2024 Acura Integra, A-Spec Tech, 6 speed manual

A few final thoughts on the Civic Si that I didn't buy:

I may actually prefer the shape of the Civic. I certainly like the sedan profile and rear three quarter view better. I didn't really care about the Integra being a five door, but I know that there's history there. I'm fine living with a trunk and its stiffer chassis. These sloping hatches look sort of bulbous and goofy to my eye. I want my hatchbacks to look like hatchbacks, but only Volkswagen seems to do that these days, at least in this country.

The grills look very different on these cars, but I like the both. The Civic grill is especially cool. The lights on the Integra are super nice though.

I've never liked black wheels, but somehow these dark metallic gray wheels look great to me on the red Acura. I think if I bought the Civic, I would have bought different wheels for the street. It's kind of a moot point tough, because I'd end up with a second set of wheels and tires for either car anyway, and I would have just used the stock Honda wheels for track day tires anyway. In fact, I'd be fine with the black Honda wheels with sticky tires for the Acura on the track.

I've heard that the non adjustable shocks on the Civic can be a little harsh on the street. I like the adjustable dampers that come with the Tech package on the Integra.

I was factoring in the cost of immediately buying new wheels and shocks for the Civic when I was making my decision.

I didn't care that the Honda doesn't have power seats, in fact I prefer that. But I would have wanted more adjustability, and I absolutely wanted heated seats, which Honda doesn't offer in the US, but does in Canada. It's also weird that Honda doesn't seem to make any effort to make the front seats match the rear. Maybe they were going for the tuner look.

The Acura has very comfortable, multi adjustable, heated power seats. Admittedly, there is some difference in looks and material between the front and rear seats of the Acura, but it's not as dramatic.

I didn't want a red Honda, I thought it was too bright. But I think the darker metallic red looks fantastic on the Acura. I really thought I wanted a white car again, but I prefer an old school gloss white. Both of these cars come in pearl white. Yuck. And the dark wheels didn't look good with either car in white.

The Honda's rear spoiler is really nice. The Acura's rear spoiler just kind of silly. I do like the optional carbon fiber spoiler for the Acura and considered adding one, but I was disappointed to learn that you have to drill new holes through the paint of the hatch to install it. That really surprised me for a genuine accessory part. I'll stick with what I have. I'm not going to drill into brand new factory paint.

The Honda dealership that I was working with was really great about trying to help me, even though it didn't work out. I'm glad that we at least bought the Accord from them.

^Sullivan Honda.

All of the other Honda dealerships that I talked to were really being d*cks when it came dealing with these particular cars. The Civic Si is a special car, but it's not that special.

Neither is the Integra for that matter, but at least the Acura dealers weren't trying to act like it was. They just wanted to help me buy a new car.

^Acura of Bedford Hills.

The Civic Si is truly a bargain if you can get one at MSRP, but the Integra was the better choice for me.

As always, Woody is a great narrator and the story very enjoyable, but now I have a few questions ...

Did Violet sell her Volvo? Did she approve of this purchase or does she have an alternative mode of transportation?

Slippery said:

Did Violet sell her Volvo? Did she approve of this purchase or does she have an alternative mode of transportation?

Surprise: Long story!

Short answer: After three great years, her Volvo has a very happy new owner.

Back in the same March of 2022, Violet decided that she wanted to replace her fun, trusty and very useful V70R with something a little more modern, and she found a very nice looking Jeep Wrangler that was for sale by the very same dealership that had sold and serviced it all of its life. She loved the fact that the top opened up and she could hang out closer to her driver... but we didn't all fall in love immediately, and the Volvo was kept around as a backup plan.

The Jeep quickly devolved into a beautiful, frustrating, unreliable, money sucking nightmare. I'd say that the two vehicles continued to share garage space for most of the year, but the Jeep had to stay outside because it constantly smelled like fuel, in spite of having no obvious leaks, and the replacement of a bunch of expensive emission controls. When it moved, the automatic transmission often discovered new and exciting ways to find Neutral. The starter would hang up after the engine started, and stalling was always an option. Violet allowed me to sell it to a dealership that specializes in used Jeeps less than a year later at an uncomfortable loss.

The Volvo was sold right around the same time, and we took the remains of our money to the Honda dealership, seeking modern, reliable utility. We actually had a deposit on an incoming, redesigned 2023 CRV for a month or two, and resorted to traveling in the back seat of the truck until it arrived.

Before too long, Violet decided that riding around in the back seat of the Tacoma every day wasn't a horrible thing, and that maybe she wasn't an SUV kind of dog after all. She settled into her new role as a Truckindoodle.

She also came to the conclusion that we probably deserved something small and turbocharged, with a six speed manual and limited slip differential. We placed a call to the Honda dealership and told them to forget about the CRV, hang onto the deposit and find us a Civic Si.

And now we know the rest of the story.

Congratulations. That looks like a nice car. I'm looking forward to hearing more stories from both your and Violet's point of view. 

Congrats on the new car, and you all know how I feel about the Civic Si. 

As most of you probably know, when you're buying a new Honda or Acura, you have trim levels, and then you have accessories.

When the Integra was reintroduced in 2023, you needed to bump up to the A-Spec trim level to get the six speed manual. For 2024, you actually need to go up another step to the Technology Package to get that clutch pedal. As I mentioned earlier, this turned me away initially, but eventually I came to the conclusion that I wanted a bunch of stuff from those two packages anyway.

So I bought an "A-Spec, Tech", and then added only two simple accessory options: the Seat Back Protectors and the Trunk Tray.

I'm a big fan of WeatherTech stuff, but I've had a couple of their trunk liners curl up over time, so that's why I went with the optional Acura part. And just because they were available, I added the seat back protectors, which are hard plastic covers that stick to the backs of the rear seat with Velcro, so you have a  fairly flat, continuous hard cleanable surface from the trunk opening to the front seats when you fold the rear seats down. Basically, these save me from a bunch of tedious vacuuming when I haul big dirty stuff in the back.

The car comes with some fairly lightweight carpeted mats. There's a Premium upgrade available, as well as winter mats, but while I was waiting for the car to come in, I ordered both a set of WeatherTech Floor Liners (fantastic, as expected from past experience), and a set of CocoMats (equally awesome from past experience) in black with red accents. The WeatherTechs are great when you're dealing with water or sand. The CocoMats are beautiful and they handle dirt and sand amazing well. They look awsome and give the interior a very high end feel, but (unfortunately) they don't photograph well once they're in the car. But I love them.

I have a friend who has a side hustle doing ceramic coating, and he's been trying to convince me to send my cars his way for a couple of years. There's some time and distance involved, so the logistics are kind of a PITA, but I figured that it was kind of a no brainer this time, since there was no better time to do it than when a car is brand new. I took delivery of the car mid-June, drove it home from New York in light rain, and then parked it in the garage for a few weeks until we could work it into his schedule.

I appreciate a nice wax job, but I don't want to be around when it's happening.

While the car was sitting in my garage, and before I sent it out for the ceramic coating, I decided to remove the three A-Spec badges. There was one on each front fender, and another on the hatch. I hadn't paid that much attention to the Acura hierarchy before, but I'd noticed those A-Spec badges on shiny TLXs in the past, and assumed that they meant something special.

They really don't. It's not like a BMW M-car where you get some serious performance upgrades. In the case of the new Integra, the A-Spec package basically gets you bigger wheels, a tiny spoiler and fog lights. If you're looking at the car from any angle from which you can seen one of the A-Spec badges, you can also see something that tells you that it's an A-Spec.

The badges seemed silly, so I removed them for a cleaner look, and to make the ceramic coating process easier. They were unnecessary.

I know that it's an A-Spec. I don't care if anybody else does.

It was pretty hot when I did this, but they didn't come off as easily as I had hoped they would. It took a little work with a plastic razor blade and solvent to get it all the adhesive off.

I like it better without the badges.

The car looked great when I picked it up from getting ceramic coated. 
 

I've taken badges off new cars to clean them up - I like how your car looks - the color is nice too. 

Great call on the badges and ceramic treatment, looks fantastic!

Here's a look at the seat back protectors. They were fairly cheap and seemed like a good way to save me from having to vacuum a lot of dirt and lint out of the carpet when the seats are folded.

There's a ton of cargo space in this car.

That World Rally Blue thing in the side  storage cubby is my 2004 LL Bean / WRX windbreaker. I'm a total sucker for branding when I buy a new car.

Great story, and I appreciate the history for context! 

I have a similar experience in trying to buy a Civic Si. Actually, two:

In late 2011, I wanted to buy one of the last new 2.0 NA Si's after driving a friend's 2008. None of the local dealers had any left, and there weren't any more coming, due to the production interruption caused by the Japanese tsunami. The local dealer had exactly one used 2010 with a bunch of miles on it (and clear signs of abuse) for over what the MSRP of a new one was, so I bought a 2012 Mazda 3 2.5 S Touring hatchback instead, which nearly matched the Si's performance specs on paper. It was a great car!

In late 2020, when the above Mazda 3 was finally getting long in the tooth, I immediately sought out a Civic Si. Again, they were thin on the ground due to there not being a 2021 model, and all the dealers wanted crazy mark-ups. I bought a 2020 Forte GT instead, which nearly matched the Si's performance specs on paper. It's been decent so far, with a few minor annoyances. If the Integra was around back then, I may have taken a look at those. 

The Civic Si is a great car, but it's not worth paying over MSRP for. There are still other options out there, even in-house!

I love that color. Looks even better than in the press photos.

And that does look like a ton of space.

Because I bought the car in New York and would be registering it in Connecticut, I had to bring it home on temporary plates.

New York lists the car's actual weight right on the tag. I knew that it felt light on it its feet as I drove it home through Westchester County and the winding hills of western Connecticut, but I was happy to see that the car tipped the scales under 3000 pounds.

It's not down there with the old Civic and CRX, but I thought that it was pretty impressive for a modern car. It's only 81 pounds heavier than my Cayman.

Just spoke to the dealership and my Motocompacto is in! 

It's getting its initial charge as we speak. Hoping to pick it up after lunch. Sounds like there is warranty paperwork involved.

Road trip!

There's a Honda in my Acura!
 

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

I appreciate a nice wax job, but I don't want to be around when it's happening.

Word

ive never even noticed these cars, glad they exist!

I find it odd Honda promotes the blaze orange color but it's not in the actual 2024 lineup.  

What's up with that?

In reply to Datsun240ZGuy :

I bought the Motocompacto from the Honda dealership where I bought the Accord and also had the deposit on the Civic Si for a few months.  I asked the guy I had been working with if they had gotten many Si's in since I had bought the Integra, and he said,  "None". No 2022s and no 2023s. They're well into the 2024 model year, and they still haven't gotten a single Si since its introduction, so as far as I can tell, none of the colors are in the current lineup. 

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

Which is odd since the past week Honda has shown 27 cars in my 'hood.  
 

I think they're just going to other parts of the country. I've seen less than a dozen Civic Si's since June and about the same number of Integras on the road, even though there are quite of few at the dealerships. Admittedly, they do blend in with all the other Acuras, but I think I have a pretty good eye for picking them out. 

And I've never seen an orange Civic in person. 

Congrats on the Acura and the Moto!  I like the shape of the Integra a lot, and I also like that not as many folks have them.  Makes it feel a little more special.

Datsun240ZGuy said:

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

Which is odd since the past week Honda has shown 27 cars in my 'hood.  
 

My dealer called me today and these are the first quarter allocations.  I want a white but he offered a red or a white.  My car is due next March, 2024 unless someone bails on a color then they call around.