Honda Confirms Manual Civic Si and Integra Are Staying
The summer scare is over. Honda paused production of the manual 2027 Civic Si and Acura Integra A-Spec earlier this year, and the silence that followed was loud enough to convince a lot of gearheads that two of the most driver-focused compacts in the mainstream market were quietly being put down. On August 25, at the IndyCar Freedom 250 race in Washington, D.C., Honda’s leadership stepped in front of media and put those fears to rest.
American Honda VP of Auto Sales Lance Woelfer and CEO Eiji Fujimura both addressed the manual question directly—and what they said matters for anyone who rows their own gears in a Civic Si, an Integra, a Type R, or a Type S. The short version: the three-pedal setup isn’t going anywhere. The longer version is worth hearing.
What Honda’s VP of Auto Sales Actually Said
Woelfer didn’t sugarcoat the market reality. “It continues to be a smaller and smaller portion of the market that gets excited about the manual, and that will probably continue to shrink, honestly,” he told media at the event. That’s a candid admission, and it tracks with industry-wide trends that have been thinning the manual option list for years.
But Woelfer followed that with the commitment enthusiasts needed to hear: “Because they’re fun-to-drive, we can continue to have models like the Civic Si or the Integra or the Type R that offer [the manual]. But we don’t see [it] growing. We see very little [demand] going in, but we’re going to have them in the [assembly] line.”
That last phrase is the one to hold onto. Not “we’re evaluating it,” not “we’re monitoring demand”—they’re keeping the manual on the assembly line. For a company that has always positioned the Si as a driver’s car first, that’s a meaningful distinction.
Fujimura Invokes Soichiro Honda’s Legacy
After Woelfer’s comments, The Drive‘s reporter turned to American Honda CEO Eiji Fujimura and asked for something more concrete: a promise that manuals would continue for years to come. Fujimura’s answer was less specific but landed harder. “Sometimes I need to get back to Soichiro Honda [on some things], but we always think about [the enthusiasts], and we always think about their dreams.”
Invoking the company’s founder in that context isn’t just a PR move. Soichiro Honda built the company on the idea that driving should be engaging—that a car should connect driver to road, not insulate them from it. Fujimura leaning on that legacy to answer a question about manual transmissions signals that Honda still sees the stick shift as part of its identity, not just a niche accommodation.
The Production Pause Was a Hiatus, Not a Death Sentence
To be clear about what actually happened: Honda paused production of the manual 2027 Civic Si and Integra A-Spec as a supply-chain hiatus, not a quiet discontinuation. The company had already clarified before Woelfer’s comments that the Si would return with the next-generation Civic in 2028—though it hadn’t yet confirmed the manual would come with it. That gap in the official language is what kept the rumor mill running all summer.
Woelfer’s statement at the Freedom 250 closes that gap for the Si. The 2028 Civic Si is confirmed for manual transmission. The Integra’s future is less locked in—Woelfer named it alongside the Si and Type R as models Honda intends to keep manual-equipped, but the non-Type S Integra’s manual hasn’t been formally confirmed for the next generation. If it does return, 2028 is the likely target.
Right now, Honda offers manual transmissions across four models spanning its two brands: the Civic Si, the Integra A-Spec (where the six-speed is optional), the Civic Type R, and the Integra Type S. That’s a narrower list than it used to be, but it’s a list Honda is clearly committed to defending.
Why This Matters Beyond the Si and Integra
Honda making this statement publicly, at a motorsport event, through two senior executives, is the kind of commitment that’s hard to walk back. It’s also a signal to the broader enthusiast community that the company understands what the Si and Integra represent—not just as products, but as proof that a mainstream automaker can still build a car that rewards the driver.
With manual availability shrinking across every segment, the brands that stay the course become the ones enthusiasts plan their purchases around. Honda has always had that loyalty with the Si crowd and the Type R faithful. Keeping the manual in the lineup, even as demand contracts, is how that loyalty gets maintained—and how it gets passed to the next generation of drivers who will learn to heel-toe in a 2028 Si.
The summer looked rough for a while. Two beloved driver’s cars went quiet, and the silence felt like it could mean something permanent. It didn’t. Honda’s executives said what needed to be said, and the manual Civic Si and Integra live to fight another model year. Let’s hope the 2028 Si is everything the community deserves.
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