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Ford, Toyota clean up in Best Car For The Money Awards

The U.S. News Best Cars for the Money Awards picks winners by looking at the average transaction price, five-year total cost of ownership, the regard a car has from the automotive press, reliability figures from J.D. Power and Associates and safety data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The result, according to the magazine, is "the best combination of critical acclaim and long-term value."
Ford nabbed six of the 21 categories that received awards this year, the Focus, Fusion, Fusion Hybrid, Taurus, Escape and Edge getting trophies. Toyota and its Lexus and Scion sub-brands took another five, the Tacoma and Tundra owning the two categories given to pickup trucks. The other ten awards were split between Honda with three, Buick with two, and one each for Subaru, BMW, Hyundai, Chevrolet and Mazda.
Follow the link to see all the winners and read about why they were chosen.

Junkyard Gem: 1988 Acura Integra LS Liftback Sedan

Years before Toyota and Nissan brought the Lexus and Infiniti brands to North America, Honda created its Acura luxury division. When the first Acuras showed up here in 1986, there were two models: the Legend midsize luxury sedan, developed in partnership with Rover, and the Civic-based Integra. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those first-generation Integras, found in a Northern California self-service yard recently. The 1986-1989 Integra was available here as a liftback with two or four doors (Japanese buyers of the Honda Integra could get a sedan version). It was based on the fourth-generation Civic chassis but got a more powerful engine and snazzier interior. The U.S.-market 1988 Integra got a 1.6-liter DOHC engine rated at 113 horsepower and 99 pound-feet. This was eight more horses and one more pound-foot than the most powerful new Civic available here that year. The first-generation Integra was quick for its time, especially with the base five-speed manual transmission. This car appears to have been bought as a comfortable commuter machine, however, because it has the four-speed automatic. Note the Hondamatic-inspired D4/D3/2 shifter positions. The emissions sticker tells us that this is a "49-state" car, not originally sold in the Golden State. It drove 293,237 miles during its career, which is decent for a late-1980s Honda but nowhere near as good as others I've found from the same era. At the moment, the highest odometer reading I've found in a discarded Honda product was 626,472 miles in a 1988 Accord. The highest-mile Acura-badged Junkyard Gem so far is a 1995 Integra with 342,768 miles. This car is a high-zoot LS model, and its MSRP with the automatic transmission would have been $13,144 (about $34,966 in 2023 dollars). The 1988 Civic LX sedan with automatic listed at $10,205 ($27,148), and it had the same excellent build quality. The Integra got a bunch of standard comfort and convenience options that cost extra on the Civic, however, and of course the 1988 Civic sedan had a trunk instead of a hatch. Air conditioning was not base equipment in this car, but the original purchaser opted for it. That was a wise move for those long Central Valley commutes during summer. Formula 1 technology… aaaand it's street-legal. Soichiro Honda's love of racing paid off in the showrooms. Not bad for a guy whose first couple of factories were destroyed by B-29s and an earthquake. It was known as the Honda Quint Integra in Japan, at first. Michael J.

2023 Acura Integra looks a little Civic-like in spy photos

After a couple of fairly revealing teasers, we finally have a good look at what seems to be the real-life 2023 Acura Integra. It comes to us via a member of IntegraForums.com, and, certainly a number of the styling cues match up to the teasers, but we're also detecting a bit of Civic influence. Of course, that wouldn't be a surprise considering the size of the upcoming Integra, or even the model's history. Up at the front, the Integra is Acura business as usual. It has the hawk-eye headlights and wide pentagonal grille with a sort of starburst grille mesh. The hood has nice creases and curves that flow into the front fascia. Along the sides are where we see a bit of what seems like Civic influence bleed through, mainly with the greenhouse. The shape of the windows and frames in the doors look very close to those on the Civic hatchback. Even the door-mounted mirrors look similar. But there are aspects that differentiate it. Most notably, there seems to be a diagonal crease that starts low on the front wheel well and rises up toward the rear fenders. It gives the car a lower, more curvy look than the square-shouldered Civic. It also helps add some visual heft to the rear fenders. At the back, the hatchback design is obvious, and also lends further credence to our theory the car is Civic-based. But obviously it's been majorly tweaked for the Acura. The bottom sill for the hatch looks much higher than on the Civic, and the shut line matches the slender taillights (which seem to be dead ringers for the teaser rendering). All of this helps the tail of the Acura look low and wide, including the location of the license plate in the bumper instead of the hatch. So it seems like the Integra will be based on the Civic, but with plenty of changes. And that's pretty much how the Integra and even its interim replacement, the ILX, have been. They've all been derived from the Civic, often with major design and mechanical differences. Also, with how excellent we've found the new Civic, it's a great starting point for Acura's new entry-level model. The car will be revealed fully next spring, and we should have many more details then. Related Video: 2022 Honda Civic Hatchback Sport Touring Inside and Out | Autoblog