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2024 Acura Integra Type S costs $51,995, orders open May 11

The highly anticipated 2024 Acura Integra Type S will start at $51,995 (including $1,195 for destination) and preorders will open up on May 11, 2023, at 10 a.m. Pacific. Now, before you get too excited, know that Acura is only planning to take reservations for "one of the first 200 production units before the high-performance model officially begins arriving at dealerships next month." We'd expect those 200 slots to fill awfully quickly. For those interested in throwing their hats into the virtual ring, the orders will be accepted at Acura.com/Integra. Deliveries to dealerships are planned for June. As we already knew, the Integra Type S will gain a total of 5 horsepower over the mechanically related Honda Civic Type R, though we're not clear on what's changed between the two versions of the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder powerplant to account for those newly located ponies. A six-speed manual transmission is mandatory, no automatic will be offered. The Type S will benefit from the same dual-axis front suspension design that inhibits torque steer so well in the Type R. Read all the rest of the salient details in our coverage of the Acura Integra Type S reveal. Acura also revealed that the Type S will achieve fuel economy figures of 21 miles per gallon in the city, 28 on the highway and 24 combined. That's down one mpg in the city compared to the Civic Type R, but the rest match up. Now, it is of course worth pointing out that the latest Honda Civic Type R is an excellent car. We not only named it an Editor's Pick, we declared it victorious in a comparison test with its most natural rival, the Toyota GR Corolla (a car that we also like quit a bit). That Honda, which shares a whole host of parts with this new Acura Integra Type S, costs $44,890 (again, including destination). What exactly will account for the $7,105 price difference, and will it be worth it? We will of course have to wait for our turn behind the wheel to find out. But consider our interest piqued. Related video: Featured Gallery 2024 Acura Integra Type S View 26 Photos Acura Car Buying Performance Sedan

This is why Acura hasn't yet announced its EV strategy

Despite parent company Honda's green and friendly brand image, luxury marque Acura hasn't made a grand statement about electrifying their lineup. Even as brands like Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley, and Infiniti pledge to entirely electrify their lineups in the coming decade, Acura has held back. The reason, according to Acura head honcho Jon Ikeda, is that it's focusing on reestablishing itself as a performance brand. In a wide-ranging interview with Automotive News, Ikeda says Acura came out of the gate strong in 1986 and did well for the first 20 years, but when the bottom fell out of the market in 2008 the brand experienced "growing pains." That spawned a period of self-reflection and, as Ikeda puts it, "What are we about?" The decision was made to go back to Acura's roots as the performance division of Honda. "That's what Acura is. That's what I fell in love with," Ikeda says. Ikeda joined Honda in 1989, but his promotion to Acura boss in 2015 was a surprise to many, including himself. That's because Honda had a tradition of putting engineers at the helm, and Ikeda was a designer, responsible for the looks of such cars as the FSX concept, 2001 Civic Coupe, and beloved 2004 Acura TL. 2021 Acura TLX Advance View 38 Photos When asked by AN whether Acura is worried that luxury competitors are putting stakes in the ground to claim EV brand identities, Ikeda says no. "For us as a brand, we needed to kind of refocus and reestablish ourselves as a performance brand... We want everybody to understand where we are, what we're about first. Even if we go electric we will continue to be a performance division of Honda and performance will be our focus." To earn its performance street cred, Acura poured resources into the second-gen NSX hybrid supercar, which served as testbed for how electricity can work harmoniously with performance. They will continue to campaign IMSA race cars to earn trophies as proof, and Ikeda also wants to bring more Type S models to the lineup. Ikeda says Acura is still in the process of rebuilding its foundation, but when he's done he expects people to associate Acura with performance. That sure seems ambitious to us, but products like the new TLX are a helpful stepping stone. It also explains why Acura is investing in different platforms to differentiate itself from Honda. To be clear, Ikeda isn't ruling out electrification.

2014 Acura MDX SH-AWD

There are certain vehicles on sale today that are affected by what I call 'Camry Syndrome.' Named after Toyota's ubiquitous family hauler, Camry Syndrome affects a fair number of cars and trucks, many of which are exceedingly popular with consumers.
The issue I have with these vehicles is that while they're adequate, they lack ambition. Their looks are clean and reasonably attractive, but they're not particularly stylish, let alone adventuresome or - heaven forbid - polarizing. Their interiors are comfortable and well screwed together, with the sort of popular features that consumers expect at a given price point. Their engines are decently powerful and vocal enough to set the heart very slightly aflutter, yet they're not too thirsty. Their transmissions are invisible and their rides are best described with whatever buzzword synonym Joe Consumer might come up with for "sporty" or "luxurious." In short, they're boring.
In reality, provided they sell well, there's really nothing wrong with automakers building Camry Syndrome vehicles - they're reasonably competent at everything and clearly meet a need. The problem is that I want some aspects of my vehicle to be better than others, because contrast breeds character. I wish someone at Acura felt the way I did when it redesigned this MDX for 2014, because for me, there's so much of this premium crossover that's merely middle of the road.