All Growed Up; We love Acuras Integra, but its replacement the RSX, is better in every way.

Grandpa used to say it's tough growing old.

But between his folksy aphorisms and curmudgeonly grumblings, he failed to mention that sometimes just growing up is bittersweet. Perhaps because it's a lesson only experience can teach.

Acura, Honda Motor Co.'s upmarket division, has done a lot of growing up in recent years. Its cars look better today than ever, produce quicker numbers at the track and offer buyers greater bang- (and equipment) for-the-buck than previous models. More importantly, Acura has watched its sales consistently rise; its 3.2TL now leads the way as America's No. 1-selling near-luxury midsize sedan, eclipsing such competition as the BMW 3 Series, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Lexus ES 300. For 2001, Acura hopes to move out 170,000 cars and trucks.

What, you ask, is so bittersweet about that? Well, not much. It's just that sometimes when a new model debuts it's hard to let go of the old.

If you didn't already know, the Acura Integra is about to die. In its place Acura will roll out the RSX this July, to the delight of every Acura dealer in the country, says the automaker. To be sure, Acura's RSX is better than the Integra it replaces, in every quantifiable way.

"The Integra was more boy-racer," says RSX product planner Jay Joseph. "We needed to bring the RSX more in line with the rest of the Acura lineup. It needed to grow up." In Acura-speak that means giving it more performance and more luxury appeal. To that end the RSX succeeds, though it took a good deal of time behind the wheel before we felt comfortable bidding sayonara to Integra, boy-racer or not. After all, you don't just casually toss aside a relationship built up over a decade and a half.

On paper-and on road-the RSX impresses. The base RSX gets a 20-horsepower boost over the Integra GS with a 160-horsepower i-VTEC four mated to either a five-speed manual or SportShift automatic. The sportier Type-S gets a 200-horsepower 2.0-liter engine-30 more horses than in the Integra GS-R-linked to a sweet-shifting close-ratio six-speed manual. Acura says it improved the six-speed's shift effort over the GS-R's five-speed while shortening the throws to only 1.8 inch.