Honda Integra Type R (DC5)
Why 7.2: Same shell as the Acura RSX and not the same car: the Japanese Type R runs the 220 PS K20A to 8,400 rpm with a close-ratio six-speed, a helical limited-slip differential, four-piston Brembo front brakes and Recaros. The United States got the RSX Type-S on the 200 hp K20A2, later the 210 hp K20Z1, and never got this.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The K20A pulls to 8,400 rpm and the VTEC crossover changes the induction note completely, which is most of the appeal — an intake noise more than an exhaust one. It sits below the S2000 because the F20C revs further and sounds angrier.
4-cylinder · naturally aspirated · 8,400 rpm redline · rated 7.9 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €22k (2002) → €40k (2026), trending up · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
ISOFIX was spreading through these years rather than fitted across the board — whether a given car has rear anchors depends on its year and market.
Children were expected in the back. Front-passenger ISOFIX effectively didn't exist in this era, and airbag deactivation was patchy — treat the front seat as a no unless a specific car proves otherwise.
Derived from production years and seating layout, not a per-car source. ISOFIX was standardised as ISO 13216 in 1997, required on new EU model types from 2011 and on all new EU cars from 2014.
The long version
Honda replaced the DC2 with a car a lot of people decided was worse before driving it, and the two real complaints — vaguer steering, and MacPherson struts at the front where the old car had double wishbones — were fair. What the DC5 gained was the engine. The K20A makes 220 PS with no turbocharger, revs to 8,400 rpm, and is bolted to a six-speed that is still among the best manual gearboxes ever put in a road car. Japan got the Type R, North America got the Acura RSX Type-S on a lower-output K20 and a softer specification, and the two have been muddled ever since; a real JDM car wears the red H badge and the Type R grille script, and had to be imported. The result is a very specific owner — someone who cross-shopped an EP3 or a DC2, already knew which engine they wanted, and drives it. Values bottomed in the early 2010s while these were still ordinary grey imports and have climbed hard since, which is starting to pull the best cars off the road, but the K20A is durable enough that high mileage reads as normal here rather than as a warning.