Seriously, I don’t know why this is such an elusive concept to so many people.

It does change how effective your marketing is going to be if it depends on those delusions to work.

Integras to me were one of the preeminent used ricer cars in high school. along with Preludes and Del Sols. I rolled my eyes at the fart cannons and ruined suspensions, but an unmolested one was always a head-turner.

Uh, yes, because it would be far more unique and interesting to drive than an M240i (which is another car I’ve been considering recently).

I would argue that the current Explorer has more in common with its predecessors than this new Integra does with its own. More importantly, though, the Explorer lineage is unbroken. The Integra has been gone for 15 years, perceptions of what the Integra is have solidified into a narrow set of rose-tinted memories.…

I mean, it doesn’t matter one single bit whether people are unjustified in mostly remembering the Integra in its coupe configurations, Type R or otherwise. What matters is that they do, and if Acura wants to leverage the brand to sell cars then “Integra” has to be applied to cars that relate to those things. Being a ye…

I need that white one in my life, goddamn. And I bet dealerships would not be able to keep them on the lot.

But that’s the thing. The Integra name is supposed to appeal to the crowd it seems to be repelling. By the time it becomes appreciated in “appropriate crowds”, it may have already been put on the chopping block.

If they call it what it is, an ILX, and rescind the Integra name, then all is forgiven.

Holy shit, where do I sign?

I really do hope No. 5 comes to pass. No. 4 is all but a foregone conclusion and I would be more surprised if they DID NOT do it.

The removal of two doors is an instant and dramatic improvement. Nice.

Don’t see how a sedan is any more or less boring than a hatch. What I actually want is a coupe. Or for this ILX hatch to have a stronger fastback design with a steeper rake in the rear. What I don’t want is a car that looks like a hunched insect.

I actually agree with you. They are trying to sell us on a return to performance-oriented engineering without committing to the idea. The NSX, by every review I’ve read, was a soulless drive even among its direct competition. The TLX makes fundamental tuning mistakes and is dog slow in its segment, and this new ILX…

If only they polled their buyers and their competitor’s buyers instead of trying to just use anonymous, passively gathered market data to assume what people want in a given market segment. Imagine that, actual market research!

Have people forgot there have been 4 door models since the 1st gen?

Somebody had to style this car, it could have been damn near anything and they get paid a fixed salary for it either way.

We’re not delusional, you just don’t understand brand equity.

You don’t use a historic brand because of what it actually was, you use it because of what people perceive it to be in their minds.

You’ll never completely recapture that high-revving, naturally aspirated legend of a car, no. But I don’t think that’s what anybody was expecting.