plays for prestige chasers, merely decent cars that don't offer their brands' best. The Integra may seem just as craven—it's based on the Honda Civic—yet it has real cachet, with "Integra" having lived rent-free in enthusiasts' brains since 1986, when it helped launch the Acura brand alongside the Legend. The (also-Civic-based) original succeeded wildly at winning the same type of young, silver-spooned buyers Acura wants today.
Separating The Honda From The Acura
Normally, mechanical associations with "lesser" cars aren't this successful. And Acura isn't hiding that the Integra is, from the strut towers down, essentially a Civic, mostly because the Honda is so excellent. Acura's designers and engineers, however, changed enough to produce unique, edgy styling draped on completely new sheetmetal. They even tooled up a new body-in-white for the Civic platform that's slightly stiffer (2 to 5 percent) than the already rigid Honda. Both cars share a 107.7-inch wheelbase, meaning the Integra is not a super-small car, and its tapered body is 1.8 inches longer and 1.1 inches wider than the Civic's and similarly larger than the BMW 2 Series and Mercedes-Benz A-Class.
Beneath its Acura clothing, the front-wheel-drive Integra combines various Honda components in ways you can't replicate on any Civic. The 200-hp 1.5-liter turbocharged I-4 engine, manual transmission, and larger brakes are donated by the Civic Si sedan, which isn't available with a hatchback. Nor does the Si offer an automatic transmission, though one is available on lower-output versions of this engine on other Civics. (That continuously variable automatic transmission, or CVT, is standard on the Integra and Integra A-Spec, and it's a no-cost option on the A-Spec with the Tech package.) No Civic offers the Integra's amplitude-reactive dampers, whose valving produces different responses to quicker or slower suspension movements, nor can you get the Integra's optional electronically adaptive dampers on the Si.
How Does It Drive?
If you guessed the answer to the above question is "like a Civic," here's a cookie. Specifically, the Integra drives like the delightful Civic Si with a more compliant ride and the wick turned down on its artificially augmented engine sound. With less fake noise coming through the audio system, the engine sounds better and more natural than it does in the Honda. The exhaust is routed similarly in both cars, right down to the odd looped piping under the rear bumper, meaning you can almost always hear the engine thrumming away, though it never drones.
Remarkably, given the Acura's extra content, nicer cabin materials, and hatch, it weighs only 120 or so pounds more than a Civic Si or hatchback, making it impressively light for its size, at between 3,000 and 3,100 pounds. We'd stomach some extra mass for sound attenuation. Like the Hondas, the Integra is loud, especially on grooved concrete or the aggregate-style asphalt used in Texas, where we drove the car. Luckily, Tech package models include an incredible 16-speaker ELS audio system that can not only drown out the road noise but possibly also the very thoughts in your head.
Beyond their hum, the tires squeal in protest from almost the moment you start pushing the car, and every Integra gets these all-season tires. The Civic Si's optional summer tires would be great here, mostly because that model proves this chassis can handle way more rubber. Despite its dulled grip, the Acura accelerates, steers, and brakes just like the Civic Si, one of the best-handling front-drive cars you can buy today.
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