The two most accessible stick-shift Hondas you can buy today won’t be built after this model year. Honda confirmed to Car and Driver that production of the Civic Si and the manual-transmission Acura Integra A-Spec will pause at the end of 2026, with no firm date for their return.
The news leaked the way bad news usually does — through an alleged internal email posted on Reddit before Honda could control the narrative. That email, reportedly sent to workers at the company’s Alliston, Ontario assembly plant, pointed to EPA certification issues with the 1.5-liter turbocharged engine and six-speed manual transmission combination as the reason for the stoppage.
Honda’s official statement was carefully vague. “Due to evolving business conditions, production of the 1.5-liter turbocharged engine paired to the 6-speed manual transmission will be paused at the conclusion of the 2026 model year,” the company said. No mention of the EPA. No mention of why a powertrain that’s been in production for years suddenly can’t meet certification requirements for 2027.
The company did offer a lifeline to enthusiasts: both models are “currently” planned to return. That word — currently — is doing a lot of heavy lifting. “American Honda expects to share more details at the appropriate time,” the statement continued, which is corporate for “we’ll get back to you when we figure this out.”
What we do know is that dealer inventory of the Si and manual Integra A-Spec should last into early 2027. The Alliston plant won’t lose volume — it’ll simply build other Civic trims in their place. And the halo cars are safe. The Civic Type R, assembled in Japan, and the Integra Type S, built in Marysville, Ohio, are unaffected.
That distinction matters. The Type R and Type S are low-volume, high-margin machines that Honda protects fiercely. The Si and manual Integra A-Spec are the affordable end of the enthusiast spectrum — the cars that actually put stick shifts in the hands of younger buyers who can’t swing $45,000 or more for a Type R. Losing them, even temporarily, shrinks an already razor-thin manual transmission market in America.
The EPA certification angle is the most interesting thread here. A manual transmission paired with a specific engine tune requires its own certification, separate from the CVT-equipped versions of the same car. When volumes are small and regulatory costs are rising, the business case gets fragile fast.
Honda isn’t the first to face this calculus, and it won’t be the last. Every manual transmission model sold in America exists on borrowed time, kept alive by enthusiast demand that’s real but modest. The question is whether “paused” eventually becomes “discontinued” once the accountants realize nobody rioted during the gap.
For now, Honda says the right things. The Si will return. The manual Integra will return. But the gap could easily stretch past the 2027 model year, and every month these cars aren’t on dealer lots is a month buyers get used to living without them. If you’ve been on the fence about a Civic Si or a six-speed Integra, the fence just got a lot shorter.
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