The reboot of the Acura Integra nameplate is important for several reasons.  Not only does it mark a return to greatness for Acura’s small or entry car, it also signals a return to greatness of sorts for the brand itself.  Let’s start with the historics: The Acura Integra was launched for the 1986 model year along with the Acura Legend to introduce the Acura brand in North America. It went on for two more generations before being renamed the Acura RSX and sold only as a 3-door liftback coupe for that fourth generation.  Notably, it continued to be known as the Honda Integra in markets where the Acura brand did not exist such as UK, Japan or Australia.  2006 was the final model year for the RSX and thus the Integra, where the Euro Accord based Acura TSX thusly became the entry level model.  For 2013, the Civic-based ILX sedan used an eerily similar formula to the Integra, even starting with the letter ‘I’, though it was more along the lines of the Canadian market Acura EL and CSX that preceded it.  Ultimately it replaced the TSX in a sense as the TLX merged part of the TSX and TL market positions into one.

Does the 2023 Acura Integra herald a return to Acura’s glory days with named vehicles or is it a one-off?

But the return of the Integra nameplate brings with it a 5-door liftback body style from the original Integra, an optional manual transmission that hasn’t been available in an Acura product since it disappeared from the ILX in 2016 and promises a future higher performance Type S variant that is making its way to nearly every Acura product including the upcoming ZDX electric SUV (more on that in a bit). But it also marks a return to names rather than alphanumerics (or in this case just alphabetics?) that began in 1996 with the Vigor becoming the TL and the Legend becoming the RL.  So the natural expectations is that Acura is going to go all names and no alphanumerics. 

The Acura Legend nameplate, retired after 1995, still remains one of the most recognizable nameplates

Then came the announcement that the GM Ultium-based Acura EV SUV to be launched alongside the Honda Prologue would be named the ZDX, resurrecting a name previously used on Acura’s sportier, coupe-like SUV from the late 2000s. Based on the MDX of that era, it was a novel but polarizing design in the likeness of the BMW X6 and other SUV coupes that began a trend that has only accelerated since (even leading to coupe-like versions of already coupe-like SUVs, Cayenne Coupe anyone?). Also retro, but not quite like the Integra. If it was, perhaps Vigor would be its name. Still, it is a better name for the new EV SUV than the previously rumored ADX nameplate.

So where does that leave future Acuras? The TLX has quite a bit of brand equity, unlike ILX or the never utilized ADX, so is there an argument to rename it the Legend as the RLX (the original descendent of the Legend line) no longer exists? Clearly Acura plans to continue to pursue a dual-track nomenclature with some alphanumeric and some named models. Could SLX see a reboot? After all it Acura did see fit to restomod one for Radwood not too long ago, so it isn’t necessarily a model they are looking to leave forgotten.

1997 Acura SLX fully restomodified for Radwood in 2019. Originally an Isuzu Trooper based SUV, could its name make a comeback?

What name would you like to see rebooted from Acura’s past and what vehicle would you like to see it fixed to?