2006 Red Base! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

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.

2020 Chevy Corvette Stingray vs the world: How it compares on paper

The 2020 Chevy Corvette Stingray in its base form offers an astonishing amount of performance for the money. In fact, so impressive is the car's spec sheet that the Corvette kind of exists in two different competitive sets: one of cars priced similarly, and another with cars of similar performance and reputation. To get a feel for how it handles each of these segments, we've compiled specifications for those two sets of players. You can find the first set below, which looks at cars of roughly the same price point. Following that is a bit of analysis, and then there's a chart of cars with similar performance and reputation. And that chart will also have some analysis. Though final pricing for the Corvette hasn't been announced yet, we know the Corvette will start at less than $60,000. And as far as pricing goes, its closest competitor is the Porsche 718 Cayman, which also starts at just under $60,000. Both are mid-engined and rear-drive, but the Corvette offers an extra 195 horsepower and 190 pound-feet of torque. The Cayman does boast a curb weight of right around 3,000 pounds, so it weighs a few hundred pounds less than the Corvette, but it's likely not enough to make up for the power deficit. The Corvette's sub-3.0-second 0-60 time bears this out against the Cayman's best 4.5-second run. Impressively, though, the Cayman has more cargo space than the Corvette in a package that's nearly 10 inches shorter. The Cayman also still offers a manual option for those that prefer self-shifting. The 2020 Toyota Supra is on the cheap end of this sports car class, just crossing $50,000. It also boasts more power than the Cayman, though it's still down by 160 ponies and 105 pound-feet of torque to the C8. It's also about as roomy as the Corvette, despite being about the same size as the Cayman. Cargo space is a bit tighter. Its driving characteristics will likely differ, too as the Supra sits on a front-engine platform. It might even feel closer to a C7 Corvette in some ways. The other mid-engine entry in this price range is the 2019 Alfa Romeo 4C Spider. Its small 1.7-liter turbo inline-4 only makes 237 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque, but it's also far and away the lightest of this group at 2,487 pounds. That's roughly 1,000 pounds lighter than the Corvette. It isn't as fast as the Corvette in a straight line, but that lightness surely pays dividends in cornering and braking.

Acura TLX sales stopped over rollaway fears

A bad indicator that could convince customers that affected cars are in park, even when they aren't, has pushed Acura to issue a stop-sale for the V6-equipped TLX sedan. The company has already alerted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the potential safety defect. According to Consumer Reports, the defect is being blamed on unnamed transmission components in the nine-speed-automatic transmissions, which were damaged during assembly. A representative from Acura confirmed to CR that a more complete statement would be coming once the case can be reviewed by NHTSA. At this point, this case isn't a full recall, although it seems quite likely that's the direction it will take. Stay tuned for more.