Even the Civic that the Integra is based on is hard to justify. I remember a couple of years ago being pretty enticed by the Civic Sport Touring, as I liked the hatch and manual combo. On paper it looked like a great little city runabout. I just simply couldn't get over the $40K+ asking price for a Civic (that's not even an SI or Type R) when I remember my dad buying a Civic for like 10K in the mid 90s. I know there's inflation and you get more tech in a car today, but still, the value proposition just seems insane in comparison...today's car is not 3-4x better.
That Prelude doesn't look bad, and going hybrid is probably the smart choice. Unfortunately new cars are so pricey now that it's squeezing out the fun car option for most people. When most family/commuter cars were $20-30K, people could throw caution to the wind on a fun car...now that the average price of a new car in Canada is $66K(!), everyone has to be much more conscious of what they buy...and most will inevitably lean towards a lamer crossover that tries to be an everything car.
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