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1997 Acura Integra Type R auctioned for $63,800

The Acura Integra, also known as the Honda Integra, was a front-wheel-drive sport compact car that neatly slotted between the Honda Civic and the Honda Accord. The Integra's sportiness wasn't just in its design, as there were a number of quite powerful engine choices for it, and some handling improvements. The mid-to-late-1990s second-generation car was available as the nearly-200-horsepower Type R version, which made a lasting impression no matter if you were an Acura customer, a Honda customer, a British motoring journalist putting the car through its paces in Wales or a PlayStation Gran Turismo gamer driving a virtual Integra at a fictional race track. The bug-eyed, sharply detailed Integra Type R, complete with a strengthened chassis, lightened spec, white wheels and a sizable rear wing, was an instant classic, and two decades later their values are definitely on the rise. No wonder, as they've been called the best-handling front-wheel-drive cars made, and there's some strong competition for that title. However, while the Integra Type R was sold new in limited numbers (just 320 units for the U.S. market in 1997), it wasn't envisioned just how much they could be worth in 2018. The past weekend, a certain high point was reached, as a 1,200-mile, Championship White, Acura-badged example was sold at a Barrett-Jackson auction for an eye-watering $63,800 with fees included. That is roughly double what the car cost new, no matter how new-condition it is. Perhaps the $60K+ sale price for the Type R was foreboded by a particular Florida-based car selling for $40,750 in late June, on Bring a Trailer. That car wasn't even in as-new condition, as it had already accumulated almost 60,000 miles. While these prices might reflect in the values of other used Integra Type R cars and even the more regular-issue, 170-horsepower Integra GS-R models, it might turn out be a blessing for the existing examples not ravaged by road salt or modding in usual Honda fashion, or stolen and parted out: As the values for Type R's keep climbing, it provides even more of an incentive for Type R owners to keep their cars in good or excellent shape. We're just hoping for a sweet spot there, so that the Integras won't all be mollycoddled and cocooned for fear of depreciation — these cars need to be used, out on the road with the VTEC singing, nearing 8,500 rpm. That's what they were designed for.

Is Acura working on a premium minivan?

Here's a vehicle that nobody saw coming. Unless Honda/Acura is keen to play tricks on us, our spy shooters recently caught what appears to be an Acura minivan fully camouflaged for testing on some back roads on a rainy day.
Details on the disguised minivan are rather scarce, but it certainly bares all the hallmarks of an Acura. The front grille alone gives it away with a look that mimics the latest MDX, and note that the orientation of the rear door handle heavily suggests that it slides to open. Moving inside, the tester appears to borrow some tech from the luxury brand's parts bin too, and the Acura logo seems to be covered in tape right in the middle of the steering wheel.
Mechanically, our spies believe that the production version of Acura's minivan might borrow the brand's V6, nine-speed automatic and Super Handling All-Wheel Drive - a similar layout to some trims of the TLX. The photographers also think that the vehicle is a little wider than the current Honda Odyssey to give occupants a bit more room. Given the more luxurious focus, the high-end model would surely carry seven people with a bit more opulence than the standard Odyssey, especially, we'd imagine, for second-row passengers. A launch for this posh hauler could be slated for the 2016 or 2017 model years.

Honda's new City hints in India at US-bound Fit sedan [w/videos]

While car buyers on these shores may think of the Civic or Accord as the prototypical Honda sedan, in the Asia and Oceania regions, it all comes down to the City. Based on the Honda Fit, the City is a compact sedan that's currently sold in 55 countries around the world, and now Honda has revealed the newest version.
Standing essentially as a Fit sedan (much as the Vezel debuted as a Fit crossover), the new fourth-generation Honda City is as wide as the hatchback on which it's based, but stretches longer on a lengthened wheelbase and sits lower. Power comes from a 1.5-liter inline four in either gasoline or diesel form, mated to an unspecified transmission that we'd have to assume is either a manual or a CVT.
Styling looks familiarly Honda, and while it may be hard to tell from the few stock, detail and live reveal images the Japanese automaker has provided us with thus far, it appears slicker form than other compact hatchback-based sedans like the Ford Fiesta or Mazda2. Fortunately IndianAutosBlog has uploaded a couple of videos from the reveal, which we've included below along with the press release.