Is This Pristine Honda Integra Type R Really Worth £45,000?

Even today, the DC2 Honda Integra Type R is considered one of the best-driving front-wheel-drive cars around. Arriving in the UK in 1998, it was the first flavour of a compact Type R on these shores and history tells us how well that went down. Now, perhaps the tidiest example remaining is on sale, albeit at a stomach-churning cost.

Let’s just cut to it. For sale through 4Star Classics via Car and Classic, this Integra, immaculate as it is, will cost you £44,995. When new in 1999, it would've cost £19,500 - about £35,000 in today’s money. For what it’s worth, £49,995 grabs you a brand-new FL5 Civic Type R.

Before you scoff though, this is surely the closest to a factory-fresh DC2 Integra that remains on the road. It’s covered just 12,318 miles from new between two owners and comes complete with a meticulously detailed service history from 2000 to 2016, missing just one interval in 2005.

It’s been in storage for the last seven years, covering just 59 miles ahead of a 2023 major service including a cambelt change. With that in mind, we imagine very few if any of its original 187bhp has escaped from its VTEC-heavy B18C.

We’ll take a mark off for it not being in Championship White, even if its Starlight Black paintwork is immaculate and with those decals - often fading in time - looking as fresh as the day it was new.

Its interior is a relic in itself. Its part-Alcantara seats have no wear or fading, almost as if those few miles on the clock have been driven with plastic covers over them, while the steering wheel retains a like-new matte finish. Original Type R floor mats are still here, as is the space-saver spare wheel. Granted, 25-year-old rubber is not something we’d want to drive on.

£44,995 for a 25-year-old Honda that isn’t an NSX, though? A hard pill to swallow for us. Expect some wealthy collector with a humidity-controlled storage facility to snap this up shortly.