The revived, all-new 2023 Acura Integra is here. It comes after a long hiatus, with pretensions to once again take over the market of affordable sports and luxury cars. From what we can see, things look quite promising but still, many enthusiasts are worried about one thing. Yes, we are talking about the engine. The new sports sedan comes with the same engine as Civic Si and many wonder if that would be enough for the new Integra to be considered at least as good as the original model.
Many don’t think so but Acura officials gave us an announcement about the reason for such a decision. It all comes down to one thing – reduction of production costs. Is this going to drive off potential buyers or not? We will try to find out in the following paragraphs.
Why Did Acura Engineers Pick Civic’s Engine?
The new 2023 Acura Integra is coming with a familiar 1.5-liter turbo-four engine from Civic. More precisely, it is a version of the engine that puts out around 200 horsepower and 192 pound-feet of torque. While that’s not a small amount of power, many believe that it won’t make the new Integra fast and fun to drive. After all, the new Civic Si with this engine needs over 7 seconds to hit 60 mph and it is actually slower than the previous generation. The new Integra certainly won’t be any faster.
So, the logical question that comes to mind is why would anyone pay few thousand more to buy Integra instead of a Civic SI. Of course, the Integra comes with various upgrades, other than the premium badge. It comes with upgraded suspension, as well as a more luxurious interior. Still, we don’t believe that these things could make a significant difference.
It all comes to one thing – Acura engineers have decided to put this engine because of the price. They wanted to keep the base price affordable, which may have a big impact on sales numbers, especially if we consider the latest trends on the car market. The Acura officials stated that “Integra isn’t just about outright power or performance. Keeping the starting price at an attainable level is fundamental. We believe the driving experience of the new Integra will exceed expectations for buyers in this segment.”
CVT – Another Problematic Thing
The engine isn’t the only problematic thing about the new 2023 Acura Integra. There is also the transmission issue, which comes in the form of a CVT. In our humble opinion, putting a CVT in a car like Integra is blasphemy. This legendary nameplate didn’t deserve such a thing.
Fortunately, you can get the new Integra with a 6-speed manual gearbox, and this is the only genuine Integra to buy. The problem is that it costs more, considering that the base trim is offered with a CVT only. Fortunately, the extra costs aren’t too big. The fully loaded A-Spec Integra will cost around 35.000 dollars, while the base model should go around $30.000. Another important feature that comes with the manual only is a limited-slip differential. All in all, the two versions can’t be compared in any way, when it comes to the driving experience.
We May See More Power After All
We have no doubt that Acura engineers tried all kinds of powertrain options during the development process and we are pretty sure that some way more capable options were considered as well. This particularly refers to the 2.0-liter turbo-four. Two versions of this engine are in our mind. The first one is the Accord’s engine, which puts out around 252 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque. A great thing is that this engine can also be paired with a manual gearbox. Moreover, it usually goes in pair with a 10-speed automatic and such a combination moves the Accord in an impressive way.
The other engine option is even more impressive. Of course, we are talking about the Civic Type R engine, which has 306 horsepower in the latest iteration. Also, this engine comes exclusively with a manual transmission.
We hope that the Integra Type S will happen one day and that it will come with one of these two engines under the hood.