The New Acura Integra Will Stay FWD Only
In an email to The Drive, Acura confirmed the fifth-gen Integra won’t get AWD.
The 2023 Acura Integra has finally been revealed, and reservations are now open. We know it'll offer front-wheel drive like every Integra before it, but there was a lot of buzz surrounding the possibility of all-wheel drive thanks to a seemingly eager dealer who said as much in a piece of ad copy last month. In a conversation with The Drive, though, Acura confirmed definitively that for this fifth generation, there will only be a front-wheel-drive Integra.
We reached out to the automaker when we noticed there was no mention of the car's driven wheels in Thursday's press release. An Acura spokesperson then responded by saying, "The 5th generation Integra will be front wheel drive only. We are not discussing any future plans at this time, but excited for Integra’s production reveal today."
There it is, folks. Not only is the 2023 Integra exclusively FWD, supposedly so will the model years that succeed it during the car's fifth generation.
The move isn't all that shocking given the Integra's lineage; since its inception in 1986, the Acura has never been offered with all-wheel drive. A Japanese variant sold exclusively with a Honda badge, however, did get AWD, so it wouldn't entirely be out of the realm of possibility historically, and with rumors circulating of a possible hybrid AWD Civic Type R and Acura's top-level NSX already on the market with Honda's Super-Handling All-Wheel-Drive, the company definitely possesses the technology to implement it.
But now The Drive can confirm that the fifth-generation Integra will be front-wheel drive only. Whether that is a disappointment or not is up for interpretation; it stays historically consistent with the Integra's stateside heritage, but that also means that the fifth-generation Integra offers functionally few performance differences from the eleventh-generation Civic Si, which is also front-wheel-drive only, with 200 hp on tap and a six-speed manual. Right now, it looks like the biggest draws for the Integra over its shared-platform brethren are styling, interior design, and potentially the addition of the CVT automatic, which is not available on the Civic Si. For buyers who want four driven wheels, though, you'll have to keep looking elsewhere.
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