The 2023 Acura Integra Does This Better Than Any Car in Its Class
Sorry, Acura; the Integra is quite disappointing. It’s not a bad car per se, but the hype preceding its return got everyone hoping for more. The all-new Acura Integra has all the looks of a sporty sedan but shows up to the competition with damp powder. However, in one critical—and practical—way, it blows the sedan segment out of the water.
Is the 2023 Acura Integra a good car?
As a standalone five-passenger sedan, the 2023 Acura Integra is a pretty proficient machine. With excellent build quality, attractive styling inside and out, and an available six-speed, what’s not to like? Pit it against the rest of the luxury sedan competition, though, and it sticks out even more than BMW’s eccentric design language.
The Integra is based on the Honda Civic—like the Integra of old. Yet, whereas the ’90s Integra employed different styling, interior, and performance work to the Civic, the new one doesn’t. That doesn’t bode well for individuality, but it does take the cake in one critical area: the trunk.
Highest trunk capacity in the segment
Acura’s reimagined Integra is near the bottom of many lists, but trunk space is not one of them. The Integra boasts 24.3 cubic feet, all due to its hatchback styling—even though it’s Civic architecture. Few sedans, let alone luxury sedans, can compete with those numbers. It’s in the range of many small SUVs.
Acura also includes a 60/40 split-folding rear seat in the $31,000 starting MSRP. Fortunately, the price includes a power liftgate with an auto lock function but not the $1,195 destination fee. Loading and retrieving items from the rear hatch is easy, with an opening nearly the entire width of the car. Therefore, potential luxury car buyers will have a leg up on the competition, a somewhat unexpected advantage.
Why is the Integra’s trunk so big?
Despite their girth, luxury sedans aren’t necessarily known for their cargo space. For instance, while exceedingly large, the 2023 Mercedes-Benz S500 only has roughly 13 cubic feet to give. The Genesis G90 is marginally better, with 15.7 cubes.
Picking trunk space as the center on which a car exceeds expectations is a weird move and probably a lazy one. As mentioned before, the Integra shares its structure with the Civic, which provides a full 25 cubic feet of trunk space. So, Acura didn’t do much to change what parent company Honda gave them, and the results are predictable.
The fact that the Acura Integra’s trunk is so large for the luxury car segment indicates where the company is as a brand: out of place. To first build the electrically-assisted rebirth of the NSX, the Integra seems like a phoned-in effort. But even the hybrid supercar was subjected to parts bin raiding, and let’s all remember that Acura is under the purview of global giant Honda. So, maybe Acura shouldn’t bare the brunt of the criticism, and like the interestingly large trunk, is Honda to blame?
