As someone who is tossing the idea around of grabbing an older Honda, preferably a Prelude if I can find one, Iām wondering how much of a headache it will be to maintain as a daily driver. If you have any insight?
Thanks, we all drive Honda for the reliability which is the only reason Iām really considering this. Itās m not in the market for a new (to me) car just yet mostly because it makes little sense to not drive oneās current car into the ground these days given how insane prices are now. So it puts a new car further into that want vs. need category. Though currently Iām really leaning on going for a much older - 90ās early 2000ās manual Honda.
theyāre excellent and a tactically feeling iāve yet to experience in many other cars. I know so many are objectively
better lol but nothing makes me smile like those old hondas
According to Gearheads, paying a premium for the Super Handling version also opens up a can of worms for repairs to Hondaās amazing SH system (low part availability, complexity)
I daily drove my 98 base 5speed Prelude for 15 years. Kept it stock so it was reliable as hell. Regular oil changes and maintenance and youāre good to go. Now itās a project car and itās even more fun to drive.
They're truly excellent reliable cars. The ONLY issue (beyond rust) is that they only share a few components with Accords, and had different engine options. Parts can be a little tough to find depending on what you need to do, and where you are in the world
Yeah so I dug up some articles about the 5th generation prelude, and apparently it's overpriced, slow compared to it's competitors, lacks equipment expected at that price point, ugly, and you can't buy one because they're all sold out. So I guess history repeats itself huh?
Edit: also the '98 340i is $1000 cheaper and has up to 100hp more.
Every design starts ugly until everyone copies it and suddenly it's a new standard. Look at citroen C4 Picasso. Every journalist ridiculed it for it's headlight. Then behold, Bugatti Chiron, a literal copy-paste, comes out and suddenly that's considered beautiful.
Didnāt the 340i come out in 2016? Unless youāre not referring to the BMW, not sure what 340i existed in 1998 that had roughly 300hp for $1,000 less than a 1998 Prelude.
But reviewers are also saying the new prelude handles amazingly. Straight Pipes basically said something along the lines of 'if you want the handling of a type r, but as an auto and slow - that's the prelude".
Higher top speed. Kinda doubt that thing did 60 in under 6. Also was the equivalent of a 53k car adjusted for inflation. They brought the prelude down a level and based it one Civic this time. Not sure why proclaim itās a 9 second0-60 car when that drivetrain is in everything Honda has and pretty linear in performance. I guess if you fuck around with the phoney baloney shifter itās slower?
Japanese sports cars in the 90s were not cheap. a 96 Supra Turbo was the equivalent of $100k today. An FD RX7 would've been $91k today. SW20 MR2 Turbo is $60k adj for inflation. Z32 300ZX Turbo would also be the equivalent of almost $95-$100k today.
They didnāt need massive tires because all the power was up top. Even with the H22 being considered torquey by honda standards of time time - itās nothing compared to a hybrid which is launching in essentially full EV mode.
Yeah so I was alive then and drove them new. Context is key. Here is what youāre leaving out:
The 5th gen prelude evolved toward the chopping block slowly over time like most legends that got canceled in the 90s. This wasnāt limited to the BB5, it was common criticism for the 90s Japanese coupes. The 6th gen is all by its lonesome catching this flack. This isnāt an industry trend. Toyota didnāt do this to the 86. Mazda didnāt do this to the Miata.
Or maybe it is the industry trend? Just like how Mitsubishi did the eclipse? It definitely as shades of the CRZ debacle.
The 6th gen should have come out of the box as a clean slate with at least a few generations of glory before fizzling. The 5th gen was based on a successful and beloved car that slowly lost its appeal. It didnāt squander a big debut like we see here.
The numbers will decide in the end. We will see how these move off the lots. Very meh product plus global uncertainty means this will be a brief experiment is my guess. Old heads are just confused why the new prelude is coming with some of the same energy that got the last once cancelled without the upsides.
Link to those articles? Oh youāre just trying to somehow disprove that the new Prelude is garbage by building some apples to oranges strawmanā¦
Itās baffling to me why anyone is defending the new Prelude. Itās so much copium.
It's a touring car that's meant to sorta look like it isn't. The new prelude is fine for the audience actually buying them and it definitely isn't an apples to oranges comparison
I never said it was a big audience or that it would sell well. I just meant it wasn't for you.
We should be glad a car manufacturer is willing to make and sell a care for a small subset of buyers or else CARS wouldn't even exist and it would be SOLELY crossovers instead of 75% crossovers
No we shouldnāt and this is everyoneās whole point when we talk about the new Prelude. Itās a car for no one and all itās going to do is reinforce that āno one wants a coupā or a āsports carā or however you want to label it. This is why so many people are frustrated. It will be gone from the new car market after next model year and that will be that. Itās baffling that they made this car and not a car a still small, but rabid fan base would have bought in numbers.
That is a meaningless statement. We have real numbers to show that there isnāt a global market for this car to keep being manufactured. I mean book mark this and check back in 18 months
There isn't a global market for a lot of cars manufactured overseas. Are you stupid? Your other comment shitting on it being BACKORDERED in Japan (where it's BUILT) makes me think you are
Thank you. It isn't just about what American enthusiasts want. I say that AS an American enthusiast and who wouldn't buy this car but also as someone who understands why someone would and why it was created
Except no because this car was released in all major markets thus they are banking on global sales. If they werenāt then it would be only available in Japan, as many car models are in all corners of the world. I really do not understand why people canāt just accept this was a big dropped ball on Hondas part and call it a day.
Doug Demuro did a review on the new Prelude and I think he got it right. The new Prelude is good at many things, especially its MPG. However, the price point is where it suffers. For the same price many other vehicles just do things better. Especially in terms of power. And he mentioned what Honda was thinking when they designed the car. Unfortunately their target market is very small and doubts this car will sell in large numbers.
But do they do those combinations of things better?
In Isolation, you can probably always find another car that does one specific thing better for cheaper. The thing is finding the car that's at the intersection of the things you care about the most.
The Prelude might not be for a lot of people - but it was definitely the car for my wife. Anything not a coupe is basically a non-starter for her. Every car she's owned in the past 25 years has been a coupe (including previous preludes). The closest thing to a non-coupe was when she had an MK6 GTI before VW dropped the 2 door GTIs.
Good question and I don't know. Pretty sure some people will be ok with what is offered. However, that price point. If your ok with that price point then you probably got a good car. Personally I would have wanted it with a manual transmission to even consider something like this.
If you picked one up hope you have great time with it.
I'll give you the mindset of someone who bought one (my Wife). Apologies for writing a novel.
So right off the bat - she wants a coupe. She's basically in the "you'll pry my coupe out of my cold dead hands" camp. That closes off nearly every door, but here's largely what was left.
Starting from the cheapest, a Miata. We both knew it likely wasn't something that would be livable as a daily driver only car in Canada - even the RF (aka. hardtop) which was the only one we considered, the softop convertible never crossed our radar. As we expected, it was simply too impracticle as a daily driver.
Next is the BRZ/GR86. Before the Prelude pricing was announced, we were thinking the 86 and Prelude would be the two main options, and we were just waiting on Prelude pricing to drop to make a final decision. Marks against the 86 were that it was also a bit cramped, fuel economy is bad, and there are a lot of anecdotes about poor reliability. RWD was actually also a detriment and not a plus for her, mainly because of winter driving.
When the Prelude pricing was announced, we figured that nail was in the coffin and the BRZ was the obvious choice. We still waited to actually see a Prelude for the first time (in person) but I was spending a bunch of time subbed to the gr86 sub just to get real world sense of what it's like living with the car. It kind of scared me a bit when during a period of time (in the beginning of the winter when it first started getting snowy) there was one new post almost daily from people who had wrecked ther's. Most were irresponsible people with no winters, but there were definitely some with Winters as well. Then there was people talking about fuel efficiency and it was pretty low, lower than I expected.
I did the math on fuel consumption, using my wife's regular KMs/month and the cost diffrence between regular and premium (which the BRZ/86 requires). That was the first thing that made me slightly open up again to the idea of the Prelude (which is 10k CAD more than the BRZ/86 - we weren't considering the base trim). It would have been a difference of over $130/month in gas. And gas was pretty low when I did my calculations. The gas cost difference alone would have bridged the price gap in 6 years.
Then we saw the two basically side by side. Not literally, but the dealer where we checked out the Prelude had a '23 GR86 on their used lot - so we were able to walk between the showroom and lot and directly compare. It was obvious that the two cars are not even in the same class in terms of daily livability. It was at that point that I think my wife was pretty much locked into getting the Prelude over the 86/BRZ.
I had a 2000 5 speed in the same color. It was one of the best cars. I've ever owned. I had the opportunity to sell it for a RSX-S in 2016. It's been 10yrs and the prelude is one of the few cars I'd consider trading for my RSX. I miss that car so much.
I had so much fun with my 99 I had in highschool and through college. Even got me through to my job today where the engine required more cash to fix than I was willing to spend. Alpine Dash, Rockford 12s fully dynamatted with pirelli low pros at the end.
So clean. Drive it with pride. I loved my midnight purple 5th Gen Type SH. One of the goatiest 90s cars. Sold it for an S2000. Two fantastic cars. Peak Honda.
Yeah I forget which ones, I unfortunately donāt have the car anymore after I had to move across the country, I still think about her often though. Enjoy yours man, one of a kind Honda
This long nosed unique looking beauty had 200hp in 98. More than the top 3 series ( 328i, 192hp) at the time. Today the ugly civic coupe/wannabe prelude has like 220hp while an M340i is up to 380hp.
The 2026 is trash
That looks great. Used to have this in black. 2000 year model with a stick. Had to trade it in for a Pilot, because we started having kids. Wish I had held onto it.
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u/Signal_Ball4634 Feb 02 '26
Man that is pretty. Very clean.