1991 Acura Integra GS, my first new car, on the day I bought it.
When last I checked in, it was the late 80’s, and I was working on my Mechanical Engineering degree at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Case, like all good engineering schools, has a strong co-op program. For those not familiar with Cooperative Education, it is a partnership with industry allow students to spend a semester away from school working in a real world company gaining actual skills, while getting paid real money to boot (no unpaid internships here). Often times it can turn into a full-time position after graduation, but even if it doesn’t, you are getting valuable job experience and a resume booster that will give you a leg up on competitors in the post-graduation job market.
It seemed like a pretty good deal to me, so I jumped at the opportunity. After interviewing with numerous companies, I ended up taking a job at a small Cleveland fastener manufacturing company named Telefast Industries for the fall semester of 1989.
Telefast Plant Interior
This was far removed from the sterile confines of the classroom, as the picture above that I took of the plant floor clearly illustrate. I was initially hired to work in the QC department, but the owner of the company had just purchased an accounting system running on SCO Xenix, an obscure System V Unix derivative than no doubt dozens of commenters will chime in having familiarity with. The owner had no idea how to support or customize this system, having no IT department like most small businesses at the time. I started dividing my time between the QC department and the Xenix system, gradually spending less time in the lab and more time in the front office on the computer.
In a word, I was hooked. Unix opened my eyes to a whole new world beyond the Apple Macintoshes and Windows PCs that I had previously worked with. Once again, I devoured it all like Homer Simpson in a donut factory. C-Shell! Regular Expression! Perl! Oh My! But again, I digress.
As my semester of co-op drew to a close, I continued to work part-time at Telefast while finishing my engineering degree at Case, with pretty much a standing offer to work there full-time after I graduated. Knowing that my post-graduation job prospects were secure put me in a very comfortable position. I didn’t need to stress out about going to recruiting fairs, interviewing, or heck, even buying a suit. I could sit back and relax while watching everyone else scramble to find a job.
More importantly, knowing that my financial future was secure allowed me to make by far the largest financial decision of my young life to date, and reward myself for my 5 years of hard work: (drumroll) My first new car.
As a long-time worshipper at the temple Soichiro Honda, there was never any doubt as to which manufacturer I would be patronizing. The only question was which flavor: Honda or Acura? And really, now that I look back, even that wasn’t up for much debate. I had been infatuated with the Acura Integra since the first-generation model came out in 1986. I even lobbied (unsuccessfully) to get my dad to purchase one for my Mom during one of his many car purchases at the time.
I stopped by the local Acura dealership early 1991 (months before my actual graduation date), and with little more than a diploma as collateral drove off the lot in a brand new 1991 Acura Integra GS in Arrest-me Red. I, of course, got the top of the line model, inaugurating a tradition of leaving the option sheet clean that continues to this day. I sold the LeBaron to a fraternity brother and used the proceeds to make the first couple of payments until I started full-time at Telefast in the summer.
Proud new owner
In my then-narrow mind, the Integra was the perfect car. Not too big, it had everything you needed and nothing you didn’t. Five-speed? Check. DOHC 16V engine? Check. Power moonroof, ABS, and alloy wheels? Check, check, and check. About those alloy wheels: they were directional, meaning that the left and right sides were not interchangeable. GM, by way of contrast, fitted the same wheels on both sides of the car, therefore having the wheels spin backwards on one side. This was but one of the many little “Easter Egg” design details that Honda hid in their cars for many years. They never advertised it or made noise about it, but those that were in the know, knew.
Note the wheels on the driver’s side are spinning the correct way (openings swept back), while those on the passenger side are not (openings swept forward).
Under the hood was the aforementioned 1.8L DOHC engine putting out 130 hp and a modest 121 lb-ft of torque. While these would be considered penalty box stats today, they were not bad by the standards of the day, and the car was extremely light (less than 2700 lbs). Furthermore, the engine was a pleasure to run out to its 6500RPM redline, and was connected to a smooth-shifting 5-speed manual transmission.
The interior also won me over. High-quality switchgear, logically laid out and angled ever so slightly towards the driver. And of course two big proper gauges (speedo and tach) right in front of the driver. The only major party foul was the motorized seat belts, which were as annoying as the picture below would indicate. By the early 90’s, airbags were already the preferred way of meeting passive restraint requirements, especially on higher-end cars.
Other niggles were few and minor: The frameless door glass was a magnet for fingerprints when passengers closed the door the “wrong” way (pushing on the glass instead of the door handle). The driving lights, being located right next to the headlights, were useless: People would constantly flash their brights at me thinking that my high-beams were on. And like many Japanese imports of the time, the A/C wasn’t always up to the task of dealing with a hot and humid Ohio summer.
1991 Acura Integra Interior
The best view, however, was one that couldn’t be properly photographed: The view from the Driver’s seat. In stark contrast to today’s cars (with all their video screens and airbags), the dashboard and cowl on the Integra were very low. The windshield was expansive – it felt like looking out a picture window. On the passenger side, in particular, it felt like the hood was terminating at your kneecaps. The hood was also very low, in a way that today’s pedestrian collision requirements would never allow. You couldn’t see the hood from inside, and it felt like the road was going directly under your feet with nothing in front of you. It may not have been fast, but it felt fast and engaging to drive. Period Honda Civics (on which the Integra was based) also had the same driving experience, as anyone who has driven a 80’s or early 90’s Civic can attest to.
Maybe you can still get this kind of driving experience today in an exotic car or a Miata, but that kind of misses the point: This kind of immediate, in your face driving experience was available to everyone in mundane everyday cars. No wonder an entire tuner culture sprung up around these cars. And no wonder so many kids today aren’t interested in driving, given how isolated the experience has become.
Great write up, these were such great cars at the time. I wonder how many people ever noticed the directional wheels, and how often tire shops mixed them up.
And as an owner of a car that also has frameless windows, I can sympathize. I now just preemptively gripe at passengers to not grab it by the window. I don’t know what possesses people to stand there and swing the door open by just the thin glass, when there are handles on the inside and outside. Rant off….
A great Sunday morning… cinnamon toast, coffee, and a Tom Halter COAL.
I don’t think there were co-op ed programs in 1962, but I did interview and have a job in the bag mid point in my senior year. But the financial advantages of your co-op ed were significant. It took me seven years after graduation to pay off my student loans.
And yes, I try to stop people from closing the Miata’s door by pushing on the glass.
I never noticed the wheel direction difference. I do know that some tires are unidirectional, so the different wheel designs would doubly appropriate if the left and right tires and wheels are matched the right way.
Enjoyable read.
You would need 2 different part numbers for the wheels to make it right.
We are talking Cavalier and not Corvette money here 😉
Great read! This generation Integra was fantastic and your descriptions perfectly showcase how much Honda focused on the details, large and small, to make such an appealing driver’s car.
My girlfriend at the time (now my wife!) also chose an Integra as her first new car, replacing a 14-year-old hand-me-down Mercedes diesel. Though I would have picked a GS exactly like yours, she chose an Integra LS in black over cream with an automatic. Even the lower trim level and slush box couldn’t mute the great character of the car. It was a blast to drive, and felt very premium as well, with great materials and excellent build quality.
I had forgotten about the fog lights, but you are right, we could never use them because everyone thought we had on the high beams. We also hated the motorized belts. Other than that, the car was hard to fault. And being a Honda product, we had no mechanical or quality issues at all.
And I agree it’s a bit sad that everyday cars are no longer designed for driver engagement and enjoyment. Warming up to today’s detached digital cocoons isn’t that easy…
Nice car for a 1st new purchase! Well written experience too! I don’t have a lot of Honda/Acura experience. It was Mazda 323 for me. In particular the seating position and view of the road would apply. However, the Acura is almost 2x as powerful.
To me the motorized seat belts screwed up the automotive world of the nineties. There were so many cool cars, all of them messed up with these hideous devices. I swore to myself to never get one of these even if I had to drive old buckets for the rest of my life.
How long did you have your Integra? How many miles did you do? Any long trips?
I took many road trips in the 90’s. Although you totally can’t tell here, I am parked in the fog at the summit of Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park (When dealing with photos taken 25 years ago, beggars can’t be choosers).
I never knew about the directional wheels on these but then again, I’ve never cared for Japanese cars enough, that it would have registered with me. Oddly enough, I did notice that Honda Fit models have some of the sloppiest wheel nut spacing I’ve ever seen on a car. A four lug wheel and they can’t figure out how to position the studs so they come out evenly on the wheels.
Great story! We must be about the same age….my parents bought a 1991 Prelude new for me, my senior year of college. I had a 10 year old BMW that was having mechanical problems, and my younger sister was turning 16….so the BMW was traded and we got a 1991 Civic for her and the Prelude for me.
I loved that low-slung sensation too. It was a different feeling for sure, after the upright BMW. Mine was kinda a stripper, white with black cloth, 5 speed, crank windows, manual locks and plastic wheel covers, but did have factory power glass sunroof.
It was a great car. I took good care of it, changed the oil every 3000 miles and waxed it about every time I washed it, the body was so small and low it was quick and easy to do so. I kept rubber mats on top of the Honda floor mats, so even they looked new. I drove it past 100,000 miles, then my sister drove it all through grad school (I think my Mom took over her Civic). Then, my dad started driving it when he had a temporary commute to another state.
It had about 250,000 miles when he sold it, and it still looked and ran like new. I know it got a clutch at about 150,000 miles, but that’s the only “repair” I recall. Writing this makes me want a new Honda! I did look at a new Accord coupe in the late 90’s after I was married, but with a baby and a car seat (soon to be three babies under 4 years old, all in car seats) my two door car days were over.
No, sir, those weren’t “driving lights”, they were fog lamps. “Driving lamp” or “driving light” is a widely misunderstood term. People use it to refer to all kinds of different lights. In fact, driving lamps are auxiliary high beams. They are effective, safe, and legal only for use with the vehicle’s main high beam headlamps on dark, empty roads (or off road). Never with low beams, never by themselves, never in bad weather, and never in traffic.
Fog lamps, on the other hand, are supposedly for use in extremely soupy weather. They supposedly have a very short distance reach and a wide spread, supposedly enabling you to see the edge of the road to grope your way along at extremely low speed. All this “supposedly” stuff is because nominal “fog lamps” mostly don’t do any of that stuff; they’re purely just cosmetic. And even very good fog lamps are of almost no use (<–that's a link) to most drivers, most of the time. Nevertheless, at least in the US, drivers overwhelmingly misuse their fog lamps as always-on-with-the-headlamps "running lights" or "driving lights". Then there is the very common misunderstanding that because fog lamps have short range and a sharp cutoff at the top of the beam, they can't cause glare. That's wrong; fog lamps are often small, so even with a low-output light source the luminance of the lamp is high and the lamp appears very bright even if viewed from above the cutoff (and that's to say nothing of the very intense glare caused by fog lamps misaimed too high).
All of which leads to the other common misconception about fog lamps like yours, that "Oh, people were flashing me because they saw four lamps lit and thought the high beams were on". No, they were flashing you because of glare from your improperly-used and/or improperly-aimed fog lamps.
(The more you know…!)
Daniel, when I bought my one-owner ’90, I discovered the the fog lights had never been properly aimed. I aimed them per your website, and stopped getting flashed.
They also use a bit of an odd bulb (H3-35w) and I imagine, since the 35w variant isn’t easy to find, owners replace them with common H3-55w. More wattage seems to do bad things with this particular fixture.
So true, Daniel. In my younger days, ‘driving lights’ were known as spot lights, which pretty much tells their function: they give you a spot of light, and it’s way down the road there. And everyone knew their function, and that you didn’t use them when traffic was around.
IIRC, the term ‘driving lights’ appeared in manufacturer brochures during the sixties, and took over. Unfortunate, because people nowadays seem to think driving lights are for whenever you’re, y’know, driving…..
“Driving lamp” or “driving beam” is a very old term, still formally used in international regulations, for what Yanks call “high beam”, Brits call “main beam”, and assorted others call “full beam”. It’s about a century old, from a time when most driving at night was done on full/main/high beam; on the rare occasion of encountering another car (in either direction), one would switch to the passing/dipped/low beam, then back to the “driving” beam after passing the other car. For a long time now, traffic density has been such that most night driving is done on low/dipped/passing beam, but the old terminology has stuck around. It’s unfortunate because as you say, it sounds reasonable to use “driving” lights whenever one is “driving”.
Actual, real driving lamps (auxiliary high beams) are quite rare as factory equipment, at least in North America. The ’86-up VW Vanagon has them, the ’90-’95 Mercedes 500E has them, and then we start running out of examples very quickly. But so-called fog lamps are all over the place, because they’re almost pure profit for the automakers.
Some iterations of the VW Rabbit convertible/Cabriolet had driving lights as well. I briefly had one, but I can’t even remember the model year.
Daniel,
It has been a while since I was on your website until this article appeared. Thank you for it.
I have Euro Sierra headlights in Merkur XR4Ti and adjusted my lights by sight for lack of a better way, comparing the output to my other cars. This will help me check the aim. Driving a car with both driving and fog lights, you can be sure it would be difficult to confuse them. I will say, when my first XR4Ti was new, the upper set of parking lights were often mistaken for high beams not for their brightness, but just for the fact there was more than one set of lights on top and the fact the turn signal lights were also lit as parking lights as well. They were powered by 904 bulbs, so I imagine they did little more than light up the housing.
I imagine the Pontiac 6000 with the triple lights also suffered from flashing more for the perception of high beams than actual brightness.
I’m sorry to have to be strident about this, but…no, the dim parking lights were not mistaken for high beams. The low beams were mistaken for high beams because of your guesswork aim method. Headlamp aim of one car cannot be checked by “comparing the output to other cars”.
My COAL ’90 Integra LS
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1990-integra-the-unintentional-acura/
Apparently has the correct hubcaps for a ’91-’92 model… but even the *hubcaps* are directional. They really were paying attention in those days!
Lovely read.
And in just about the ultimate automotive non-sequitur, the advert at the end of your article was for a cabover Hino!
Count me as another who never noticed the directional wheels.
My stepmom got one of these about that time. It followed a decade with a Cutlass Ciara and a Temporary and was her first foreign car. I think my father, the diehard Ford guy, figured out that a Tempo just didn’t cut it in the image department. They liked the Acura but followed it up with a Camry.
Your going back to a time where Acura actually had some swagger. Knowing Honda , it should have been nothing but success but something happened along the way. Precision Crafted Performance became a series of Mercurys with the Alphabet for model names. Graft on front end styling that no one found appealing and there you have it. If it wasn’t for the SUV craze , Acura would be justifiable dead.
Great read! While I like the style of frameless windows, I don’t like the water leaks that came along with them, at least in the ones I had.
The company I work for does another kind of co-op program where students going to local universities can work part time while going to school full time in a related degree field for up to five years. While there is less of a guarantee of getting full time employment afterwards than the traditional summer internship, it’s a great way to gain experience and help pay for your education, as wages are considerably higher than typical part time jobs.
Great choice on the ‘Teg–if I were in the market at that time I might have gone the same route. (Of course, in 1991 I was 11, so my new car buying days were far off…) I’ve always loved the styling of this generation, and having spent some time in a friend’s ’93, the sensation of the road starting at your windshield was an interesting one. Old Honda products just had so much glass…
By the time I got around to making my first *actual* new vehicle purchase in 2011 (though I was picking it primarily for my wife’s use), I also chose a 2-door from an Asian manufacturer, but a Forte Koup EX is a far cry from the driver’s car that an Integra is. Different times, different budgets, different purposes. Acura doesn’t even make a 2-door anymore other than the NSX.
I love these Integras. The look, feel, drive….all so impressive. My 1993 Accord EX wagon also had the huge picture window, low hood, road in your lap feel. There was a special feeling in them that no car can duplicate today.
There is an older customer at my Acura dealership that has a 1991 Integra with 58,000 miles on it in absolutely stunning showroom – and I mean showroom – condition. It looks like time stood still when I see that car. He only takes it out in nice weather, garages it and polishes it often. I think it may be the nicest one left in existence, that is how nice it is. Not a mark on it and the original paint, all of the black trim that usually turns white and the interior all look brand new.
As an Accord owner in 1986 I was invited to the new Acura dealer to be upsold to an Acura, and I have to say that that I mostly loved the car. 2 things stopped me, my Accord was paid for and running great, and the Integra had the same Honda seats that were killing my back, aggravating my sciatica, and making me vow to never own another Honda product ’til they fixed their seats (Loved driving the Fit, too bad my back was whining in 15 minutes).
“The view from the Driver’s seat. In stark contrast to today’s cars (with all their video screens and airbags)”
I heartily agree, but having lived with a different ’91 with the passive shoulder belts I’m happy to have the air bags. I was constantly getting hit in the head as the belt tracked past, and every 3 months or so I would try to exit the car having forgotten to remove the lap belt and be unceremoniously left hanging out the door.