1986 ACURA Integra Sedan 1.6L 5MT (113 HP)

Vehicle Overview

Honda tried to upgrade its pace and introduced the Acura brand in 1986, and one of its first products was the Integra, which was sold as a hatchback or as a coupe.

Honda already knew how to build small-sized, good, reliable vehicles and understood that it could get a better margin from premium cars. That’s why it made a decision to launch the Acura as a brand, but it played it safe by creating the Integra. Moreover, it was sold as a Honda or Rover on specific markets. Thus, if the brand wouldn’t catch, it could still have profits from the other, better-known brands.

The Integra featured an unusual, bold styling with pop-up headlights. Yet, the five-door Integra dared to have that. To maximize the car’s practicality, Honda made the car with a sloped tailgate, unlike the Civic, which featured either a regular hatchback or sedan shape. For the H-branded vehicles, Honda installed regular headlights but kept the sloped liftback in several markets sporting the Concerto nameplate.

Inside, the car showed a pair of low-mounted bucket seats at the front and a folding bench at the back. The angular styling was still a thing, so Honda installed a visor-like instrument cluster, where the clear layout showed a speedometer, a tachometer, and the fuel and temperature gauges. They shared the same area with a few warning lights. If in the U.S., the Acura offered the car with lots of amenities such as power windows and locks and AC, in Europe, it was rather poorly equipped.

Under the hood, Honda chose wisely and installed various gasoline engines, depending on the market. While in the U.S., it offered a fuel-injected inline-four, in Europe, it sold it with a four-carburetors setup, which was a mess to adjust and pricey at the pump.