Very few

By Gary S. Vasilash

There isn’t a heck of a lot known about the Acura Integra, a sport compact with a five-door design, which will be launched next year.

One of the things that is known is that unlike the other vehicles in the Acura lineup—the ILX, TLX, RDX, and MDX—the Integra has a name. Yes, it is a made-up name, but not sequence of three letters.

The name goes back to the model introduced in 1986 and had a run until it was renamed. . .RSX in 2001.

Remember: Alphanumeric designation, with or without one or the other, was long thought to denote luxury, and Acura has been working for decades now trying to make people understand it is a luxury brand.

(Arguably, of the Japan-based company brands, only Lexus has achieved that with Infiniti and Acura trying to make their way to that category.)

The current tagline of Acura is “Precision Crafted Performance.”

The last word in that—performance—has a lot to do, no doubt, with the fact that the Integra will be offered with a six-speed manual.

Let’s face it: people who bought sport sedans in 1986 liked to slam though the gears.

But today. . .?

Yes, there is performance cred still associated with manuals. At least for some people.