I was a college student when the third-generation Acura Integra was introduced in the fall of 1993 as a ’94 model. I was more interested in domestic offerings, especially the new Camaro and Mustang, but I liked that round, individual headlamps had made a return on cars like the new Integra and sixth-generation Toyota Celica, which arrived at the same time. The Integra wasn’t on my list of cars I would have liked to own in the future, but in some of the many discussions and debates in the TV lounge of our dormitory floor, as well as in many articles in concurrent car magazines, its many virtues were extolled.
The Integra was a cut above many sporty cars in terms of engineering, handling, safety features, and performance, and being a Honda meant it also had rock-solid reliability. The eight model year run of the third-generation cars was the its longest, with the previous two iterations both lasting four years. Peak Integra sales in the U.S. came with the 1990 redesign, with about 83,600 units sold between both the three-door hatchback and four-door sedan. Of the third-generation cars, the first-year ’94s were most plentiful here, with about 67,400 sold, with sales slowly tapering off through the end of this generation for ’01, when only about 13,700 were sold. The Integra has since returned for 2022 as an early ’23 model.
The fall of ’93 was also shortly after I had joined BMG mail-order music club and had started an major expansion of my compact disc collection. Only a couple of summers earlier when my family had moved to Florida, one of my favorite discoveries was Donna Summer’s On The Radio greatest hits package. The liner notes of Pet Shop Boys’ Discography, which I had owned first, led me to that purchase, where Summer’s groundbreaking, hypnotic “I Feel Love” from 1977 and its propulsive, analog synthesizer sound was cited as the PSB duo’s sonic inspiration for their worldwide 1990 hit “So Hard”. The On The Radio compilation reintroduced me to many of Summer’s songs I had previously loved, most of which I hadn’t realized were hers. On The Radio was the “gateway drug”, so to speak, that led to my research of Summer’s history and stellar body of musical output which ended, sadly, when her life was cut prematurely short in 2012 at the age of 63 by lung cancer. She was a non-smoker.
My family tolerated my summer-long Summer-fest that year as I played that album in the family Nova almost every time I was behind the wheel, even if I had to be quick with the Delco fast-forward button to skip the graphic “Love To Love You Baby”, lest my mother hear even one of Donna’s ecstatic moans. My younger brother, newly aware of my fandom, presented me with my first LP copy of her 1980 album The Wanderer he had found secondhand at a thrift store, her first for newly-formed label Geffen Records. She had just jumped ship from Casablanca, the label for which she had recorded the bulk of her most recognizable and culturally iconic songs, reportedly due to clashes with label head Neil Bogart and the desire for greater autonomy, control of her image, and artistic freedom.
To make a long story short, The Wanderer, a more rock-oriented release than what she had been known for, sold but a fraction of her immediately preceding records, even if it earned a Gold certification from the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 copies. This number was a far cry from the Platinum (one million plus) success she had achieved with her prior three, consecutive, double-albums for Casablanca, a record that stands in 2022. Still, The Wanderer is my favorite Donna Summer album, a personal collection of songs in which she sang about rebirth and having emerged from the depths of the dark place in which she had found herself by the peak of her commercial success in the late ’70s. It remains an uplifting, often replayed touchstone in my vast music collection. Curiously, despite the shift in her sound on this record, it was still produced by long-time collaborators Pete Bellotte and Giorgio Moroder, the latter of whom is now 82 and has performed live as recently as 2019.
Breakdown, shakedown again
Breakdown, over you
Breakdown, way down again
Breakdown, over you, over you
The third track on the first side, “Breakdown”, is narrated by an unfaithful lover in one half of a dysfunctional relationship that has, well, broken down. Stuff happens. People fight. Sometimes reconciliation and real change in a relationship and its dynamics are possible, but that takes both honest risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis. As my sister once told me within a different context, nothing changes until something changes. Thinking about this wrecked, black Integra and the lyrics of “Breakdown”, written by Bellotte and Harold Faltermeyer, the similarities between a romantic relationship and used car ownership come into focus in my mind. This Integra’s newest owner was not the first one, nor the second, and probably not the third. At the time of its most recent purchase, however, it didn’t look like the complete mess we see in these pictures. It was once a serviceable, driveable car – one with Integra style and upscale Honda cachet. Two people can enter a relationship in much better shape as individuals than when they leave it.
Just when our love appeared to be
Growing strong
And just when you believed that
We both belonged
You catch me out a-cheating and
Foolin’ around
You find that I’m lyin’
I feel like I’m dyin’
Here I come cryin’ again
How soon the love affair can end with a used car, especially when it begs for your funds and forgiveness. Any vehicle that’s twenty-five years old is going to have or develop issues, even if it’s a Honda. Things were going swimmingly with my newly-purchased, four-year-old ’94 Ford Probe before the CV joints went out, both at the same time. A deafening CLACK-CLACK-CLACK one day immediately accompanied my attempts to make even slight turns to the right or left. Oh, Baby, I remember thinking. We’ve been together only a few months, and now you’re going to do me like this? My Probe wasn’t the only used car I owned that had tested the bounds of my love. My ’88 Mustang, purchased at five years old and with just under 60,000 miles on the odometer, had both the heater core and air conditioning compressor fail within months of my ownership. I wonder what was the first major failure that occurred with this black Integra following the most recent title transfer. Disappointment surely ensued, even before the final collision that put it out of commission.
I put you through this whole
Affair before
I broke it up, you broke it up even more
Then I begged you to patch it all
Up again
Why did you listen to me
You should have let it all be
You shouldn’t put all your trust in me
Fix me up, just one more time, this black Integra seems to be saying as it sits haplessly at the curb, stripped of its license plates. Have you ever witnessed a stranded, inconvenienced driver taking out his or her frustration out on their vehicle, causing even more damage in addition to whatever had landed it by the side of the road? Having one’s car be out of commission can mean relying on someone else to get you around in the meantime. There’s the cost of parts and labor, not to mention the tow truck. The first time something breaks on a new-to-you purchase, you may think it’s okay and assume that it was just a fluke. The first major fight you have with someone with whom you are or were enamored may feel like a test of your bonds, almost as if by making up, you’d be able to say the two of you had weathered that first storm without any issues. Then the next fight happens.
1995 Acura Integra LS coupe. Ravenswood, Chicago, Illinois. Saturday, March 16, 2013.
Will it feel as coincidental when the next thing breaks on your used car, especially if it happens not too long after the first malfunction? At what point does the red flag in your mind match the newly illuminated red light on the car’s dashboard? Even if a car runs well, body damage or a compromised structure can test your continued loyalty. Similarly, after the next row with your significant other, or even a family member, when do you start asking yourself if you should simply cut and run? To quote another Donna Summer lyric, the hard part is not only knowing when to do so, but also in being decisive in your choice to “Walk Away“.
Here, in black and white, are two battered examples of a generation, make, and model of car that is still celebrated. There’s probably no bringing back either car even by the most devoted fan, at least within sound financial reason, with both examples having been utterly broken down. There’s no bringing back Donna Summer, either, though her music lives on in her vast, varied, and expressive body of work. There’s also no manual to instruct if or when any kind of relationship should end. Under normal use and wear, no regular vehicle will last forever, though admittedly, a relationship is different than a vehicle, which is manufactured with planned obsolescence designed right into it. It is still my hope that people have or gain the wisdom and discernment to know when something is worth saving, and when to let it go.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, November 7, 2020.
Very interesting and perceptive connections here, Mr. Dennis, and I like the tapestry you weave, it crosses all lines as well as shown with your pictures, affecting everyone equally…
It immediately brought to mind a couple of other songs as well from again two very different sets of artists (on the surface), after that first realization that something occurred that you weren’t expecting, cuing up Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s own “Breakdown” brings it into stark relief and maybe attempts to understand and go on, with the next move being yours:
https://youtu.be/dqxns-JTTqA
Of course when it happens again and then perhaps the reality emerges there is only one course of action that really gets to the core of things and there is no rebuilding, the anthemous “I Will Survive” by the fabulous Gloria Gaynor:
https://youtu.be/6dYWe1c3OyU
As far as the car goes, the length of time that this generation was available was interesting, although I never warmed to it even though very impressed by the first two. Somehow it just seemed too stripped down and the headlights too beady somehow, making it seem somehow visually pinched overall. In hindsight, maybe there was more rawness beneath the surface, and more ability, but it wasn’t what I was expecting and thus I never overcame the initial disappointment. Or maybe time had just moved on and I had not. The subsequent RSX I initially thought was more of a return to its roots, but that didn’t seem to pan out either even if the excellent TSX could be thought of as maybe the four door sedan version in a more bifurcated strategy, at least the first generation of it..
Thanks, Jim. I’m also a Petty fan and used his “Breakdown” for a Curbside Outtake years ago, for a ’71 (or so?) Chevelle that had broken down downtown in the Chicago Loop.
I remember being surprised that this generation of Integra was still in production toward the end of this run. Like, I’d be flipping through a new car buyers guide at a bookstore (remember those?), see the Integra, and say to myself, Huh.
Loved the looks of the RSX when it first came out. That car, however, will always be intertwined in my mind with 9/11. Right after that model came out and 9/11 happened, I saw a media image of one of those crushed in a collapsed garage in NYC. It was one of the first times I had seen a picture of one outside of an automotive magazine, and it was during that event.
I’ve never had the opportunity to drive either an Integra or an RSX. I’m glad Acura brought back the Integra name. I’m hoping that despite the name’s absence in the marketplace, that it still holds some cachet with buyers who remember the original cars, and that it’s attached to a genuinely great car.
Fun read. Even had some car stuff in it. ( that = joking, I appreciate your work). I would suspect that the pet shop boys musicography might not be dead center CC demographics. Suggest a listen to “the way it used to be” by TPSB . Could be stretched to be taken as a lamentation over your old lost car or just be enjoyed as is. (And as inspiration for The Weekend’s Save your Tears). Drive on!
I’ll go on record as a big Pet Shop Boys fan since they were first played on KROQ back in ’84, being surprised to see that Flint, Michigan provided exposure as well…We are not alone.
They had a Top 40 single with ‘West End Girls” in ’85, that got played in “fly over country” a lot.
Yeah that was their first hit, KROQ played a differently mixed version for the first six months, then PSB remixed the song for the album “Please” – it’s weird to hear the original one now, it’s out there if you can find it but definitely sounds different.
Flint had a pretty decent array of radio formats when I lived there. It’s a GM town, but by the time I was listening to the radio regularly in the ’80s, it was becoming more of a college town with the expansion of U of M Flint and some of the other local colleges (Mott, Baker, etc.). With college kids comes more of that kind of diversity. Flint had great concert venues, bars, clubs, etc. playing good music long before I was old enough to get into any of them.
Thanks so much. I’ve already made peace with the fact that some of my essays have been like therapy / open diary entries. Not as a regular practice, but as I see fit as it relates to some car I’ve taken time to photograph. I’ll never be a Klein, Niedermeyer, or Cavanaugh in terms of providing purely automotive content in my writing – that’s part of what I appreciate about being welcome here. 🙂
That black one looks mighty clean. My guess is that it was humming along like old Hondas do until a big punch in the nose put an end to it. Maybe the white one too, but its harder to separate its condition from the collision damage. When it comes to car breakups, my experience is that with old Fords of this era it is the car that causes the end of the relationship, while with old Hondas it tends to be the owner. Certain old Fords (like ones named Windstar or Explorer) were outright abusers.
I worked with a guy who had two of these from new, a 94 and a 96 or 97 if I am remembering right. His were high trim cars with leather and a stick shift and were mighty fun little things.
You make an interesting distinction between and observation of the black and white Integras and what put each respective car out of commission. I’m looking at the photos of both cars and thinking the black one hit something straight on, while the white one might have been involved in a corner collision.
What’s funny about both of my Fords, Probe and Mustang, was that after those initial things, both cars were basically trouble-free before I got rid of them. Of course, the Probe was “half-Mazda” and thus part Japanese, but my 2.3L-equipped Mustang was all-Ford and super-reliable (except for a wonky belt-tensioner for the serpentine belt, which went out later). Which, I guess, one would expect from a design that had basically been in production for ten model years by the time mine was built in May of 1988.
You have rolled up a lot of things throughout this piece but particularly the last paragraph.
From a totally clinical perspective, people way too often let their emotions get in the way and it throughly clouds their otherwise better judgement. It would be expected people have emotional feelings toward other people, but this emotional feeling all too often extends to automobiles because, hey, it’s practically a member of the family.
Maybe that statement sounds cold. So be it. But let’s take, for example, that old ’63 Ford I had. It was a generally wonderful car I had had for 35 years. Most would think there would be an emotional investment – I suppose there was to a degree – but after some brutally honest thinking I realized it was time for somebody else to be her caretaker.
Announcing the sale of it here long ago, there were a lot of comments about missing it once sold, emotional commitments, etc.
I have not once missed that car. Rather, my emotions about it are happiness that it found a new owner who was excited about the car for what it was and annoyance about the pandemic slowing down my progress in selling it.
Cars are the easy part. I have applied this same clinical thought process to family members. While one cannot necessarily eradicate them from your life as you can a car, one can manage their level of involvement and interaction with said family members. I have and it’s been great.
One just needs to turn off the emotion; granted, it is frequently easier said than done. It does take practice. Yet things get much clearer when doing so.
As an aside, this ability to turn off emotion helps (at least for me) when dealing with personnel issues at work. Anybody in any managerial role has had them; the person on the receiving end of disciplinary action often gets quite emotional and maintaining a stoic presence helps diffuse things considerably. You just need to flip your internal switch.
After stating all this I likely sound like The Ice Man. Such really isn’t the case.
About the Acura? Like you I was more into domestic offerings at the time although I do find the headlights an interesting styling quirk on an otherwise bland looking car.
Thank you, well said.
Jason, I appreciate everything you’re written here, and instead of sounding cold or clinical, both in dealing with coworkers and family members, it sounds like healthy, appropriate boundary-setting. This has also worked for me in both settings.
I’ll admit to being one of the people who privately lamented your sale of the Galaxie, but I also understood that it wasn’t my car or my set of finances, circumstances, or otherwise. Most people have considered all options before making the decision to buy or sell a classic vehicle. And yes, a lot of that is driven by emotion.
As Jim Klein mentions above, I wasn’t too keen on this generation either, largely due to the front end treatment. I’m not sure why, but I thought the inset round headlights sunken into the rubbery face cheapened the overall effect. I did really like the RSX when it was introduced, even though I thought it stupid that Acura hadn’t just continued the Integra name, which is something a lot of others have also found fault with.
As for Donna Summer, in my view she could do absolutely no wrong. She’s a frequent flyer on my playlists, and I don’t think I could count the number of times I’ve streamed the Youtube video of what I think was her final appearance on Oprah, featuring her performance of “I Will Go With You”. Her music is my happy place whenever I need to go there.
When I was researching a few facts about these Integras, I learned that the original, round-headlight look of these cars was not popular in some markets, like in its home market of Japan. They were called “spider eyes” (!) and restyled for ’95 to have a more conventional headlight look for ’95. I don’t think I’ll ever see another one of these without thinking of spiders. By the way, I love spiders. Absolutely love how they look, move, etc., and their multitude of eyes don’t bother me.
I was able to see Donna Summer in concert both in 1998 in Tampa and again in 2008 here at Ravinia in support of her final, new studio album, “Crayons”. Not only did she look and sound great, but the audience added to the fun. Some of her music has soundtracked some of my favorite memories.
Ah, Boston’s own Donna Summer! Hot Stuff and Bad Girls were (and still are in my mind) the sounds of the summer that immediately followed my high school graduation. Both of those songs sound better to me today than at least Bad Girls did back in the summer of ’79 when it seemed to issue in several years of “disco whistles” and just random dudes walking, riding and roller skating on DC and NYC streets blowing whistles.
Toot-toot. Heyyyyyyyyyy Beep-Beep.
As for the Acura, I had a neighbor for a while who had one of these coupes and my impression was that it was somewhat valuable; but I didn’t really know, never having been much of a Honda/Acura guy. It was distinctive, and I definitely still notice them when I see them.
My feelings whenever I see a smashed up car like the black one on the street is just dismay. I tend to believe (correctly or incorrectly) that the car was probably involved in some sort of crime as who would just leave a car on the street after smashing it. Yeah, I know…”Lots of people”. Which causes me dismay. So I guess I feel that someone likely made a conscious decision about ending the relationship with the white one, but the fate of the black one probably didn’t involve a whole lot of thinking.
So much great stuff here, Jeff – thank you. Based on the timeline you provided, I’m guessing you’re within a couple of years in age of my sister, who also seemed surprised (years ago) with my Summer fandom, given that her and my age gap is not insignificant. “Bad Girls” is also a favorite of mine – her only hit to top both the Billboard main pop chart and also the R&B chart, and I also own that album on CD. Many different musical flavors represented on that double-album.
The “dismay” you felt while looking at these car pictures seems to really fit. I felt immediate pathos when I saw the black one almost a couple of years ago, which was why I ended up photographing it on an otherwise fun photo-walk. I was hoping to come across an appropriate essay topic while I sat on these pictures, and thankfully, it came to me.
Never a Donna Summer fan but “West End Girls” does stick in my my mind and popped up as soon as you mentioned PSB. I think there might be some British socio-automotive analogies that could be extracted from that song too … a ratty hot hatch and a white Golf convertible come to mind … Thanks for another great Tuesday morning dive into your personality, Joseph.
Thank you so much. “West End Girls” was one of the songs that led me to purchase Discography, but as was the case once I discovered Summer’s “I Feel Love”, I soon learned that the Pet Shop Boys were a treasure trove of great songs I love even more than that one.
Other countries seemed to be much more in tune with their genius than the U.S., which is often the case. They actually had a handful of memorable Hot 100 chart hits here in the U.S., but with none of the massive success they had elsewhere. Respect to them.
This was a very good car, but the market was filled with very good cars and not large enough to keep all those very good cars in production.
This car never made my list because I wanted something more muscular looking and immediately recognizable – a Mustang fastback 5.0. Red. A great car. Cheaper than this badge engineered Honda.
A five-liter Mustang hatch, an LX, would easily have been my choice over one of these, but I doubt those two cars were cross-shopped by the same type of buyers.
I did read in my research on these Integras that some consider them to be among the best-performing FWD cars, ever.
Amazed at how long this Gen of Integra was for sale, since Honda fans like to brag about short product cycles.
By the time the RSX came out, the trendy FWD coupe market dried up. And, there were plenty of used Integras, so bye bye. Co-worker couldn’t believe the RSX got dropped, thinking it was a ‘popular car’, but didn’t know the market.
The shortened popularity-cycle of certain types of cars, like these Integras and other sporty cars, was depressing to me. At some point, models like these got a first-year sales boom, with numbers fading pretty quickly, versus pretty consistent numbers over the life of one design. I also was sad when the RSX got dropped, remembering them when they were introduced, but they hadn’t really been on my radar to the extent that I had read about them regularly and kept up with there development.
One sad badge engineered Honda… Fords of the ’80s were well known for heater core issues. That said, unlike earlier Ford vehicles, they were a snap to change. Can change the one in my ’83 Ranger in 20 mins. Ditto my sisters ’85 Mustang. The ’68 Mustang my other sister had? Second only to changing the blower motor in a 240 Volvo.
It would have been nice to have a family friend who could have fixed the heater core on my new-to-me Mustang at the time. I remember the repair being somewhat expensive (for a teenager), though I can’t remember if I’m thinking of the price for just the heater core repair, or also for the a/c compressor. Which also acted up.
The most I ever did on my ’88 Mustang was change the oil and the gas struts that held up the rear hatch. Oh, and I painted the polycast wheels bright silver again. That last thing made the car look much newer than it was.
My brother had one of these, I think the GS-R variant. Fun to drive, really handled – but its stiff suspension and non-stock (noisy) exhaust tip made it a little hard to live with as a daily.
That’s the real talk right there – how easy a car is to live with on a daily basis. I like the “try before you buy” philosophy of some car stores, but by the same token, I don’t like the thought of purchasing something that’s been driven by a whole bunch of people. I could make peace with the idea if I otherwise loved the car and the price was right.
wait for it……………………………………..
that’ll buff right out.
…………………………..ok continue.
LOL – that was right on time.
Great piece,thank you. ‘I Feel Love’ I remember from my last year as a teenager and the compilation CD is still a driving favourite, singing along very badly, if I had passengers they would surely say ‘Enough is Enough – No More Tears’.
And the temptation to walk away from the vehicle when it lets you down, as my VW van did recently when on the same day I collected after a cooling system repair it stranded me at the side of the road with a broken CV.
Is it ‘Better the Devil You Know’ after the song by another Disco Diva?
Excellent! I think I sometimes sing along badly on purpose just to encourage full participation from others in the room / passenger compartment.
And I love Kylie, but my current jam is still “Slow” from almost 20 years ago. How did that happen?
I was a big fan of the first Gen Integra after the fact and always thought of obtaining one. Unfortunately another group liked the cars and had the strong tendency to mod the hell out of them making them unattractive to me. This model, with the inset head lights, never appealed to me at all.
I, too, am a fan of Donna Summer. I turned 21 in late 1974 and that is pretty much when the disco scene started in the night clubs I was now able to venture into down in San Diego. The one song of hers that has always stood out in my mind was “Last Dance”. It was many times the last song played in some San Francisco disco clubs right before closing. When I hear it I think 1978 in The City immediately. The other song that is embedded in my mind like that is “Thunderstruck.” Had heard it before many times but it was the song playing when I first saw my wife in the Philippines 22 years ago. I know how appropriate…
Ah, “Last Dance”. Another great one and a staple of so many different events I’ve attended, from ’70s nights at clubs, to wedding receptions, etc. I watched the movie Thank God It’s Friday all the way through within the past couple of years, and now the image of Donna Summer playing singer Nicole Sims and performing this song at the club is burned into my mind whenever I hear this song – in a good way.
As for the AC/DC song (which I had to look up), I’m actually not familiar with it! Found it on YouTube, and I’m surprised I’m unfamiliar with it, as I would have been in high school at the time and hanging out with people who listened to this type of music. Good stuff, even if I didn’t own any of it.
Actually a prior girlfriend turned me onto AC/DC quite late in their evolution as I hadn’t heard of them. Wouldn’t have been on the San Diego stations back in the 70s as they were conservative so to speak as compared to the San Francisco stations. My go to station from 1982-2016 was KFOG . I especially liked Dave Morey and Ten at Ten. If you enjoy music, especially some of the not so common hits of artists, then Ten at Ten was for you. Just over the weekend I found an archive of many of those shows. What memories.
First page of 138 shows: https://www.kfogforever.com/ten-at-ten-archive?page=0
Dave retired in 2008, those first two are Annalisa, so scroll down and pick a year.