The Honda Integra Has Already Returned (As A Tweaked Chinese Market Civic)

After 15 years away, the Honda Integra is back. Only, this has nothing to with Acura’s recent announcement about the model name’s return. Beating the Integra from Honda’s luxury division to the punch is the car you see here, which should look familiar.

See also: The Honda Integra Is Coming Back, But Should We Be Excited Or Worried?

Exclusive to the Chinese market, this all-new Honda Integra is really just an 11th-generation Civic saloon/sedan with a nip and tuck. At the front, there’s a new bumper, different headlights and a more conventional grille design ditching the weird body-coloured overbite thing seen on the Civic.

At the rear, there are some far snazzier light clusters than the parts found on the regular Civic, along with a new boot lid and, again, a fresh rear bumper. Some reasonably large changes, but not nearly enough to disguise what this car is underneath.

Power is expected to come from a 178bhp 1.5-litre inline-four turbo engine hooked up to a continuously variable transmission (CVT). We don’t know for sure as the car hasn’t received an official reveal just yet - these images were leaked early via China’s Ministry of Industry and Information.

As for Acura’s new Integra, we don’t have a whole lot of concrete information to go on just yet. The original press release said that the car “will rejoin the performance brand’s product portfolio as a new compact premium entrant next year,” while Acura VP and brand officer Jon Ikeda said that the car will possess “the same fun-to-drive spirit and DNA of the original.”

11th-gen Civic underpinnings are considered likely, so it’s possible the Integra will serve as a replacement for the 10th-gen Civic coupe. We’re also hoping that one of the powertrain options will be a 2.0-litre turbo engine shared with the next Civic Type R. Something a little more potent than the 1.5 in China’s Integra, in other words.