Honda’s premium marque Acura has ushered in the new Acura liftback for the United States. Based on the Civic, it is still officially a pre-production model with sales planned for mid-2022 and the starting price at $30,000 (second cheapest after the ILX).
The exterior is typical Acura stuff and has surprisingly little in common with the five-door Civic it is based upon or the recently shown Chinese counterpart. There is a pentagonal radiator grille, headlights with signature curved DRLs, characteristic body outlines, and massive bumpers.
The car on display combines a yellow body and calipers with black trim parts and 19-inch wheels. The company confirms that the production car will feature Brembo brakes. As for the interior, it is not shown yet, but we wouldn’t expect many surprises there.
Powering the liftback is a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine with so far undisclosed characteristics. The latest Civic Si gets 200 PS (197 hp / 147 kW) out of a similar engine, but Acura might want to squeeze some extra horsepower out of it to justify the ‘premium model’ status. A six-speed manual transmission will likely transfer the momentum to the wheels through an LSD, but variable box is another option here.
Motor1 believes that Acura may launch a performance spec of the Integra after the Civic Type R hits the spotlight. The company has quite a few such models in the Type S lineup, and there were talks about including the new Integra there as well.