Acura Integra

The Acura Integra was a sports car from 1986 to 2001.

History
Acura was the first of the spinoff luxury brands from a Japanese automaker. Honda, which spun it off, did everything just right: Franchise laws prevented the opening of new Honda dealerships too close to existing ones. By creating a new nameplate (Acura) it was able to open more dealerships in the profitable urban areas, where Honda already had considerable strength, and to ignore the areas less likely to buy imports. The upscale positioning of Acura was good for Honda's entire image.

The Integra was based on the Honda Civic platform, and Civic owners may have recognized some familiar knobs, switches and other hardware. However, styling and drivetrains differed significantly from the Civic.

1994
The Integra was largely new for 1994.

1995
The Integra line was only lightly revised for 1995. A new Special Edition was slotted between the base LS and high-performance GS-R models. It concentrated more on affordable luxury than high performance, and used the same front sway bar as the GS-R, 5-spoke 15-in. alloy wheels, body-color side molding, a woodlike treatment on the console of the sedan and a rear spoiler with integral brake light on the coupe, with Special Edition badging on both.

All three trim and equipment levels were available as either coupe or sedan. The high-performance GS-R now had leather as an option, while the base LS got a power moonroof as standard.

The standard-engined LS and Special Edition models competed with the Infiniti G20 and Honda's own Accord. The GS-R with the 170-hp VTEC engine was in a class by itself.