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Acura built just 91 examples of the ILX last month, here's why

The short life of the Acura ILX has been vexed by one glaringly odd standard equipment choice, mediocre reviews, getting outsold by its competition as it posted slower-than-projected sales and a pledge by Honda to upgrade its supposedly upgraded offering. Therefore, when Automotive News reports that just 91 of the Civic-based Acura sedans were manufactured last month - after a string of production months in double-digits - it would be easy to press the button for the alarm bells.
But that would be hasty, because it is actually the 2013 Honda Civic that is crimping the production pipeline of the ILX. The vastly higher sales numbers of the Honda meant that all three North American plants that produce it needed to crank up output to satisfy dealer inventory needs, including the Greenburg, Indiana plant that makes both the Civic and the ILX. As the classic guns-vs-butter Economy 101 lesson taught us - in which making more of one necessarily means making less of the other - well, the Civic is the gun.
Honda prepared for this eventuality by cranking out the Acuras while it got ready for Civic production. The ILX has held steady at about 500 units shy of company projections every month, and the current inventory represents about 90 days worth of sales. That makes Greenburg's ostensibly low numbers in line with the realities of the ILX, and the situation probably won't change much as Acura gets ready for the improved 2014 ILX.

The new Acura Integra was never meant to be a retro car

The new Acura Integra Prototype was never supposed to be a retro or nostalgic design process. It would be easy to assume it was, as Acura’s messaging leading up to the big reveal leaned heavily on the Integra nameplate's heritage. From the model name embossed in the bumpers, to videos of shifting the older modelÂ’s manual transmissions, Acura yanked fairly hard on our heartstrings. And then the cover came off last week, and while there are very subtle cues hinting at old Integras here and there, the new car doesnÂ’t look much like the old ones at all. Unlike designers of the new retro-tastic Nissan Z and Ford Bronco, Acura decided to create something altogether new and different. “So, admittedly, when we started planning this car, it was never to create a retro Integra,” Acura product planner, Jonathan Rivers, told Autoblog. “We actually looked at it from the viewpoint of say, if the Integra had never left the lineup, how would it have evolved? How would it have changed over the years? We think this is the result of that.” There was never going to be a two-door coupe model, because as Rivers points out to us, coupes just don't sell these days. However, sportbacks are popular — just look at the sheer number of them coming from Germany these days — and it suits the customers Acura is trying to capture with the Integra. “The target customer is a millennial with an active lifestyle, so they need space for their gear but they also want to have a great car to hit the canyon roads with every now and then,” Rivers says. “Once again, over the generations, the Integra is just that.” For any naysayers throwing their hands up about the Integra seemingly being a fancy Civic, we possess two points of refutation. One, thatÂ’s exactly what the Integra has always been. It was literally badged and sold as a Honda in many other countries, and its bones have always been Civic-based. ThatÂ’s the IntegraÂ’s history, and while Acura doesnÂ’t officially come out and say so, itÂ’s most certainly the same today. On the design front, maybe you think the photos make it look a little too close to the new 11th-gen Civic Hatchback? Well, pictures on the internet donÂ’t always tell the full story of a car design. “None of the sheetmetal is shared with either the four-door or the five-door Civic,” Rivers explains.

2022 Acura ILX dies this year, replaced by Integra

In August 2021, Acura brand officer John Ikeda told Motor Trend, "Integra is not a replacement for ILX but Integra is our entry gateway vehicle. We don't plan on having something below that." Seems what he meant is that the Integra shouldn't be viewed as a new-generation of the ILX, because the Integra is replacing the ILX in every other way. In a video podcast on YouTube, two podcast hosts at Serra Acura said, "The Integra is replacing the ILX. That has been the clear message from them without saying the ILX is going away." Motor1 asked the Japanese luxury brand about the statement, getting the reply, "The 2022 model year is the final model year for the ILX, in anticipation of the new Integra." The Acura spokesperson then followed up with, "The new Integra was developed from day 1 to deliver on the original lineage that began with Integra back in 1986 ... and will be the new entry point to the brand." This is in the vein of Ikeda's comment, where we're not meant to connect the Integra to the ILX, but see the two models as distinct branches in the family tree, like cousins by marriage instead of siblings. Acura wants this Integra to be seen as a delayed new generation for the lineup that ended in 2001 if you're a purist, or 2006 if you're willing to let the RSX into the house. The effect today is still the same, the distinction unimportant. The 2022 ILX is the final model year for the 10-year-old sedan, which has sold more than 2,000 units in the U.S. in a single month only once since October 2013. The new entry-level vehicle is the Integra, priced a touch above the ILX at around $30,000.   With Integra pre-orders expected to begin March 10, the real surprise is how much we have let to learn about the coming hatchback. We're looking forward to the 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder up front, its output still unknown. That 2.4-liter, naturally aspirated four-cylinder in the ILX makes 201 horsepower and 180 pound-feet of torque, the Integra's 1.5-liter produces 200 hp and 192 lb-ft in the Honda Civic Si. We'd love for the Acura to get its due and make a noticeably more power than the Si. We know the Integra will offer a six-speed manual, but the automatic gearbox option remains a mystery. And other than checking out the interior of a static Integra on display at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, we're missing a whole bunch of details on features and amenities. We expect the blanks to get filled in soon. Related video: 2022 Acura NSX Type S revealed