Caradise Best of 2023 – Is there Truly a $7,000 difference between the Civic Type R and The New Integra S ?

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So as the MSRP of the Acura Integra S made its final target number known. There were some comments in twitter about the pricing and how ambitious it seems. However, my take is the pricing is just a mirage vs. the real world when it comes to the Civic Type R.

However, your opinion on whether the extra $7,000 are justified or not, they barely matter, it is just a mirage caused by MSRP and the different timing and current pricing of both cars. At the end, there is no difference. Here’s why:

In the real world, the 2021-2023 Civic Type R are still priced at $50,000 to $60,000K, just searching the middle of the pack in Car Gurus today for 2021-2023 Civic Type R’s show a very high price indeed. Good luck finding an MSRP Civic Type R – You probably won’t.

Now, I don’t know if out the door the new Integra S will then try to be sold new at, say $60,000. That’s nearly BMW M2 Comp money for a gently used one. So likely the Integra S will sell at around at $55,000- $58,000 range and some dealers will try to stretch that price to $60,000. But in the real world, and the Integra S arriving on a different economy from just 12 months ago, makes me think the choice of The Integra Type S, vs the Civic Type R, as far as price goes, will be near equal in the real world. In that case, if you could get the Integra Type S at $55,000 – would that be a bargain? Or does the Civic Type R still win? Because is very likely both will be near $60,000 real world dollars.