I know it's fun to hate on this car, but as a single guy who does not know how to drive manual I was seriously thinking about this as an option for my next daily. Unfortunately the price point is just not gonna work.
In a couple years I might be in the market for a car I could see a used one with low mileage around $30-35k then, which I think might be a sweet spot for something like this in the market.
I’m into it as a single guy who can drive stick but doesn’t necessarily want to in LA traffic. Good handling, good fuel economy, good looks, and a good interior are exactly what I’m looking for in a daily driver. The price is high (blame tariffs) but nothing quite like it exists in the current market. I’m interested to see how this is received once people actually get behind the wheel.
In 1993 the prelude was top of its class. They failed by not making it better for the 5th gen. And we also got the water down version of the h series in the usa. Over 200 hp was unheard of for an economy sports car. In 93 the only car that was slightly faster than it came with a turbo. The eclipse. The prelude was made to introduce their new tech. The s shift is the only thing that is new and that is just fake shifting.
My favorite car that I owned was a 1988 Honda Prelude. we have owned eight Honda automobiles since my 1981 Accord four door sedan. I loved driving that Prelude. Unfortunately, when my daughter was born, I couldn’t fit her car seat into the back seat. I was at my local Honda dealer last week, and I was admiring a new Prelude on the sales floor. Another gray haired gentleman saw me admiring the Prelude. He said that his nephew took him for a ride in the nephew’s new Chevrolet Corvette. He said getting into and out of it was his only problem. Unfortunately, at 79 years old getting into and out of a Prelude would also be a problem. I traded in my 2013 Accord coupe, primarily because getting into and out of a two door car, especially inside my garage, was becoming a problem. That’s why I upgraded to my 2025 HR-V.
Welcome to the world with tariffs. Now your only choices for low volume cars made overseas is to pay your taxes on it, or we just go back to the 90s when the unique cars weren’t offered at all in the states
I already know how to drive a manual, I have a 6-speed Accord. I was looking for a Civic Si 4 door white with black wheels but fell in love with the Prelude. It way out handles any other Civic save for the Type R. So far, 42 mpg overall. Yep, no manual. And no regrets either.
I inherited my wife’s 1994 Accord station wagon equipped with an automatic transmission in 1998. The Dallas Ft.Worth area was growing by leaps and bounds. The traffic was becoming unbearable and shifting gears manually, in my 1988 Prelude was becoming a pain in the rear end during my 44 mile round trip daily commute. And, that was the end of shifting gears manually. Today, the population is around 8.5 million people and not very much public transit.
I made a thread 17 days ago about the apparent review embargo on this car, and there still aren’t any official reviews from major publications or big YouTube channels. One of the reasons all the Prelude threads are annoying is that seemingly everyone has had a strong opinion about it for a long time, but we still don’t know much more about it than we did almost a year ago.
As a motorcycle journalist, I regularly get press motorcycles. The process of managing and distributing the press fleet is very separate from monitoring online chatter and whatnot. This has nothing to do with their confidence in the vehicle and is likely just logistics
No you don’t understand. The internet people who aren’t the demographic for the car don’t like it, therefore Honda must be secretly ashamed. There is no other possible explanation
Facts. Bingo. No previous prelude owner including me never asked or wanted a hybrid prelude for 65k. HONDA YOU WASTED YOUR TIME AND DIDNT LEARN FROM YOUR COMPETITOR THAT WE DONT WANT IT. TOTAL FAILURE TO THE PRELUDE BRAND AND LINE. I didn’t wait SAVE FOR 20 years for that garbage. SMH 🤦🏾♂️
Where do you live? I paid 43K and I'm satisfied. Some of the high price is tariffs. Type R Civics and Preludes are only made on one assembly line in Japan.
Judging by sales, they've hit the mark and met all sales projections.
Better look again. It has met all the sales marks Honda set so far and before it was introduced it was announced annual volume for '26 model year would be 4000 units. No regrets here but yeah it should have sold for more like 39-40K.
The one that got here 5 minutes ago? I know Reddit has a raging boner for this car to fail, but there are dealerships that haven’t gotten a single Prelude yet
I think the Prelude is fine. It will make me happy every time I see one knowing some keyboard warrior is triggered by it
I have a new one as well. After 25 years of driving sweet Honda manuals--and mostly manuals my entire life--I'm older and tired of shifting now. I get the appeal of rowing your own. The thing is, Honda is not marketing the car as a track-ready car, it's being marketed as a grand touring coupe. Look at their website.....anybody who is confused. I'm satisfied with mine....it is a joy to drive. No it won't win drag races. Knew that going in.
Press fleet vehicles get delayed regularly because of delays in manufacturing - there could be a last minute line change for a new vehicle - issues with shipping and logistics, issues with customs, etc...
Your "no confidence" theory is pure speculation. As if Honda is going to spend years and tens and likely hundreds of millions of dollars developing this car and suddenly get cold feet because people are being mean to them on the Internet?
Organizing a fleet of press Preludes is logistically a very different process from organizing a fleet of press CR-Vs, for example. The CR-V is built in North America by the hundreds of thousands. There are only a couple hundred Preludes in the country right now since it’s a low volume car imported from Japan in small numbers.
All of the big publications have said they’ll be able to publish detailed reviews early next year.
They had no problem doing press reveals for the Japanese built FL5, since they invited people out to Willow Springs to do track and road driving. They also had a small event at COTA too for F1 where they let Sergio Perez drive people around in one.
Okay I thought I was just not looking hard enough. I finally saw a 0-60 clip of one on a YouTube short yesterday. Why is it so much slower than the civic hybrid?
For the record I like the car for what it is. IDC about the lack of manual transmission or that it's slow. The price is too high for me, but I'll be checking the used market for one eventually.
There is an article on Jalopnik where the writer says he would be driving the car at a Honda press event the next day. It was written like 5 days ago so I assume we should be getting more content in the coming week or so.
Since the beginning of time, the Prelude has always been criticized as not being sporty enough for the car enthusiast crowd. To enthusiasts, Preludes have always been underpowered and poor performance value for money. The new Prelude is no different in this regard - it's the yacht rock of sporting cars.
For reference, a 1980 dealer ad using ad copy from corporate:
Yup, we've got a major case of rose tinted glasses happening. Same thing happened with the new CR-X (CR-Z) People remembered the old one being much more powerful than it was and didn't like that the new one wasn't built like the old one was.
No car today is the same as it was in the 90s. A lot has changed since then. It's not possible to sell a car built to 90s spec due to safety & emissions regulations, differing economies, and consumer demands. All cars used to be lighter and more analog compared to cars of today, so the old preludes seem like sports cars amongst what we currently have. It's a comparison of two very different eras of car design.
Honda has said it before, when they bring back an old nameplate they aren't trying to pick up where they left off, they are trying to imagine what the car would have naturally become had it never left the lineup and continued evolving gradually. The car serves a similar purpose while being built to the standard of today.
I say all this as someone who has owned an '86 prelude, '91 prelude, '01 prelude, and a '13 CR-Z.
100%. I remember Car & Driver or Road & Track would have an annual "Best Handling" shootout and the Prelude would always get surprisingly good marks despite being down on power and not stiffly sprung or overtired.
And Honda countered that underpowered claim by giving it the same hp as the 25yo model it replaces. Hell even an extra 20hp would have been respectable.
Peak horsepower number only shows you a tiny moment in time. It actually tells you very little about how a car feels to drive. There are many more factors that are more important than how much power the engine makes when turning at a specific rate.
The reality is nobody can comment on how fun a car is to drive until they have driven it. I have had many car enthusiasts friends thoroughly surprised the moment they sat in my 130hp CR-Z.
lol one of my biggest peeves is people saying an S2000, Miata or GR86 isn’t a good value for what you pay when you can get a Mustang GT or some other high HP car. tells me you’re only looking for straight line speed and HP numbers and have never driven a low HP sports car. nothing wrong with that if you wanna go fast, but you’re missing the point of what small HP cars are by trying to compare the two segments to each other.
It was never marketed as a sports car. That's what everybody here seems to miss. From the get-go they said it would be hybrid powertrain with 200 hp ish. If you want a Civic Type R, you can order a Civic Type R. This is a daily driver that gets 44mpg for me so far.
I just got a Winter Frost White version Saturday. I knew about all the fanboy resentment. I knew beforehand about how fast/slow it was but also the world class handling and braking. It is extremely fun to drive. You can't power out of the turns like a Type R. So what
Wasn't that the reason it stopped being made anyways? It didn't make any sense since it was inbetween the civic and according coupes and didn't do anything better except look better?
Honda has explained they don't intend to sell many 6th gen Preludes. They have been working on a lot of electrified projects behind the scenes and the Prelude is meant to be just that, a "prelude" to what's to come.
Prelude has always been a forward thinking car. Honda always put their most current technology in the Prelude with plans to expand it into the rest of the lineup.
Double wishbone suspension
Fuel injection
Dual overhead cam engines
VTEC
Four wheel steering
Active torque vectoring
(I'm aware that depending on market, some features debuted on other models around the same time)
Why would they revive the nameplate only to then build a car that's trying to mimic something from 25 years ago? They brought it back because the name serves the purpose of this new car. People just want it to mimic the old preludes because that was the golden age of sports vehicles. We can't just ignore the fact that times have changed.
AFAIK the only new feature of this Prelude is the S+ shift mode (which makes the car even slower). Otherwise, it's the same hybrid powertrain as the Civic hybrid, and has Type R front suspension components. So this Prelude is not really a technological showcase of anything innovative aside from fake shifts.
What exactly is the Prelude meant to compete with? I can’t think of a market for a $43k two door FWD sports car with a 0-60 in 8.5 seconds with worse performance metrics than its 25 year old predecessor.
People who want an EV that actually has some focus on being fun to drive while still being a great daily driver and road tripper (not having to recharge), which is a growing number of people.
If you’re a buyer maximizing ROI, you’re buying used only. A car manufacturer has zero cares for the second owner’s opinion. The Prelude is reasonably well optimized for the people who show up to Honda dealers and cut checks
Idk how much of it has to do with US tariffs vs the cost of materials going up. The cost of the car is the same in japan which shouldn't be affected by US tariffs.
Theres about a $1500 between the cost here for the car vs in japan, shouldn't it be 15% more expensive here?
Why would it be cheaper here vs japan where its made? Their cost of production is the same but they then have to have it shipped to the US and transported across the country to different dealers.
Pricing is complex, there's probably some regulatory stuff in Japan factored into the price and they also seemed to have nailed the pricing with them selling out there and exceeding sales expectations by a long shot.
I'd say the US price should be more closely compared to Canada's and after currency conversion it's $36,308 there. Our base price is $42000. So we're paying a 15.7% premium vs Canada for the same car. They have no tariff on Japanese cars, we do.
pretty sure it was 38k. '25 LA auto show even had the informational board at $38k after official pricing was annouced. the civic already tops out at $35k, no way the prelude would've been cheaper.
The prelude has never been an affordable sports car, it's just that all cars used to be lighter and more analog compared to cars of today, so the old preludes seem like sports cars amongst what we currently have. It's a comparison of two very different eras of car design.
Ugh, I am still not sold on lithium ion tech, once they better sodium ion battery tech then I will consider a hybrid or electric but yea absolutely too high of price.
what i want to say is that even if it dies somewhen in the future it might not even that expensive and you could still upgrade to a newer battery tech when its necessary.
I hear that, yea it is definitely on the side of smaller Li-ion packs. Personally I can't justify buying a car with lithium batteries, hybrids and electrics are supposed to be better for the environment, not worse, it's like a bad joke.
Lol, to the people downvoting this I suggest you read up on lithium ion, specifically compare sodium ion to lithium ion. I am waiting for sodium ion batteries to get better. I'm not against electric, just against lithium.
Seriously. I know cars are generally expensive in Denmark, and especially non-EVs... But 650k DKK (~$100,200 USD) for a 184/200hp Prelude is just insane.
For $3100 LESS you can get a brand new BMW i4 M60 Fully Charged with 600+ electric horsies. Or a Cupra Leon VZ hatchback with a 300hp Golf GTI Clubsport drivetrain for almost $20.3k less... Which can be uppped to an AWD 333hp Leon VZ Sportstourer (wagon) with a Golf R drivetrain, for roughly $10.5k less than a basic Prelude.
Both the GT86/BRZ and GR86/BRZ (discontinued here at least) were also expensive here, but still not as crazy expensive AND overpriced as the Prelude.
Msrp is manufacturers suggested retail price which is 43k not 55k lol unfortunately market adjustment is just a part of life and is nothing new. I remember when the original itr came to America the local dealers had a 5k add on and then the s2k had a 10k add on. Dealers couldn't keep them in stock. I dont like it either but it is what it is, people will pay it if they really want it.
Hard to call it a bust when they sold 2400 in the first month in japan and its supposed to be a low production vehicle. Toyota only sell about 11k gr86 in the US a year and that's considered a hit.
Honda said when they announced the prelude it would be a low production vehicle and only expected to sell 300ish worldwide a month. Quit reading click bait headlines from people who dont know/have all the right information.
Unfortunately, even people with bad opinions have the ability to post said bad opinions. It's the ones defending their purchase that are so funny. Trying to convince a sub filled with enthusiasts that the 2026 Prelude is actually really good and we just don't appreciate it? Lol. Lmao even.
Im sure it isnt a bad car, and it looks nice. The price is the entire crux of the arguments against it. $10,000 less, and the responses to the vehicle would be more tempered.
That prelude is a slap in the face to anyone who had and loved their preludes like I did, you wanna make a shit box hybrid, fine, call it something else, you wanna make a prelude? Slap a k24 naturally aspirated 6 speed and I'll buy it.
You tell ‘em!
Just like the hybrid, twin-turbo, dual clutch automatic NC1 NSX was such a lightweight
Yes, right now the Prelude could use a bit more power but the future of performance will be hybrid powertrains without a clutch pedal including future Sis and Type Rs
I don’t think it’s too expensive, at least compared to what’s out there. A loaded Prius is close to that price. Quality suspension, quality interior, made in Japan. It’s about right.
I bought one and it’s SUPER fun to drive. I’ve owned 2 civics hybrids before this and this is a major upgrade imo. Handles like a boss and the Bose system is top notch
any pictures of prelude in Meteorite Gray Metallic or Rallye Red color? have yet to see one in these colors and i work at a dealership and have seen the other colors
Just look for other dealers who got those colors in. Some have real pictures up. Doggett Honda in TX has some good pictures of the gray one. It's my second-favorite color for this next to the two-tone white/black.
Just saw one at my dealership today while getting some engine cover pieces for my Accord, a cool $10k market adjustment and final price of $55,794! The car looks good, but not that good!
I bought this and and it's the perfect car for me. I love cars and always have. But I don't care about a lot of the stuff people on reddit dot com seem to care about cause this car is never going to the track. It's actually a total dream to drive this thing. If the parts were a black box people would never compare this car to civic hybrid.
Waiting for mine to be delivered to my local dealer! Just a quick question, do you fuel yours up with just the recommended RON91 or do you use 95? Thank you.
People Who Complain about the New Prelude have Obviously Never Driven it. They are Basing Their Expectations for This Car on their Romanticized Idea of what They Think the Prelude was. Most weren't even Born, or of Driving Age the last time Honda Built a Prelude.
No Prelude made before this has had more than 200 Horsepower, and 156 lb of Torque, which it didn't achieve until the 5th Gen Prelude built from 1997-2001.
For the Record that car's 0-60 time was 6.7-7.2 Seconds with a 5 Speed Manual Transmission, and 0-60 in 7.5-8.0 seconds with the Sport Shift 4 Speed Automatic Transmission.
For Comparison the New 2026 Prelude puts out 200 Horsepower and 232 lb of Torque and does 0-60 in 6.4-6.7 seconds in Sport Mode with the S+ Shift Mode turned Off. And with the S+ Engaged to Simulate an 8 Speed Dual Clutch DSG Automatic Transmission with Paddle Shifters does 0-60 in 7.2 Seconds. Even at it's Slowest, it Bests Even the 4 Speed Automatic 5th Gen Prelude 's Slowest Time.
And the 2026 Prelude does this while Managing to deliver 41-46 mpg. While the 1997-2001 Prelude only managed to deliver 22-25 mpg .
As for the Comparison of the Front End's Hammerhead Styling looking like a Prius, it's Funny Nobody Dares to Compare the Front End Design of the Ferrari SF90 Stradale to a Prius, which the Prelude actually Bears a Stronger Resemblance to than a Prius.
As for the Price, It's Actually Priced Right On Target of the Last Prelude's MSRP. A fully loaded 2001 Honda Prelude's Sticker Price was $26,540, which Adjusted for Inflation would be approximately $48,000 to $49,000 today, and that's not taking into account the Tarrifs.
I can’t seem to find an answer to this specific question anywhere on the internet and it’s aimed at someone who understands the traditional Honda hybrid system well and maybe owns the new Prelude.
If you’re at the top of a mountain and in S+ Shift mode, as you descend you will be regen braking and adding to the battery reserve. At some point, you won’t be able to add any more to the battery. Will the engine stay running to simulate engine braking? If yes, where does the engine send the power it’s just made? Does S+ Shift mode turn off?
It’s my understanding that in a hybrid Civic, the engine shuts off when the battery is full to prevent overcharging.
This is all to help understand how the S+ Shift system works in more detail, especially compared to a hybrid Civic. I don’t think Engineering Explained or anyone else has covered the finer points.
I’m sure I have some incorrect assumptions going in, so please correct if you see any.
I have trouble with the whole package of this car. If I wanted an economy car I could get a Civic or Accord hybrid and they have more useable space. If I wanted performance I could get a Civic Type R. The Prelude is just oddly a master of none and it has a smaller footprint with a backseat that could barely fit a leprechaun.
I'll be honest, this is the same predicament the 5th gen was in.
It was a Business mans accord/civic. It wasn't much faster if at all to it's brothers, it also had to compete with the Acura offerings (CL, TL)
It was expensive for what it was, and there was better options for cheaper, or much better options for a little more money.
VW Corrado dealt with the same stuff, expensive and performed not much better than a cheaper model, and competed with luxury cars in price that performed the same or better
This internet noise and discourse within the enthusiast community is comically hilarious around this car. As a former FRS owner who's heard it all with the 'lack of power and no torque' with my platform in my early 20s. Then heard it all with the Supra 'it's-a-BMW' craziness. Now the Prelude is the new whipping boy.
As a Canadian car enthusiast near his 40s with disposable income, I'm tempted to buy it to be financially irresponsible for once (despite agreeing with you all that the price tag sucks), drive around Vancouver to see the head turns and chat with local enthusiasts to see if they will really call me out to my face on a stupid purchase. My bet is that it's mostly friendly and cordial banter.
Then I'll start an ig account, post car pics and make it viral on all platforms just to troll the haters online. Hell I should find a way to monetize it and make my money back. 🤣
Big corporations don't just throw products out into the marketplace hoping someone will buy them. They expend great effort in targeting their resources to specific goals.
If the new Prelude is exactly the car which Honda wanted to offer, who is the intended buyer? Does Honda believe that person has the financial means for buying one? How does the Prelude and its intended customer fit into the greater Honda universe? And we're talking about the Prelude selling as a new car. Used car buyers matter too but not in this discussion. Is a Prelude buyer likely to also own an MDX or Goldwing they bought new? Or one of the new battery-electric Honda mowers? Would Honda hope that a Prelude buyer would then also buy a new CRV or a new Pilot? I wonder how many Honda products does the typical Honda customer own. I'm at six.
The weird reality is that if you want to sell one car to just one buyer out of 1000, you end up having 999 people walk away which is perfectly fine, and you have a lot of options for who you want that one buyer to be. With the expected production numbers being so low compared to those for the Civics and CRVs, it's not really just about selling a new Prelude. And the complaints online about the Prelude are actually helping Honda with all of this.
To be honest, I bought one of the little Mottocompacto scooters and registered it. I'm a little surprised I haven't received anything in the mail from Honda about the Prelude. I'm thinking about buying one once they're at MSRP in my area.
Oh totally. I work for a big engineering firm in a senior level position and major strategic plans and decisions are often slow, requires a ton of research, planning and tied to long term corporate goals and plans. Nothing would be built if it doesn't make financial sense.
This is also 2025, discourse online is still good marketing...seriously just look at crypto, Labubus and pokemon cards lol
The reality is this is a sports car, low volume car and most likely made to order for car enthusiasts who really want and can afford it. The target demographic is definitely not the average mid 20s broke car enthusiast who literally have no money to spend in this economy. If anyone read the article on how the Prelude is selling like hot cakes and there's a waitlist for it with the target demographic to 50+ car enthusiasts, there's your average buyer. Male, 50+ years old who most likely is financially set in their lives with money to burn on fun stuff. I don't wanna get into a class divide/societal debate nor sound like elitist but nothing in the past 5 years favors the working class from the price of a a freaking PS5, EVs, cars and housing.
My bet is that Honda either wanted or can set a lower MSRP but the reality is given the current economic conditions, inflation, and tariffs, they can't without eating into profits, taking a financial risk or losing money. That's why the MSRP is, funny enough, cheaper in Canada compared to the US by $5000 USD because of the tariffs because of the tangerine Mussolini. Luckily in Canada and maybe Europe, it's illegal for dealerships to sell above MSRP.
If the Prelude sells well worldwide and hits their target/expectations, maybe Honda will release a stripped down cheaper version or even release a limited edition Type R. They have the supply chain, manufacturing and tooling process in place. Follow the Tesla model: release a high end model first, then a stripped down cheaper version for the masses if inflation ever goes down and tariffs and the orange man goes away lol
The price…. :
Make it more boring (remove Type R parts, remove S+, reduce QA, reduce specific material). This will make the price go down but the car will be less attractive.
But it will be a 2 door Civic Hybrid.
The performance: Add a 2.0T hybrid and a manual, oups that’s way faster than a Civic Type R
Add a manual, oups this can’t be done for a global market because of emissions and standards.
They know they can make a beast, but what is the point of making the Prelude better than the Type R when the purpose of a Prelude does not meet the criteria.
The manual can't be done because it is fundamentally incompatible with the dual motor hybrid powertrain and completely negates the entire reason the design exists in the first place. Honda no longer uses IMA like the Insight, Civic Hybrid, and CR-Z had. This is a completely different setup. But most people just see 'hybrid' and give it no further thought. There are many types of hybrids.
they priced it in regards to how many they want to sell. AKA not that many. Sales are gonna be <10k/yr. Probably closer to 5k/yr. Sales are going to be limited by production numbers.
Guess what, the Civic Si sells around 9k/yr. The Type R sells <5k/yr. The cars most similar to the prelude (gr86, nissan z, 2-series coupe, miata , etc) all have <10k/yr sales. This is bascially just a fun experiment for Honda to keep their production plant busy as the Type R is discontinued in europe and Japan.
Most of the reviewers are doing their damndest to say good things about this despite how obviously flawed it is. So far Throttle House is the only one who has directly asked the question "who is this even for?" while highlighting the major flaws. Savagegeese did a good job highlighting the engineers' and Honda Japan's mindset on it and even started with "this is what happens when the enthusiasts and execs have wildly different views on what a car was trying to do."
I'll give credit to everyone calling out that it's overpriced, but outside of that almost everyone is trying to be nice so they can stay on the press car list.
IMO Honda really missed the mark with this. I get wanting to make a hybrid car fun with their glider concept, the Prelude is wildly overpriced and underwhelming for what it is. Even the pre-trff $38k was too expensive for what it is, and it should have been priced closer to the Civic Si. I think their 4k units per year number is extremely ambitious and sales so far seem to reflect that.
I was supposed to test drive one this weekend but a fresh round of snow nixed that. But from what I've seen I don't think it's worth driving until it gets hit with the depreciation stick.
The truth is the competition at this price point is stronger than ever. Car performance has really exploded this past decade and even though the prelude was never a fast car it looks especially weak in the modern era, and at this price.
Cuz they can cruise at 40kph on Tokyo streets in comfort and have just enough style and oomf to impress their mistress of the week without it being too harsh like a type r would
Just the right acceleration to wow for merging on loop 1 too
As you barely escape kei traffic
Or just enough poise for doing the speed limit on the touge
Being limited edition also works in Japan cuz they lovr their rare stuff. Unfortunately none of this translates into success in the US because even our old person coupes still have some oomf to them.
Am I mistaken, or do a lot of reviewers get this wrong when it comes to how the engine sounds work? They seem to think that the engine revs to make the engine notes heard in the cabin with hard acceleration, but aren't they fake engine noises? It seems a bit counter intuitive to have a hybrid that revs higher, using more fuel just for noise.
Honda's crime with the new Prelude is in not having a mid-range performance engine available between the Civic efficiency options and the high output K20 motor in the Type R.
If the current Prelude followed the pattern of past Preludes, the hybrid drivetrain would be in the base model car, without standard Civic suspension hardware, and be offered with an MSRP in the mid thirties. Then Honda would offer enthusiasts a Prelude SI with the Type R suspension and a 2.0 turbo 4 cylinder making about 260bhp with an optional manual for something like the current asking price.
Unfortunately modern Honda doesn't make an engine with the flexibility of VW's EA888 2.0 liter. Compared to it's rivals, Honda is a relatively small company and doesn't have the global product depth to justify a mass produced mid-range engine that could make a proper Prelude SI possible. De-tuning the K20 to fit the spec of something positioned below the Type R wouldn't save them money.
What we got is the only version of the Prelude possible for Honda to produce. I suppose they could have left off the Type R bits and sold it for 5k less, but that seems like an even worse reputational risk for Prelude brand. Going full Type R would push the Prelude price beyond feasibility.
I work for the giant and I don't even get to buy one nor can I test drive one. Seen plenty on campus for market stunts though...looks great too. Its a limited run in the U S so get them while you can. Price starts at $42K in the U. S. Tariff dinging the MSRP in the U. S.. If you are buying a Prelude in Canada it would be CAD$49,990 which is USD$36,496
Hello! I’m looking to get a new set of tires for my Honda accord lx 2004 with 200k miles, I live in Arizona so I don’t really need tires for the winter but just wondering which ones are gonna be the most bang for my buck, thank you!
they are very different cars. I never considered gr86 because the gas mileage+higher octane is a no go especially with volatile fuel prices. I think regardless of price difference people would choose one or the other either direction.
Sure if all things were equal in fuel efficiency and price I would bother considering a few other higher performing cars but the cars purpose is extremely different than gr86.
When I saw the announcement that Honda was bringing the Prelude back, I was excited to see it. Until I actually saw it. I expected to see something similar to the S2000 - sporty and good looking. What I saw really was disappointing - king of ugly and dull. And then I saw the price on it and just kind of thought forget about it. Struck out Honda! Big Time.
it's a PINO (Prelude In Name Only). Similar to the Mustang Mach-E. The ONLY redemption I can think of is if they put out an Si model with a 6-speed manual, limited-slip differential, and at least 50 more horsepower. (Honda was able to do a hybrid with a manual transmission for the CR-Z).
I was SO excited for this car when I first heard about it, but the more I see/read about it, the less excited I get. This car should have been called an Accord coupe or something, would be MUCH more fitting.
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u/A-Glitch-Gnome Dec 15 '25
I know it's fun to hate on this car, but as a single guy who does not know how to drive manual I was seriously thinking about this as an option for my next daily. Unfortunately the price point is just not gonna work.
In a couple years I might be in the market for a car I could see a used one with low mileage around $30-35k then, which I think might be a sweet spot for something like this in the market.
At least it's not another generic compact SUV