At one time, the Segment of the Moment syndrome favored compact sports coupes. Young drivers thrived on them, brand images were built, and magazines ran performance shootouts every year to help the world decide which set of wheels would emerge atop the mile-high pile of Prelude, Celica, MR2, Integra, 240SX, Eclipse, Talon, MX-6, Probe, Cougar, and Corrado.
Here in 2005, however, asking "Integra or Celica?" ranks right up there with "Nintendo or Sega?" and "VHS or Beta?" on the list of Obsolete Questions Bearing No Contemporary Relevance. Scroll through those 11 revered nameplates and you may notice that only two exist today. After the Celica's imminent death, that drops to one, and you can round off to zero considering the Mitsubishi Eclipse lives on in name only.
But there's one in that crowd who went the other way: changed its name, kept the spirit. It's the one credited for raising the technological bar and practically inventing the aftermarket tuner industry, and the one that remains faithful to its roots. That would be the Acura RSX, formerly known as Integra, which got a full redesign for 2002 consisting of clean-sheet engines, transmissions, suspensions, and sheetmetal. These changes could have sustained it for years, but Acura performed its annual checkup and decided the RSX wouldn't mind further sharpening in all of those areas. Nor should we.
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