Acura Is Bringing Back the Integra in 2022

Tonight, as Monterey Car Week warms up ahead of a busy weekend, Acura dropped a surprise announcement we're thrilled to hear: The Integra is coming back in 2022.

"The Integra is back," Jon Ikeda, vice president of Acura, said in a statement released late Thursday night. "I’m thrilled to say Integra is returning to the Acura lineup with the same fun-to-drive spirit and DNA of the original, fulfilling our commitment to Precision Crafted Performance in every way—design, performance and the overall driving experience."

Acura made the announcement to a gathering of journalists attending Monterey Car Week, revealing the news via skywriting drones, as Roadshow's Daniel Golson shows here:

The announcement was accompanied by a teaser video that Acura posted to Instagram:

Acura didn't share any details about the upcoming Integra beyond the promised 2022 production date. But the signs all point to a faithful and fitting new addition to Integra history: the vehicle silhouette illustrated in Acura's nighttime drone show certainly looks like a compact 2-door hatchback, as seen in images tweeted by automotive journalist Kurt Bradley:

And a collection of speculative renderings and test-mule spy photos posted to Instagram earlier this week by @1320Video seem to show a prototype that fits the compact fastback shape we'll always associate with the Integra name (spy photos on 2nd and 3rd slides):

We're hopeful that the new Integra will stick close to the nameplate's roots as an affordable and gleeful sports compact car. After all, the 2nd-generation Integra was a generation-defining machine, especially in Type R form. Honda already has some great 4-cylinder engines and manual transmissions in its parts bin—hello, Civic Type R—and while the brand certainly went through a recent period where it struggled to identify itself, the most recent crop of Acura vehicles has been mighty impressive.

If Acura can bring back the Integra as a modernized and refined sport compact that recaptures the magic of the late-Nineties icon we loved, we're sure it will be a hit.