Some Early Issues with Our Integra Type S, But Still Plenty of Grins
None of the ripping sport hatchback’s luster has worn off, even if a little bit of proverbial paint has.
Mac MorrisonWriterBrian VancePhotographerSep 10, 2025
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We’re a few months into our yearlong test of the 2025 Acura Integra Type S, and we’re nearly as happy with the sport hatchback as we were after our first day with it.
Why “nearly”? A few minor but annoying problems crept in. First, the cargo cover attached to the hatch’s lid rattles something awful when you drive the car on roads with consistent vertical undulations, let alone bumps, so we’re looking into whether there’s a way to secure the plastic arm that supports it and the rubber trim the latter connects to more firmly in place. Second, with just more than 2,000 miles on the odometer, the car threw two fault codes on the digital instrument cluster alerting us to the fact the transmission’s rev-matching downshift function was out of commission and that there was an emissions systems fault that might result in reduced performance.
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What’s That All About?
Other than the rev-match definitely not working, we detected no other signs of the Integra’s performance being affected. Our nearest Acura dealer said it hadn’t seen these fault codes before, and it plugged its diagnostics tool into the car and cleared them quickly, putting the Type S back into perfect working order. But the best explanation the dealer techs could offer in terms of the cause left us scratching our heads while smirking a bit: “The fuel-level sensor might get confused when fuel sloshes around during aggressive driving, so it may trigger the fault as a precaution.”
That may very well be what happened, but it’s certainly not normal. We’ve previously tested several examples of the Integra Type S and its Honda Civic Type R sibling, including hard driving on racetracks, and never encountered these issues. Hence the smirk when provided with this answer. Considering the car’s purposeful mission of being an enthusiast driver’s machine, the idea that some fuel sloshing around in the tank can tell the Integra something is wrong doesn’t make any sense. Making even less sense is the fact the faults were triggered while associate road test editor Erick Ayapana was driving it on the street, and according to the car’s onboard data logger, it appeared when the engine was spinning at less than 3,000 rpm at around 57 mph. In other words, the data doesn’t mesh with the idea any of this occurred as the car was being thrashed by its driver.
Several weeks passed since we had the dealer clear the codes, and we didn’t experience a repeat of the trouble. In any case, we subsequently reported the event to Acura, which at the time of writing has possession of our Integra Type S for a few days to perform a deeper dive into the issues. We’ll provide the results of its investigation in our next update here.
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Selling the Drama
No, we mean the good kind of “drama,” because every drive of the Acura Integra Type S yields at least some amount of fun, at least a little jolt of excitement even if you’re simply running errands or taking what you intend to be a leisurely cruise. Unlike plenty of other cars, there’s no getting tired of it. The bass-tastic and poppy exhaust note in Sport+ mode, the immediate steering response, the sharp handling, the broad midrange punch from the 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4, and the best manual transmission this side of the handful of manuals Porsche still sells in 2025 turn every trip into a driving event.
Such is our enthusiasm for this car, we never feel put out or like we’re wasting time talking about it to strangers, many of whom have approached us in public to inquire about the Type S. To boot: One evening at a gas station, another customer who was filling his pickup truck asked all manner of questions about the car, which we wrote off as general enthusiasm and curiosity. Fast-forward a few weeks, and I’m getting out of the Integra at another local retail location when I hear, “Nice car, dude.” I look to my left to see the same gentleman sitting in his brand-new Civic Type R. “I saw you pull in and just wanted to say hello,” he said. “I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m loving this thing.” I certainly did remember him but didn’t ask for a commission on the sale. And yes, while he chose the Honda version rather than the Acura, the point stands: This platform is exceptional and exceptionally fun to drive.
Indeed, we’re yet to encounter someone who bought either car—for the record, we’ve also randomly run across a couple of other Integra Type S owners on the road and at a car wash—who express anything but smiling satisfaction with and boundless enthusiasm for their purchase. And every one of them we pass on the road throws a wave and a nod in recognition of being a member of the club. This may not be worth anything to some people, but it’s another factor in the overall experience and in the emotional impact of owning a vehicle that’s more than simply an appliance for getting from point to point.
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Mind Changer
One thing that’s been true from the start of our yearlong test, however, is that despite its somewhat softer suspension setup compared to the Civic Type R, the Integra Type S still delivers a primary ride frequency that takes many first-time passengers by surprise. Dialing it down to Comfort mode helps a little bit, but people who aren’t used to performance cars or sports cars tend to be taken aback by the way the Acura feels versus what they expected when they climbed aboard. We’ve fielded a few complaints about this, as well as about the amount of noise that makes its way into the cockpit, but find some decent corners and put your foot down, and the result is always the same: The same passengers who weren’t loving it just a second ago change their tune immediately, laughing and smiling and saying things like, “You know what, I do love this car!” It’s happened more than once, and we expect it to continue happening for as long as we have our hands on this Integra.
Speaking of the latter, we’ll put it this way: Despite still being closer to the beginning of our Integra loan than we are to the end of it, we already have to fight off thoughts about how, before we know it, Acura is going to make us give this car back. For now, we’ll just bury our heads in the proverbial sand and pretend that day is never going to come.
More on Our Long-Term 2025 Acura Integra Type S:
2025 Acura Integra Type S Yearlong Arrival: A “Better” Civic Type R? Does It Even Matter?
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Mac Morrison
I’m not sure if this is bizarre, amusing, interesting, or none of those, but I remember picking up the inaugural issue of Automobile from the magazine rack at a Meijer grocery store in metro Detroit. At 9 years old in 1986, I was already a devoted consumer of car magazines, and this new one with the funky font on the cover caught my eye immediately. Longtime Automobile editor and present-day contributor Michael Jordan despises this story, but I once used his original review of Ferrari’s F40 as source material for a fifth-grade research project. I still have the handwritten report on a shelf at home. Sometimes I text MJ pictures of it — just to brighten his day. I’ve always been a car fan, but I never had any grand dreams, schemes, or plans of making it onto this publication’s masthead. I did earn a journalism degree from Michigan State University but at the time never planned to use it for its intended purpose. Law school made more sense to me for some reason. And then, thankfully, it didn’t. I blame two dates for this: May 1 and May 29, 1994. The former was the day Formula 1 star Ayrton Senna died. As a kid, I’d seen him race years earlier on the streets of Detroit, and though I didn’t follow F1 especially closely, the news of his demise shocked me. It’s the only story I remember following in the ensuing weeks, which just happened to lead right into the latter date. By pure chance, I had earlier accepted a friend’s invitation to accompany him and his father to the Indy 500. You’ve probably heard people say nothing prepares you for the sight of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, especially in real life on race day, with more than 250,000 spectators on the ground. It sounds like clichéd hyperbole, but it’s true. And along with my renewed interest in F1 in the wake of Senna’s death, that first encounter with Indy ignited a passion for motorsports I never expected to find. Without charting the entire course here, the upshot is that it led me to a brief stint working at a racing school, and then to Autoweek, where I worked as a full-time staffer for 13 years, the majority of them as motorsports editor. I was also a tester and reviewer of road cars, a fleet manager, and just about everything in between that is commonplace at automotive enthusiast outlets. Eventually, my work there led me to Automobile in early 2015 — almost 29 years to the day that I first picked up that funky new car mag as my mom checked-off her grocery list. What else do you probably not want to know? I — along with three other people, I’m told frequently — am an avid NBA fan, evidenced by a disturbingly large number of Nikes taking up almost all of my closet space. I enjoy racing/driving video games and simulators, though for me they’ll never replace the real thing. Road cars are cool, race cars are better. I’ve seen the original “Point Break” at least 147 times start to finish. I’ve seen “Top Gun” even more. The millennials on our staff think my favorite decade is the ’80s. They’re wrong. It’s the ’90s. I always have too many books to read and no time to do so. Despite the present histrionics, I do not believe fully autonomous cars will dominate our roads any time soon, probably not for decades. I used to think anyone who didn’t drive a manual transmission wasn’t a real driver, but I was wrong. I wish I could disinvent social media, or at least somehow ensure it is used only for good. And I appreciate being part of Automobile’s proud history, enjoying the ride alongside all of you.
