Badge engineering has come a long way and cars like the Acura Integra and Honda Civic, which are based on the same platform, look really different. The only rationale, though, is that some parts are shared.
Usually, this will not be a problem. Who cares if the cup holders of two cars are the same? Unfortunately for the Acura, the new Integra has an Easter egg for the Honda Civic on the inside, making it clear which car it was actually for.
Jason Richmond, known as HondaPro Jason, has a spill mat deep inside the gut of the brand new Integre Center console that can be lifted to reveal an image of the original Honda Civic with “The CIVIC” written on “History is gone”.
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The inscription is similar to the one found in the tenth-generation Civic. However, the center console of that car had a large drop-down mat at the bottom that featured Honda Engineering celebrations. It featured a motorcycle, an F1 car and a HondaJet.
The 2022 Civic, meanwhile, shows the same top-down, papercraft-like figure on the inside of the car (with the same inscription), but it’s not located under a sloping mat. It can, instead, be found under the currency tray on the center console.
This kind of makes it unclear whether this happened as a result of penny-pinching or if Acura is happy to admit that it is based on the new Integra Civic and wants to celebrate that legacy as well. After all, there are bad cars to share a platform.
We contacted Acura for more information but until we hear back, we’ll call it an interesting little Easter egg hidden in the new Integra.