The Acura Integra keeps collecting trophies even as the sales numbers tell a quieter story. Best of the Year Media named the 2026 Integra a Best of the Year Award winner today, citing the sport compact’s manual transmission option, liftback practicality, and accessible $33,400 starting price as the core reasons it stood out in evaluation.
Best of the Year Media describes itself as an expert-led, community-verified resource for tested product recommendations. The organization’s reviewers praised the Integra’s handling as playful under hard driving yet composed enough for daily commuting, with the available 6-speed manual identified as the transmission that best delivers on that character. The liftback body style earned specific mention for cargo flexibility that the standard sedan silhouette doesn’t suggest from the outside. Acura claims the cargo volume is class-leading, and the split-folding rear seats can swallow items a traditional trunk would reject.
The 2026 refresh also factored into the award. Every Integra in the current lineup now ships with a standard 9-inch touchscreen, two inches larger than the outgoing unit, along with wireless phone charging and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. Physical knobs and dials for frequently used controls remain, which the reviewers called out as a meaningful differentiator in a segment increasingly given over to touchscreen-only interfaces. Three new exterior colors arrived with the refresh, one exclusive to the A-Spec trim.
Acura’s broader Integra story is worth holding against those numbers. The nameplate returned for the 2022 model year and immediately pulled segment-level weight, winning the 2023 North American Car of the Year Award and settling into a dominant retail position. Acura says the Integra has consistently commanded about 40% of retail sales in the premium sport compact segment and has been the brand’s strongest vehicle for attracting younger buyers and conquest customers. The Integra Type S DE5 even ran for the front-wheel-drive Pikes Peak record earlier this year, demonstrating that Acura is treating the nameplate as a performance flagship and not just an entry-level placeholder.
The commercial trajectory is less tidy. The Integra peaked at 32,090 units in 2023, then declined to 24,398 in 2024 and 20,178 in 2025. A premium sport compact that commands 40% segment retail share can still post shrinking annual figures when the segment itself contracts, and that appears to be what’s happening. Acura has not announced whether the 2026 refresh has reversed the volume trend in early model-year data.
At $33,400 to start, the Integra sits well below the average transaction price of a new vehicle in the US, which Acura uses as a value argument. That framing holds up: a front-wheel-drive sport compact with a manual option, a usable rear seat, and a liftback at that price point has a credible case to make. Whether the award from Best of the Year Media moves the needle is a separate question, particularly given that the organization is not among the industry’s more established benchmarks. The Integra Type S already held the 2026 Car and Driver Editors’ Choice for the third consecutive year, which carries more segment weight.
The Integra is a genuinely good car with a real enthusiast following. The sales chart just hasn’t agreed with the trophy case for two years running.
Source: Acura. Images courtesy of Acura.
