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Why do Honda Integras have different headlight styles in Japan and the US?
Honda Integra Headlights question
- Thread starter 60fpshacks
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- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
Japanese market Integras had more conventional 'square' headlights where as everywhere else got the four round ones. Apparently it was set to have round lights in Japan too but they were unpopular there so quickly changed to something closer to the rest of the Honda range.
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I remember reading something like that somewhere. Thank you for the confirmation.
- 31,921
- Mile High City
Personally I think both styles of eyes are beautiful.
- 22,772
- It/It
- GTP_TheCracker
Yeah, both sets look equally nice to me. We got both styles in the UK. Official UK market ones with four rounds and seemingly just as many Japanese imports, due to it being a RHD market. You are as likely to see one as you are the other over here. A neighbour had a import one about 10 years ago now. Wish i'd made him an offer on it now :/
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Was the DC5 unpopular?
When I had first seen the "RSX" I thought it was a nice looking car. Later I found out from GT4 that it was really the Integra with a different name. I will never understand why car companies do this. I mean the LFA should have been under the Toyota name instead of Lexus.
I wonder if an RHD LFA exists.
When I had first seen the "RSX" I thought it was a nice looking car. Later I found out from GT4 that it was really the Integra with a different name. I will never understand why car companies do this. I mean the LFA should have been under the Toyota name instead of Lexus.
I wonder if an RHD LFA exists.
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- GTP_TheCracker
Available as both RHD and LHD. There's a delivery milage RHD car for sale in the UK now. £1m!
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I would say its worth it. Hopefully none of them have been wrecked considering the low production number.
- 31,921
- Mile High City
I loved it. I still miss my Type S a little bit.
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- 31,921
- Mile High City
The acceleration was fine. The adequate acceleration was exciting because the engine screams at the top and vtec kicks in yo. What I liked about it was that the car handled well, was small, but was actually quite practical. Complaints about the Type-S for me were grabby brakes (I think that was true in the base trim as well), torque steer, and (fairly mild) understeer. The earlier ITR fixes all of those things, with the possible exception of brakes still being a tad too grabby.
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- 10,245
- Marin County
My only gripe with the DC2 design is the somewhat awkward way the front bumper and front fenders meet on the 4-eye cars. The JDM front end is a lot better resolved and sleek...which is interesting because it was not the original design.
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- Mile High City
The front bumper and the hood meet with some kind of rubber the ends up making it look like a panel gap. I've seen people comment on photos thinking that a car had been in an accident and not repaired well, but it's factory.
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- 10,245
- Marin County
Yep I had a '94 Integra LS at one point with the same front end. Always thought that detail was super weird.
- 8,928
- Denmark
I’m not sure about the model in general, but the DC5 Integra Type R didn’t sell as well as the DC2 Integra Type R. I don’t know how Acura RSX Type S sales compared.
Market differentiation. It’s based on the idea that some demographics will respond better to certain looks and names than other demographics would. It does seem a bit silly, but there must be a degree of truth to it.
Why? Lexus is Toyota’s sister brand for more luxurious cars globally. I guess the LFA was deemed more luxurious than outright supercar. They could have made it less stylish and applied the Toyota badge, but it would have been odd as the LFA arrived during a time where there was no 86 and Supra in the lineup. Back then Toyota was all about catering to boredom, but then GR was founded a few years later to stir up this image.
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- Marin County
You hit it. For the Integra/RSX in particular, it's a little easier to explain - I think.
Honda was introduced to the North American market as a brand that sold very cheap cars and motorcycles during an era of economic malaise and high inflation. With the booming economy of the 80s, they needed/wanted a way to capture the more spendy end of the market but probably couldn't do that with a brand so well known for cheap as Honda, and so they created Acura to sell more expensive cars in a similar move to what Toyota did with Lexus and Nissan did with Infiniti. The North American market is different than the rest of the world because North Americans tend to have more disposable income after taxes and so premium car sales are a huge chunk of the automotive market - and Americans are very choosy about brands, due to it being a fairly materialistic and competitive culture.
As far as I know, outside of Russia & Ukraine, the Acura nameplate has never been sold in Europe, and it's never been sold in Japan. In North America, Acura switched from a word-based naming system (Legend, Integra, Vigor) to an acronym-based naming system (RSX, TSX, TL) starting in the late 90s as a way, I suspect, to better compete with the German companies (as well as Lexus) that had been doing this for some time. I don't know for sure, but I suspect market research led Honda/Acura to believe that these character-based model names were perceived as the premium trend. So while Honda could sell the Integra under the Honda badge as Integra in most markets, in the US, as it was sold under the premium Acura badge it needed to conform to these new standards, hence RSX. After a pretty mediocre run by the RSX's successor (the ILX), I think Acura is trying to capture some kind of nostalgia and brand affinity for the old Acura by returning to the Integra nameplate. Most of this is assumptions, but I'd like to think it's pretty accurate.
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- Mile High City
You make me wonder what the NSX would have been named if they'd gone with word-based naming. Maybe like "Opus" (I'm thinking of the Prelude here). Divinity maybe. Champion. Valor. Or just go right on the nose and call it the Virtue.
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- ^mfw that LFA
- Silhouette Drops
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Acura switched to alphabet soup names because Honda was annoyed that people thought of the "Integra" and "Legend" first and their association with Acura (a brand entirely selling rebadged Hondas to that point) second.
Since the sales of the Legend basically vaporized after Honda did this but sales of the Integra/RSX and Vigor/TL stayed about the same, it's open to interpretation how good of an idea this was. The RSX in fact was probably about as much of a success as it could have been considering it exactly the wrong product at the wrong time (paring down the range to only a coupe immediately after the bottom fell out on the coupe market and Honda was actually getting serious competition in the sport compact market but put out watered down successors to their late 90s hits in the segment).
Since the sales of the Legend basically vaporized after Honda did this but sales of the Integra/RSX and Vigor/TL stayed about the same, it's open to interpretation how good of an idea this was. The RSX in fact was probably about as much of a success as it could have been considering it exactly the wrong product at the wrong time (paring down the range to only a coupe immediately after the bottom fell out on the coupe market and Honda was actually getting serious competition in the sport compact market but put out watered down successors to their late 90s hits in the segment).
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Speaking of the Acura brand, PD doesn't seem to know what region (US or Japan) they want it under. It has switched at least twice I think being under the US in GT3. In GT6 it is under Japan. A shame it is too. That is a loophole to drive re-branded Japanese cars in certain US racing events.
Fortunately for GT 2/3/4 there are codes to bypass all regulations and drive any car in any event. I wish someone could make that for GT5 & GT6.
Fortunately for GT 2/3/4 there are codes to bypass all regulations and drive any car in any event. I wish someone could make that for GT5 & GT6.
- 2,796
- Colorado
- GTP_Cyborg
From what I understand, even Japan got the quad lights for the first couple years or so before public opinion demanded something resembling the previous generation.
Both look cool to me in their own ways, although I will say that since the long-light style wasn't sold in the US, the few times I've seen one in person I assumed it was a 5th gen Accord at first glance.
- 5,865
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the round lights look dated in a bad way, the square lights look dated in a good way
- 2,796
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- GTP_Cyborg
Pre-facelift, definitely.
Post-facelift, it was smoothed out a bit and looks much better imo:
- 31,921
- Mile High City
They all look good. Eyes come in different shapes and sizes. Just because people in some areas have different ones doesn't mean that they're any less attractive.Pre-facelift, definitely.
Post-facelift, it was smoothed out a bit and looks much better imo:
For the record, I like the RSX eyes as well. All of it looks so much more attractive than this mess:
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- Marin County
Well the FK8 is an abomination.They all look good. Eyes come in different shapes and sizes. Just because people in some areas have different ones doesn't mean that they're any less attractive.
For the record, I like the RSX eyes as well. All of it looks so much more attractive than this mess:
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- Wellington
The bug eye Integra was released in Japan, but quickly replaced. I have read the main reason was it being unpopular, and snow piling up and blocking the headlights.
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