If you often find yourself browsing Bring A Trailer, every so often you come across a result that almost makes you jump out of your skin. This is one of those times. Our subject today is a 2001 Acura Integra Type R, and when the virtual hammer dropped on Friday, it crossed the digital auction block for $204,204. No, that’s not a typo.
Six figures, starting with a two, all for a quick Acura. That’s starter house money in many parts of North America, or at least the sort of cash to get you into a condo. That’s supercar money, powerboat money, pay off your student loans money, the sort of money that can buy an air-cooled Porsche so impressive that the president of your local PCA chapter will bow in your presence.
The Acura Integra Type R is already an inherently special car. Sure, 195 horsepower isn’t a whole lot by modern standards, but neither is 2,639 pounds. We’re looking at one of the most iconic sport compact coupes of the ’90s on a factory diet of trenbolone and taurine, a muscled-up, sharpened-up spear showing just what Honda—and indeed Japan—was capable of.
At the heart of this machine sits a hand-built B18C inline-four displacing just 1.8 liters, but it got a larger throttle body, a free-flowing exhaust system, polished intake and exhaust ports, lighter intake valves, beefier cams, high-compression pistons with molybdenum-coated skirts, balanced forged connecting rods, and a micro-polished forged crankshaft that work in harmony to 8,500 RPM in U.S.-spec examples. From there, a close-ratio five-speed manual transaxle with a helical limited-slip differential converted that power into forward motion, and the whole assembly sat inside a strengthened chassis adorned with lighter glass and less sound insulation. Heavily revised suspension, five-lug hubs, and beefier brakes completed the package, and the result wasn’t just an Acura with a higher specific output than a Ferrari F355, it was one of the all-time great Japanese cars.
This particular Integra Type R is one of 1,173 examples sold in America for the 2001 model year, but it’s in the desirable hue of Phoenix Yellow, and it’s covered just 4,800 miles under the watch of two registered owners. The second owner? The renowned RealTime Collection Hall, as in RealTime Racing, Peter Cunningham’s pro team that found huge success in SCCA World Challenge Touring Car racing with the Integra Type R, among other Honda models. Given the mileage, it shouldn’t be surprising that the underbody is almost clean enough to be surgical, with everything from the transaxle case to the wheel arch liners to the floors in astonishing condition. These cars weren’t exactly dirt-cheap when they were new, but they were inexpensive enough that few pristine examples survive, so this is a bit of a case of “find another.” Still, $204,000?
I’ve driven an Integra Type R and it’s a brilliant, effervescent little thing with the agility of a mosquito and the fizz of prosecco. It technically can go slow and be an economical three-door runabout but it doesn’t want to. It goads you into cracking VTEC and riding the dopamine hit to redline, relishes a bit of lift-off action, and turns in with proper tenacity. It’s a more memorable experience than loads of more powerful cars, and one that’s proof of why these cars deserve a strong following.
Is it a $204,000 experience, though? As overwhelmingly potent yet well-rounded as a 993 Turbo, as rarified as the nicest of gated 550 Maranellos, as starship warp-drive as a McLaren 720S, as much of a style icon as a split-window 1963 Corvette? To most people, probably not. After all, you can still get a really nice—if not absolutely perfect—Phoenix Yellow Integra Type R for less than $50,000, and a four-time multiple to own one of the nicest examples on the planet seems a tad excessive.
Then again, perhaps it’s only excessive if nobody wants to pay for it. This isn’t just a case of one wild out-of-the-blue bid, as it was a three-horse race well beyond $175,000. There’s actually a six-figure market for pristine ultra-low-mileage Integra Type Rs, and this new record likely means we’ve crossed into a new frontier. Oh, and if you ever knew someone who said that Japanese cars will never be collectable, don’t you just wonder how they feel now?
(Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer)
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How much better is this car than the new Integra Type S? Certainly not four times better. It’s 600 lbs lighter but also 140 less hp (nearly half).
That said, all the nanny shit on the new car prevents me from buying one. For now.
So, someone might have gotten ripped off, but assumes they cannot also rip someone else off in a few years.
No. Just no. Good for the someone who has two-hundred-four kilobucks to throw at this car, but even if I had that kind of scratch lying around with nothing to do, I’d pick something else.
But I get it. Nostalgia is an even stronger drug to influence weird decisions than cocaine.
Sure, but if you have two-hundred-four GIGAbucks laying around, this isn’t a weird decision driven by anything more than boredom.
To us working class folk, 200k+ is a lifetime achievement of hard work and late retirement.
To the ultra-wealthy it was brunch on Tuesday.
That said, I hope this car gets sealed in a box and put away for the next 5000 years, and is then a topic of some future archaeologists dissertation.
Working for someone who became a multi-millionaire in his 20’s from inheritance shows you just how different life is. I asked how much money he could blow in a day and not notice, “80k”. That was my entire college tuition. It’s a different world.
People with money: giving a shit about what people with no money think since ~3000 BCE.
By appointment of Her Majesty I don’t give a shit: Sumer, Mesopotamia.
Somewhere, someone, is unloading a brand new Type R, maybe remembering how he/she was laughing 40 years ago at someone paying $40k for a Toyota 2000GT.
There were ~9000 LHD Type R built. From the ~4500 that went to Europe, most were raced and tracked. From the ones that made it to the US, most were fast and furiosed into soul and value destroying “tuning”.
The remaining clean ones are a finite number.
Whatever, all it takes is an auction and a few fools with lots of money in a dick-waving contest. Hope the winner enjoys it, not my cup of tea in any way.
Yeah, nope on this one. I’m squarely in the demo that was playing Gran Turismo, seeing these cool JDM cars, and then Honda/Acura actually brought a real Type R over to the US market. Not that I could buy one, but few cars could get my friends and I to pay attention like when you saw one of these on the street for the first couple years.
But $200k? I’m going down a loooong list of other options before I get to Integra Type R. Never mind that I’d actually want to drive the thing, which this one certainly won’t be driven ever again.
Jay Leno drives his multi-million dollar Duesenbergs to work. Don’t be so sure. When you have the sort of money that you can drop $200K on something like this, you can do whatever the Hell you want with it. Maybe it’s in the dude’s living room, or maybe he is going to put 20K on it in the first year he has it living out his high school fantasies.
The rich are not like you and me – they have WAAAAAY more money.
Well if your view of life is based on money, then, yes they have more money. But if your base life on family and friends then their lives aren’t different. The ones who are in your face flaunting it are usually the ones who have a worse life than yours. Multiple failed marriages, big chips on shoulders trying to prove they’re better. Sad.
The truly wealthy people I know don’t flaunt it – they don’t have to. You wouldn’t really know until you get to know them. But their lives are still ultimately VERY different from the average person. The almost complete freedom from financial worries is a huge game changer. The money is just there, like oxygen. If you want to do something frivolous like spend a couple hundred grand on an old Honda, well, it doesn’t really matter, does it? The one I know who is a car nut dropped that much and more concours restoring an e9 BMW to add to his collection of fine vintage BMWs, but that is just a matter of taste. Much better taste, IMHO, but I am biased. 😉
I always figure that anyone flaunting it is either very new to it like various celebrities, or doesn’t have nearly as much as they want you to think they have.
I am not what most would consider wealthy. I have lived way beneath my income for years. (single wide, 10 acres wooded land, all paid for). I have not worked in 12 years and I am not on the dole. Family and friends are my wealth. Cars, to me, are just appliances. Luckily people don’t spend thousands on a toaster.
Good for you! I also live vastly below my means, but I have five pretty cool cars, all very much paid for, and none of them are appliances. Paid for summer and winter homes too. I’m not wealthy, but I would certainly describe myself as “well off” at this point of my life. Great job that I love doing, I would be bored out of my tree if I retired.
You’d be shocked how much you can pay for a toaster – go to a luxury appliance store sometime and be amazed, LOL.
Cuyahoga Falls Ohio. Bedroom community of Akron. Nice neighborhood.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2821-13th-St-Cuyahoga-Falls-OH-44223/35313992_zpid/
Yeah but… Ohio
Hey it’s a nice area. The way the weather is going Ohio looks great. Lots of water and cooler temperatures than the south. This week highs in the mid 80’s. Here in North Carolina, highs around 100. Having lived in Ohio for 10 years and North Carolina for 60 years there’s just more to do in Ohio. But, home is where the family is, so…..
Nice to know one can still get a decent single family in the US for under 200K.
That would be at least 2X that price in New England. I ran the numbers, and it would be pretty close to what I pay for rent, and my rent is dirt cheap for my area.
I do have to admit, my first thought was also “But…Ohio”.
If it’s close to good outdoor activities and good jobs, I could get over that.
Per government data:
https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/summary/blssummary_akron.pdf
The Cuyahoga National Park is there: https://www.nps.gov/cuva/index.htm
Blossom Music Center
https://www.blossommusic.com/
Granted, I haven’t lived in the area since 1971, but it still seems to be a nice area on visits.
The best part is the interior ambiance which shares switchgear with my roommate’s old ’04 Civic which she picked up (and later sold) for approximately a tenth of the price. Sure hers was more beat up, but I bet it smells the same.
lol wtf kind of crackheads are paying that much? They didn’t even get it in cocaine white 😛
Some people have too much money and need to be taxed a bit more
If I had $204k I had to spend on a vehicle to keep, it would unquestionably be the conversion van of my dreams, customized and tricked out to a T.
Nice car, but not one that appeals to me for that much, damn.
Sorry I can buy 4 houses in my neighborhood for that and have enough money to buy 4 nice Camry’s in each house. Anyone else think BAT is laundering money?
The rich have easier ways of laundering money than Bring a Trailer lmao
FOUR houses? Where do you live? 1962?
Four houses AND 16 Camrys!
He’s real good at math.
Actually good at math texting and proper grammar not so much.
You do seem to communicate like a drunken, special needs chimp who’s suffered repeated head trauma.
So no, I don’t believe your claim about your math skills being worthy of note.
In a lovely small town in Western PA with 600 resident on over 600 acres. I have a small creek running through my backyard, unless it rains. Where I have never seen a traffic jam except during the local parade. We have a nice little bar and an old fashioned corner store and 2 small grocery stores in the next town that only take 15 minutes to get there. All the neighbors know each other’s names and half the time I don’t bother to lock my door. You can walk into the borough building and speak to the chief or 1 of 3 part time officers without a wait. The homes may be older style but a 3 bedroom house and a detached garage with room for a car and a shop on the banks of a creek for under $50k it’s a good life
That sounds great, but what does one do for work? How far away are the jobs that pay a livable wage?
Sounds like it could at least be a great place to retire.
This “money laundering” trope about cars selling for silly money on these auction sites is just dumb. Nobody is laundering money through a very PUBLIC auction. It’s not a thing. And the seller owes a big income income tax bill on the gain on this car. You can bet your bottom dollar the IRS watches these auctions. Trivial to watch the results, compare them to book value, and send a demand letter. Then it’s on YOU to prove why you don’t owe them the money.
Where do you live that houses are <$50K? Nasty parts of Detroit or the most rural parts of Mississippi? Rural Japan or Italy? And I’d love to know where you can also buy four decent Camrys within that budget too. Me thinks you need to lay off the wacky-tobbacky.
It’s like nobody can get a joke anymore
They rarely translate well into text.
Sometimes we need a laugh track.
Laundering money would be the person buying the car. Easier to transport. Moving across borders, if any tax is involved would be on a generic 2001 Acura. They don’t know how much you spent on the thing. Then when you get to your destination you could auction it off and hopefully get most of your money back. Think of drug money going south of the border. No one is going to make you pay sales tax. And you don’t have to smuggle cash.
Very, very doubtful. There are much easier ways to launder money, and NOBODY pays actual cash in these amounts. The reddest of red flags for the Feds, and no seller with a brain would accept it. And don’t forget, “structuring” is a Federal crime too.
If you want to spend $200K on a vehicle, easily move it to a foreign country, then sell it, you are going to buy a boat (or an airplane), not a random vintage car for a crazy sum that is the result of auction fever (and auction fever is the explanation here). Nobody would pay the slightest attention to it, unlike this sale which is being widely publicized.
I’m not talking about sales tax – the IRS is going to want income tax from the gain on this sale from the seller. Sales tax on a private sale is typically (not always though) due when the vehicle is registered, not when it is sold. If this thing goes into a collection and is never registered for the road, chances are no sales tax will ever be paid on it.
Must work in finance. Ex computer operator with vivid imagination.
Degrees in accounting and law, but I’ve been in IT for 35 years. But I still do some taxes on the side, and have LOTS of relatives in law enforcement. And I have bought and sold WAAAY too many cars.
The person I knew who was hiding excess money in cars died 40 years ago. He was never caught. I think they called it under the table money. Everything was paid in cash. Used to keep a wad of $100’s in his pocket that was bigger than my fist. But, in this area, one could still buy untaxed whiskey, so there was probably a whole bunch of people doing it.
Doing ANYTHING in cash today anywhere near or above $10K is very, very, very difficult. Not to say it doesn’t happen, but NOBODY is going to do something as public as an internet car auction to launder money.
that is a lot of shitty ford econolines
Or a moderate number of serviceable ones.
Not around here. 200k might be a good down payment for a house.
I own half of a 2 bedroom duplex in a neighborhood where “aren’t you afraid you’re going to get shot?” is the usual reaction to telling people where I live, and 200k would be a solid 25% down payment on it today. The only thing stupider than mint Integra prices is SoCal real estate.
Unless it’s NorCal or Hawaii.
It’s roughly what my nicely renovated little 2bd/2ba shack in God’s Waiting Room FL is worth these days. Crappy one-car garage, but this car would fit in it nicely, instantly doubling the value of the house!
Same. Even a teardown would be close to 3X that where I live in New England.
You can always move. I did, best financial decision I ever made. Bought and paid off the new house in three years, and no state income tax as the financial cherry on top. Plus winters that don’t suck.
Helps that I have had a WFH job for nearly 19 years though.
Yes, moving really is the only option. The problem is that wherever I think I may like to live, a little research shows the COL is just as bad, if not worse, than I’m already dealing with.
Being fully remote is a great freedom. I have to actually go to my job, like a loser.
Moving to a much lower COL area was the best financial decision I ever made. Is this my first, second, or even fifth choice of where I would live if all else was equal? Nope – but I like it here well enough, and having lots of excess money allows lots of freedoms. In an ideal world I would live near the beach in La Jolla, California, or maybe Santa Barbara – but when I bought this house in 2017 for $90K, a collogue was buying a near identical house in San Diego, but with no garage and street parking, for $990K. I paid off this house in three years – he will be lucky if he can pay off his in 30. And then there is the $15-20K annually I save in taxes comparatively. No state income tax, and my property tax is $1250/yr.
If it ain’t a type R then it ain’t a tight car
I remember a good friend of mine back in the day inherited an Integra Type R from her grandad. She was 18 and it was her first car, and she was NOT a car person at all. She had it for years and I suspect in all that time it never got anywhere near the redline. I found it amusing at the time and now my only regret is I never asked to have a drive of it – though to my shame I didn’t know how to drive a manual at the time. She ended up trading it in for a CUV from memory.
Eh, some of us are late bloomers. I didn’t learn to drive stick until 5 years ago.
That’s gotta be one of the rarest granddads ever – purchased an Integra Type R and then willed it to a grandchild who knew nothing about cars. Also one of the saddest stories as said grandchild sold it off not knowing how much their grandfather knew about automobiles that they didn’t. If anything, this just sounds like the premise to an anime…wait is this family Japanese?
My grandfather who was a collegiate automotive repair teacher for 25+ years would’ve left me his ’88 Cutlass Ciera with the dealer discounted factory Trucoat
Not Japanese… Though she is/was into anime? My understanding was she had a great relationship with her grandad, apparently moreso than some certain other extended family members who *were* into cars and were very unhappy when they found out he’d left the car to her. Be nice to your grandparents kids!
Did it get stolen yet?
I graduated in ’02, I remember the tuner kid with his EG Civic getting a legit one as a graduation present from his dad.
When I was in college I knew several rich kids getting expensive cars and wrecking them in a year. Only one ended up in a coma and dying. Good odds right?
I knew a rich kid in high school who managed to total three Saab 900Ts in less than two years. But at least his parents were smart enough to buy him Saabs… He might not have survived owning ’80s Mustangs.
So cars like these are the hemi cuda’s or charger daytona of the current generation of fuck it money? Crazy
Having driven all of the above, that’s not a fair comparison. The Acura’s just a better car and a metric crap ton more fun. 🙂 Yeah, you don’t have the V8 sound but in exchange you get to brake AND turn in addition to accelerate.
(No way I’d spend my own money on one of these though, but can understand the appeal)
Frankly you can’t really drive them that fast anywhere so I prefer the sound
Oh hells no. If I had $204k to burn on car stuff I’d run a season or 2 of Global MX-5 Cup. Of course, anyone who has $204k to burn on an old ITR can probably afford to do both.
If I had 204k sitting around I would not be burning it on a car
There are plenty of people for whom $204K is couch-cushion money. Get two or three of them interested in the same very rare car and here we are.
It’s that whole “wealth disparity” thing writ large.
Right on the money.
That’s a big number but I’m not surprised. For people of a certain age (and possibly geographic upbringing), this was pretty close to peak desirable car in high school, so it *is* their ’63 Vette. Growing up in 1990s SoCal I remember how hyped the Type R was: “If it’s not Type R, it’s not a tite car.” Now those same people have nostalgia and nostalgia.
I hate this shit and what BAT has done to ruin cars like this for the rest of us. This was never supposed to be a high end collector item…it’s a zooted up economy car that’s meant to be enjoyed by people like us. Now it’ll get mothballed by some rich asshole who has 15 other cars they never drive.
It bugs me when exotic cars aren’t driven, but at the end of the day I begrudgingly get it. What I don’t get that pisses me off is when these lizard people decide they’re the only ones who deserve cars that were meant for folks of regular means and price folks of regular means out of them. That’s end stage capitalism. Leave the regular cars alone and go lease another Porsche….this is car gentrification.
Couldn’t agree more.
BAT has Porschefied the entire market. Up until the last few decades Porsches didn’t even hold their value that well. They were kinda the first big one to take off and it’s only gotten worse from there.
Shit, I need to find some rich person with F You money to unload my Ice White Mustang on.
I’ve never seen another on the road, so it must be super rare and therefore worth at least as much as this Type R. Even better, it’s actually been driven so you know all the shit works.
/s
I agree with the sentiment, but after lots of experience with the drivetrain disagree with whether this car should be put on a pedestal. I shamefully have ruined one of these cars by getting a good deal on a wrecked one and swapping the drivetrain into a Lemons race car. We were popping a D or B series engine every 750-1000 miles, then learned the trick that if you retard the timing 2 degrees you can double that, and the transmissions generally lasted 1000-1500 miles. Since we put this drivetrain in the car has done roughly 35-40 races or about 30K miles and has only started consuming 1/2 quart of oil per race over the last 3. The real secret sauce to the Type R is the torsen diff and the transmission though. It single handedly transformed my opinion of AWD > RWD > FWD to a question of how twisty and what the surface is like.
If there’s consolation to be had, it’s that most of these will eat it on trying to cash out, if that day comes.
Nostalgia’s a thing, yes, but it’s only a thing if you were there. 1950s American cars don’t do much for me, and even ’60s muscle cars are kind of passe, outside a few genuinely interesting (and rare) vehicles. Untold Chevelles, Corvettes, and Mustangs clog Boomers’ garages, and I’m not sure someone under the age of 40 is going to jump at the chance to buy them for inflated prices their current owners think they’re worth.
I didn’t drop acid in the ’60s at Woodstock, and a ’68 Chevelle with a 350 and a 4bbl is not that exciting of a car. Kinda cool, sure, but not at what people want for them in this moment of time.
If you didn’t live the Fast and Furious / ’90s Japan bubble sports car thing, the Type R Integra isn’t a hugely desirable thing. Sure, we’ll have a period where they’re kind of hot and dinguses with too much money and no brains will make these headlines a thing for awhile, but eventually the next generation will find that a 200-hp front-drive economy car isn’t that exciting, because it really isn’t.
I didn’t even think these were cool when they were new. I am a European car dude through and through. To each their own, and I hope the new owner enjoys it whether he parks it in his living room and fondles it or gets it out there and drives the wheels off it.
I mean, BaT still sells a not insignificant number of ITRs for extremely fair prices. Looking at past results, there’s a lot in the upper 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. Even some in the teens if you don’t mind modded RHD examples.
https://bringatrailer.com/acura/integra-type-r/
This car is an absolute exception – it’s arguably the best year, insanely low miles, and was being sold by Peter Cunningham, who had it in the Realtime Collection for many years. It’s the peak of ITR, so this price makes sense. Highly unlikely this has any effect on less-prestigious examples.
Couple points
“what BAT has done to ruin cars like this for the rest of us”
What has Bring a Trailer done any different than any other auction market?
“This was never supposed to be a high end collector item”
Neither were most current collector cars. The original Shelby Mustang GT350 wasn’t either.
“it’s a zooted up economy car that’s meant to be enjoyed by people like us”
This describes every M3, HEMI muscle car, Shelby Mustang, and more.
“Now it’ll get mothballed by some rich asshole who has 15 other cars they never drive.” at 4800 miles since 2001, that doesn’t seem too different than the life its led to this point. There are plenty of drivers’ examples of this car out there.
“lizard people”
Well this one just has roots in antisemitism and i’d encourage everyone to stop using it.
“Leave the regular cars alone and go lease another Porsche….this is car gentrification.”
This isn’t a regular car anymore, and never was. It was always an enthusiast car.
I agree wholeheartedly. It’s a 30 year old econobox with some go-fast parts. These cars should have gotten more accessible as they aged, not less.
Don’t even get me started on old pickup trucks. 30-40yo trucks are peak car gentrification these days.
It sucks, because it makes it harder for younger enthusiasts who are on a tight budget (myself very much included) to land a moderately okay project car.
There are plenty of fun but unloved cars out there you can play with. It’s why I got into Peugeots as a young lad – they were massively cheaper than anything else out there that was remotely as nice. Why follow the herd?
The internet makes that harder and harder to do. Almost any car worth driving has a “cult following” these days. For example, badge-engineered Saabs used to be the niche, “unloved” version of the WRX. Now they’re hipster machines that go for as much if not more than their original Subaru counterparts. SN-95 Mustangs were a dime a dozen 10 years ago, then their reputation as cheap muscle ballooned prices. Unsung but excellent cars end up amplified by influencers and cease to be accessible. Just about everything else isn’t accessible in the first place (I’ve never seen a Peugeot listed for sale locally, running or otherwise). It’s really tough to be into cars right now if you have limited disposable income.
Peugeots were the previous century – they were last sold here in 1992 after all. I was into them from about ‘1995-2003, and by 2003 then they were starting to be damned difficult to get parts for, though I expect the modern internet would ease that somewhat. But you will always pay the rarity premium for that sort of thing now.
I think it’s more all cars seem more expensive. But it’s all relative. Toy cars were never a poor person’s hobby. I suppose a big part of the problem is simply that there are far fewer interesting and fun cars these days. Those that still exist sell in FAR smaller numbers, and age takes it’s toll every year on the fun cars of the past. As one example, Mustang sales have fallen by about half every decade for the past 30 years. In the late 80s they averaged 200K a year, today about only about 40K.
There were very few Type-R built but they were by means the only enthusiast quality spec in the Integra lineup. Not so long ago there were a whole lot of GS-R spec Integra’s out there for not all that much money and those were splendid cars too. (My brother had 2 stolen in the 2000s, they were that good lol.)
If enthusiasts wanted to save these cars it could have happened but they didn’t so scarcity will dictate price from here on out. My sense is that a lot of folks are just bummed that they didn’t have the foresight to acquire one of these when they could have. I’ll always be miffed that I opted for the $6k e30 325is over the $10k M3. This is the way it goes.
I could’ve stretched my budget a little recklessly and bought a GTR in 2020. There was a local one listed in the 40s that had about 50k miles on it and a clean CarFax. That car is probably worth $75,000+ now and I wound up getting $30,000 worth of raises in the next two years, so the dice roll would’ve paid off.
It happens to the best of us, but that one really haunts me.
I suspect that you might still get your chance at a GSR. These bubbles come and go. In the meantime, the current Z feels like a good deal for a rad car.
It’s worth mentioning that this specific Type R had impeccable provenance. A nice driver quality Type R sold on CAB for $40k just this month.
Oh I definitely have my sights set on the current Z. You can already get brand new, base spec manual ones in the mid 30s and even the special edition ones are already being heavily discounted. I figure in 5-10 years you’ll be able to find decent enough base ones in the low 20s or even high teens.
For a rear wheel drive, manual, quite reliable 400 horsepower car that looks incredible? It’ll be a screaming deal and for a couple grand you can always add the differential, brakes, and other goodies from the higher spec. My plan would be to add the bumper from the heritage edition as well.
Although even those may be attainable. They’re already selling barely used in the mid 40s…although it might be more fun to make my own.
I didn’t realize that heritage edition was a thing. That front bumper is a bit of an improvement. Get that car man. You Only YOLO Once.
It happens to cars that are popular, for whatever reason.
I remember the peak of muscular madness in the ’00’s, when cars that sold for less than 5K new were going for high 6 or even 7 figures. Those cars were pretty much meant to be disposable at the time, driven into to the ground or wrapped around trees by hot rodders.
Agree with others that this should’ve been driven. They’re genuinely special.
These are idolized for a reason. They were the last of their kind. I genuinely respect DC5 Integras (RSX), but they had a much different buyer they were targeting. I always wonder what was possible if they had went mental on the DC5.
I wonder how soon an Evolution IX MR crosses $200K? They’re already close.
Or you could just buy one of the two Phoenix Yellow DC2s on cars.com for $45,888 or $27,900.
That is most definitely a great car, but much like the Fiero v. Ferrari article from a few days ago, if I had $200K to drop on a car…
I wouldn’t.
4800 miles in 24 years just seems wrong/unfortunate.
Right? It’s a fucking spicy economy car, not a Pagani….
My next thought was…will this car continue to appreciate? Will someone in the future be willing to pay even more?
Surely, there is a ceiling for bad financial decisions, right?
I also get that this has one of those deified high revving Honda 4s but like….you can go get an Integra Type S in the low 50s right off a lot right now. A dealership will probably even sell it under MSRP.
Is this really 4 times the car?
Doubtful. This was just two rich guys who wanted THIS car and decided they had to have it until one blinked. It’s not a Ferrari GTO.
The Acura will probably outlive every Pagani on the road. Still outrageously overpriced though.
You summed it up nicely. These are undoubtedly great cars, and I remember vividly staring longingly at a picture of one in a Car & Driver when they hit the market.
But there’s too many cars I’m far more interested in owning for $200k.
Where can I buy a house for $200k these days? Asking for a friend.
Wrong end of Alaska?
Rural Pennsylvania, perhaps.
You could probably buy a whole-ass neighborhood in Gary Indiana for $200k.
But then you’d have to live in Gary, IN.
Beat me to it. You could probably get something really old and small in the midwest for that price pre-pandemic. Good luck now.
The average home price in Earle, AR is $53k and has been declining since 2020. All you have to give up is everything.
I’d have to go looking, but I wonder if some parts of the Rocky Mountain rain shadow could possibly be cheaper. That place is a genuine desolate wasteland with no opportunity in sight, and the only thing you could do for fun out there is play football with a cactus like Snoopy’s brother Spike.
EDIT: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi seem to have actual things in the $25-40K range that aren’t abandoned, not in horrible shape, and aren’t trailers. Whether you want to live in these very specific places in these states is another question entirely.
In parts of Appalachia you can get 2 houses for $200k. Not sure you’d want to live there.
Nowhere with a functioning infrastructure and school system.
Plenty of places as long as you don’t want to live in a suburban area, and what a lot of people don’t realize is that much of what you’re paying for a house is paying for the dirt underneath the house.
I just spent less buying 10 acres an hour away from my house than I’d spend buying the 1/4 acre plot down the street from my house. If I’d gone 2.5 hours away I could have gotten 100 acres for the same price.
If I bought a half acre or so up there instead, I could easily stick a pretty decent house on it for less than $200k.
Actually, I bet you could buy 3-4 houses within Detroit’s city limits.
You didn’t say anything about being habitable. 🙂
Nowhere you’d actually want to live.
God’s Waiting Room, FL. You can get change back if you can stand the interior being a little dated and/or it only has one bathroom. Bonus, low property taxes and no state income tax. Nice quiet place to live. Prices are actually dropping after the big runup over the past 5-6 years. The hurricanes are annoying, but less so than snow storms every year, IMHO.
Or pretty much any of the flyover states outside of major cities.