Navigation Moonroof Heated Leather Seats Chrome Wheels Carfax Certified on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Autoblog's guilty pleasure cars

Guilty pleasures are part of life – don't even try to pretend like you don't have one (or two, or six). In the non-automotive space, this could come down to that secret playlist in your iPhone of songs you'll only listen to when you're alone; or think of that one TV show you really do love, but won't admit to your friends. I've got plenty, and so do you. Going back to cars, here's a particularly juicy one for me: several years ago, I had a mad crush on the very last iteration of the Cadillac DTS. Oh yes, the front-wheel-drive, Northstar V8-powered sofa-on-wheels that was the last remaining shred of the elderly-swooning days of Cadillac's past. Every time I had the chance to drive one, I was secretly giddy. Don't hate me, okay? These days, the DTS is gone, but I've still got a mess of other cars that hold a special place in my heart. And in the spirit of camaraderie, I've asked my other Autoblog editors to tell me some of their guilty pleasure cars, as well – Seyth Miersma, as you can see above, has a few choice emotions to share about the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. Read on to find out what cars make us secretly happy. Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG This decadent convertible is the epitome of the guilty pleasure. It's big, powerful, fairly heavy and it's richly appointed inside and out. It's a chocolate eclair with the three-pointed star on the hood. Given my druthers, I'd take the SL65 AMG, which delivers 621 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. That output is borderline absurd for this laid-back convertible. I don't care. You don't need dessert. Sometimes you just crave it. The SL line is about the feel you get on the road. The roof is open. The air, sun and engine sounds all embrace you. It's the same dynamic you could have experienced in a Mercedes a century ago, yet the SL gives you the most modern of luxuries. An Airscarf feature that warms my neck and shoulders through a vent embedded in the seat? Yes, please. Sure, it's an old-guy car. Mr. Burns and Lord Grantham are probably too young and hip for an SL65. I don't care. This is my guilty pleasure. Release the hounds. – Greg Migliore Senior Editor Ford Flex I drove my first Flex in 2009 when my mother let me borrow hers for the summer while I was away at college. The incredibly spacious interior made moving twice that summer a breeze, and the 200-mile trips up north were quite comfortable.

Here's a sneak peek at the 2023 Acura Integra interior

Photos: Zac Palmer / Autoblog DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Acura staged its Integra Prototype at a display at the Rolex 24 at Daytona this weekend, inviting enterprising amateur and professional photographers alike to sneak a peak at the interior thanks to the bright Florida sun. The photos you're looking at here are ones we took at Rolex, and they essentially reveal what the 2023 Acura Integra's interior will look like. If you recall from the car's initial reveal, Acura did not show photos of the Prototype's interior. Before we dive too deep, though, we can tell that while the design appears to be final, some of the finer details are still a bit rough. Not all of the plastics, surfaces and badging look final, so don't expect everything you see here to directly port over to production. That said, this is still an awesome sneak peek at the upcoming Integra that we weren't expecting to get. From what we can see here, the interior design seems to take a cue from the Integra's underpinnings, which can be traced back to the sporty Honda Civic Si. Photos posted to integraforums.com show the prototype's dash before Acura's reps covered the upper portion to hide it from view. In them, you can see the mesh air vent design that debuted on the Civic, albeit with a different execution here (that treatment runs the full width of the dash in the Honda). Plus, the touchscreen infotainment rising from the dash is also in plain view. The seats look like Acura's latest seat style as opposed to Civic Si seats, and they even feature a neat two-tone black and white design. What does appear to be a direct Civic rip is the steering wheel, which gains an Acura badge and what looks like the rough outline of an A-Spec badge for Integra duty. We'll note that this likely means that the Integra will be offered in A-Spec trim, just like every other new Acura on sale today. The original Integra was never sold as an A-Spec in the U.S., but the RSX Type S (named Integra outside the U.S.) was available in A-Spec trim. Another difference between the Integra interior seen here versus the Civic is a new door panel design. Very little changes in the rear bench, though, as it's featuring the same drop-down armrest and pair of USB ports for rear occupants. The Integra Prototype is notably longer than a Civic Hatchback, but we didn't see any discernible increase in utility in the back.

Acura files for Integra Type S trademark

It's only been a couple of weeks since Acura dropped the news bomb that it was bringing back the Integra. In that time, though, the company has quickly applied to trademark the name "Integra Type S" with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The filing, discovered by CarBuzz, was submitted on Aug. 20, a little less than a week after the Integra revival was announced. Curiously, it's under the category of "Apparel and headwear, namely, caps, hats, T-shirts, shirts, sweatshirts, knit shirts, polo shirts, jackets and vests," rather than automobiles.   It seems unlikely, though, that Acura would trademark Integra Type S for shirts and hats if it didn't plan on building a car to go along with it. So the Integra may come in standard and hotted up versions. The last time Acura offered an Type S in North America, it wasn't officially called that. During Acura's switch to an alphanumeric naming convention, the Integra name was dropped in favor of RSX, built from 2002-06. There, the Type S moniker, while not as hard-core as the previous-generation Integra Type R, still meant a considerable bump in performance. Regular RSX models had 160 horsepower, but the RSX Type S cranked out 200 to 210, depending on the year. The Type S was also available exclusively with a manual transmission, and had improved suspension and brakes. While a similar improvement in hardware would be more than welcome on an Integra Type S, we don't want to get too excited over what could just be a logo on a T-shirt. The wouldn't be the first time in recent memory a carmaker trademarked a familiar name for swag. Earlier this year Nissan trademarked Fairlady Z — the original name for the Nissan Z-car — for usage on anything from cuff links to wall clocks. Meanwhile, Ford stepped in and trademarked the name Skyline for the category of cars and trucks. So Acura should probably just go ahead and get the trademark for cars, even if it doesn't plan on offering it at all.