They did it. Just when I wasn’t sure they could come back they came back. Honda is the Arizona Diamondbacks of automakers. The Prelude is low-key one of the best Japanese cars sold in America over the last half-century, but changing tastes doomed it either to be a historical footnote or, worse, reborn as a crossover. Honda surprised everyone with a fairly production-looking Prelude that wasn’t an SUV, swoopy sedan, or weird hydrogen race car. It’s a coupe! In this economy!?! Incredible.
Electric cars have to be rational. They, ideally, should be profitable. This means that almost every electric car is either an aerodynamic fastback sedan/hatch or a crossover/SUV. There is a dearth of electric two-doors. In fact, there isn’t a single two-door (or three-door for that matter) mainstream electric car sold in the United States. Really, only China, with its Wulings, has mass-market electric two-doors, and those are primarily tiny hatchbacks.
[Update: Apparently this thing is actually a hybrid!]
This is none of those things. This is an honest-to-goodness coupe in the mold of every previous generation Honda Prelude. Remarkable. Just remarkable.
I’m realizing now that the Honda Prelude disappeared from the United States in 2001 so anyone under, say, 26, has no real idea what this is if they haven’t seen one before or why it’s important.
A Brief History Of The Honda Prelude
The original Honda Prelude has a certain cuteness to it, but other than establishing the name it isn’t a specifically memorable car and doesn’t explain the eventual greatness of the car. This was a response to Toyota’s RWD Celica without any of the actual performance of a Celica. The first generation Prelude is basically a shorter Honda Accord.
It was the second generation that established the mold: crisp, subtly athletic styling mixed with a little more edge than a Honda Accord coupe and a little more luxury than a two-door Civic. This is also where we get the introduction of the Si, with a hot rod (for the time) 2.0-liter inline fourbanger putting out a whopping 110 hp.
MotorTrend has a great little history of the car for further reading, and I think this section is particularly important:
The third-generation Prelude is where things really pick up technologically. It debuted for the 1988 model year with then-revolutionary four-wheel-steering, beating other Japanese manufacturers’ nascent 4WS systems to the punch. Whereas the forthcoming 4WS systems from Mitsubishi and Mazda functioned with solenoids and programming to change the angle of the rear wheels, the Prelude’s rear-steer was purely mechanical, lending a bit more reliability to the complex system and bringing cost down.
These are great little cars and I often see one in slightly rusty condition when I go jogging through my neighborhood. Do I hope it’ll have a FOR SALE sign on it one day? A little, yeah.
The fourth-generation Preludes are my absolute favorites, offering both a VTEC H221 2.2-liter four-cylinder with 187 horsepower and optional rear-wheel steer. It also looks the business, with its scowling headlights offset by small vents. It also has one of the best C-pillars of the era.
If you were a rich teen girl in the 1990s who was a little bit of an asshole two things were true: 1. I was probably attracted to you and I wouldn’t admit it. 2. You probably drove this car.
There are people who love the final (for the moment) generation Prelude. It looks great, undoubtedly, though I’ve always been disappointed that the rear-wheel steering was replaced with a sort of early torque-vectoring system called ATTS on the SH models. You could still get a manual transmission and the H22A’s power was kicked up to 195 horses.
The Sixth Generation (Hopefully) Prelude
So what’s this thing? It looks the part, with its mostly grille-less nose, blacked-out b-pillar, and lack of too-tough cladding or anything stupid like that. Is this thing for real? Let’s have Honda’s CEO Toshihiro Mibe explain it:
Honda has always been committed to creating sporty vehicles. And the word “prelude” means an “introductory or preceding performance.” This model will become the prelude for our future models which will inherit the “joy of driving” into the full-fledged electrified future and embody Honda’s unalterable sports mindset. The Prelude Concept is a specialty sports model that will offer exhilarating experience that makes you want to keep going forever and extraordinary excitement you never felt before.
In order to offer the “joy of driving” only Honda can realize, we are diligently progressing with development, so please keep your expectations high for this model.
Yeah, that means they’re either building it or they hate us. I don’t believe they hate us.
I am legit excited about this, if you can’t tell.
Looks brilliant, I want!
And because I like it the likelihood of it ever making it to the States suddenly begins to approach 0.
I drove an 89 Civic DX.I loved it. It was 4 door would have preferred 2 door. But for its day it was fast, reactive, economical and safe. I was able to do a 720 rollover accident, not a scratch on me, got it running for $1200 and after a year sold it for $400 to a guy who fixed it a bit more for his son’s 1st car. FYI I hadn’t even listed it before got the offer. Whyno love for the Civic?
Everybody likes the civic, it’s just not the topic at hand.
I think it looks cool… it just doesn’t look like what I would expect a Prelude to look like(?)
Wow, bringing back the second generation Tiburon body. Hyundai got rid of it, Honda wanted to rescue it I guess.
The nose gives me Insight vibes. But otherwise….would. Now just keep it under 3,500 lbs and we can be friends.
Makes sense to bring back the Prelude now that the Civic coupe has been discontinued.
The dash to axel ratio in the front is what’s making it look like a prius. Given the packaging flexibility of EVs, they should be able to push the front wheels forward and give it better proportions.
Retired Honda Guy Here…this rendering of The ‘Lude is 10 out of 10 hard-on material. I’ve never really warmed up to EVs, especially after working 30 years for the most voluminous ICE manufacturer, but damn the torpedoes and BRING IT. The wifey and dogs can schlep along in the the SUV but give me the fob to this fantasy and I’ll even forgive the lack of a MT, eagerly kiss farewell to my stops at the gas station, and kludge a 220V charging outlet before the first payment is due. Oh, anybody wanna buy a ’15 Accord Coupe V6 six-speed? I’ll trade it even for a place in line for this ride.
I owned a 3rd gen prelude for a quite a while… anyway… this…. I hate to say it, looks like a toyota prius. The headlights and front band connecting them, it now just looks like a toyota. Nothing else really works for me either.
THIS IS WHAT EVERY HONDA ENTHUSIAST WANTS THEM TO BUILD, BAR NONE:
https://www.topgear.com/car-news/tgs-guide-japan/what-new-honda-integra-should-look
Well, they fucked that up and just slapped a badge onto an ILX or whatever. Please don’t make this concept, please do something similar for the lude. It doesn’t have to be retro, but if the proportions were REALLY GOOD on the old car, keep the proportions. Update details.
People always talk about the 911 being ‘iconic’ design but the reason it is iconic is because it made small, subtle changes over time, and stayed recognizable.
Is that really what every Honda enthusiast wants? That render you link is basically a tweaked RSX and sales were miserable even though it was a pretty good car.
I also had a 3rd gen (1990 4ws) and I got to say that overall, I’m into this design. The nose could use a little work but overall they’re 90% there.
I think so.
Classic proportions. Modern surfacing. Modern details. That is what people want, because those designs looked goooooood. Hence why some of them are still desirable, the 4th gens are great looking cars and don’t even look that dated imho.
Yeah except it’s Honda, do you know what they do with an “almost-there” design with a bad nose job? Double and triple and quadruple down on it and almost ruin any progress the brand has made.
See: Acura Beak. It went on wayyyyy too long and everyone told them it looked awful right away.
I truly think Honda learned from that unfortunate beak era. All current Honda look fine to downright sharp and this one is already in the sharp category. There just isn’t a market for boy-racer designs – even Honda admitted as much with the new Type R.
As much as people claim that they like two door cars, they really don’t buy them when it comes time to put-up or shut-up. VW discontinued the 2 door GTI, Honda discontinued all 2 doors, and the list goes on. IMO with few exceptions, manufactures make these cars to get people excited about the brand and not to make money.
But based on the overall response to this new Prelude design, people are excited about Honda this week.
Gen 4 ‘Lude is definitely the best one. When these were new, I was driving an 88 Trans Am, so I definitely was not into this genre of cars, but I appreciated the styling.
My a-hole high school girl crush drove a 2nd gen Eclipse. Prior to getting that, she drove a teal (I love the 90’s) S-10 which I assumed was her dad’s.
This new one looks good, but meh, how many people actually buy two doors anymore?
my first car was a silver (sorry! ha!) 1983 Prelude that I had for 7 years – in the mid 90’s through early 00’s – and I absolutely loved it. I have very little interest in an EV and also already have two cars but I would be very very hard pressed not to try find a way to justify having my 2nd ever Prelude
A friend was given a 1st generation for his sixteenth birthday – the model was so new I didn’t even know Preludes existed yet – and it took him about a month to wrap it around a telephone pole.
With the third generation, over the course of several years, whenever I saw a female driving one, I always found her attractive.
I never cared for the styling of the fourth gen, outside or in. The instruments were squished down flat and wide.
And let’s not forget – they were always considered to be expensive for what they were.
With wheel sizes becoming cartoonishly large these days, it’s hard to tell how big this is from the pictures. There’s no scale to reference. This could be a nice trim coupe or it could be another bloated 78+ inch wide vehicle.
Looks nice! Kinda looks like a Prius coupe to me
It’s a crazy world we live in now that “looks like a Prius” is used as a compliment. 🙂
Agreed 100% on the crazy world bit.
I saw a new Prius on my block yesterday and looks better IRL even. Toyota completely flipped the book on that one and it’s now on my short-list for next car.
This is a really nice looking car. My sister had a Prelude Si when I was a teenager, and that was a great car! I never thought I’d hear that name again.
Apparently everyone here was hot for your sister.
I just love that this seems to be heralding a return to clean, tasteful styling – no ridiculous creases or bulges or fake vents or fake windows, and the plastic cladding is kept to a minimum. It would look fantastic regardless of powertrain, it’s the sort of EV you’d want anyway, it just happens to also be electric.
Price wise though, I have a feeling it’s going to wind up closer to the NSX than the old Preludes, because that’s just how things are now
Been seeing this with a couple of the EVs coming out – suspect both the increased emphasis on aero for range and the built-in excuse for a “clean break” is giving a lot of designers the opportunity to revisit the corporate “design language.” BMW’s new-new-classe or whatever they’re calling it did a similar cleanup. Whatever your hopes for electrification generally, I think we can all take this as a win.
Ohhhhhh wow. I want to get excited about this. I really like the design, and don’t care that the face is Prius-esque as I like the new Prius. A fun EV sporty coupe would make me very happy.
But I can’t until they prove me wrong about price. This thing screams starting at $49,999 disappointment. Also I have trouble believing that Honda will actually build them in any significant quantity, so you can bet these will have all sorts of shitty dealer market adjustments on them.
I want to be excited. I WANT TO BELIEVE. But car manufacturers haven’t done anything lately to make me trust an announcement like this. Here’s hoping Honda delivers something that’s actually attainable.
It it was a sporty hybrid in the mold of the current Prius they’ll sell a ton of them.
Saying that “the first generation Prelude is basically a shorter Honda Accord” gives short shrift the excellent car that the Accord was back in the 70s and 80s. Don’t let the Accord of the last 20 years fool you – the OG was an independently sprung four-door sedan that weighed less than a 1st gen Miata (!!), had a splendid 5 speed manual, and could get 40mpg. It’s easy to forget that the Accord was a low-key driver’s car.
In any case, my 1990 Prelude 4WS is high on the list of cars that I should never have sold.
Loved my ‘83 accord. Michigan rust did it in but was a great car.
I’m starting to think maybe the future might not entirely suck.
Now I just need to see a new MR2 and maybe a base version of the E-Cayman, then I can relax and let a decade of depreciation bring them in to budget.
A decade of depreciation on an electric car often means a degraded battery…
Luckily it seems that only 2-4 years of depreciation is significant for many EVs. I just got a 2019 Niro EV for $21k, original MSRP was $45k. I’m kinda wishing I had nabbed a CPO 21 my for $25k as that was a better value but that car got away and I got impatient.
That is a very good point. Dammit.
I’m either going to have to become suddenly wealthy or learn to like dull cars.
10000 +1’s.
First gen MR2 was my dream car I couldn’t afford at the time and settled for a Karmann Ghia for my first. Now many many years later I could see myself getting a 1980s MR2 for a particularly confusing mid-life-crisis-mobile. An electric converted 1st gen….hmmmmmmm
Also-to the members of the commentariat suggesting that this will be “affordable” or a Toyobaru competitor-I have some oceanfront property in Nebraska you might be interested in. I genuinely appreciate the wishful thinking but this will almost certainly be $50,000+ and that’s before Honda dealerships slap their ludicrous markups on it.
Has everyone taken a look at what Honda enthusiast cars are going for these days? Unless you have piles of money to light on fire it’s an absolutely nuclear market at the moment that is best left avoided. I don’t see this being an exception.
I hate to break it to you, but $50,000 is the new $25,000. And those “inflation” statistics we get from the government are dangerously unhinged from reality.
You’re not wrong but $50,000 isn’t affordable by any stretch of the imagination when the median household income is hovering around 60k or so. Something will have to give eventually.
Hopefully that something isn’t safety and mileage regulations, because I can imagine a future with an American version of the Yugo for the poors and the elites get the nice shit. Kinda like now but much worse.
I actually kinda hope that safety regulations ARE the thing that gives. Hang with me a moment…
There is a significant movement right now to convince people to bike instead of drive. Part of the argument is the availability of inexpensive e-bikes that make it possible for less athletic and capable people to ride. The e-bikes are essentially motorcycles unless you’re being particularly pedantic and naive about classification and adherence to the classification rules. However there is significant pushback against applying motorcycle safety regulations to e-bikes. People wear regular old bicycle helmets, and don’t have signals, or training about what happens when you ride a powered two-wheel vehicle over an obstacle, or anything else they teach you when you get a motorcycle license.
While a shitty little 2-door cheap EV would fail all our current safety regulations as a car, it would still be WAY safer than an e-bike in traffic.
Anyway, I think it could be safer overall to cut back on the more expensive safety regulations, because the costs are driving people to use far less safe forms of transit.
I think you’re arguing for the creation of a kei car class in the US and I’m here for it.
Essentially, yes. But preferably without the other baggage that comes with kei car rules in Japan. We don’t need any kei-car only areas or cars that beep when you’re going top speed!
In the UK the Honda E is £28k.
That’s a city car with no range.
There is no way a new Prelude won’t be twice as much.
Also I’m worried about how big this Prelude might be. The Honda E looks tiny and cute in pictures but it’s huge in real life. Big enough that you reach out to touch it but it’s still ten feet away.
Sheesh, I guess I’m just not that cynical. Honda’s too risk averse to shoot it all the way up there and think it’s a good idea IMO. They can’t really swing a low production standalone model currently, and if they’re looking at that weight or pricepoint, they’re better off rehashing it as a successor to the S2000 or in Acura showrooms as a Legend.
OK listen up, people. You’ve got to stop buying new white, grey, or silver cars. We’re reaching the point where the secondary market has very few colorful options because new car buyers are being bland. And when something with actual color does show up, the prices are outrageous.
If you looked at this Prelude and thought “Wow! that’s nice!” we need to send you for some mental re-programming. The correct thought when you see these pictures is “Wow! That would look amazing in green.”
Honda! Make this real, paint it an actual color, give it an extremely fast steering rack, and 350kw+ charging capability, and I’m in.
I think there will be an inevitable “but regular people want bland colors” so I’m going to counter it with anecdotal evidence:
My boyfriend is a regular person. He’s also someone who doesn’t have that much interest in cars or driving – something that a lot of people will say your average crossover driver’s point of view aligns with. And he has told me that when I buy a car it has to be in a color, no grey, black, silver, or white. And since he’s going to be paying for some of it, his input counts. Also I agree with him, and my car right now is a bright blue.
He also isn’t a huge fan of a lot of modern crossovers though, mostly because they’re largely indistinguishable. We had a Toyota Busyforks as an Uber the other week and he couldn’t find it in front of the place we were staying at first. “It’s just a box, I can’t tell what it even is.” So maybe he’s less regular than some people in the car department (though I’m the one who does all the driving because his license is expired and he has no interest in renewing it.)
I have more than a few regular friends. None of them were seeking out cars in bland colors. They bought them because they needed a car, they liked the rest of it, and that was what was in stock. They didn’t love the black/grey/white, but they didn’t hate it and it also meant they didn’t have to wait six months for something on special order.
Dealers want bland greyscale because nobody really strongly objects to them – the more unique a color, the more likely it won’t fit someone’s taste. But people WANT colors, the transaction price of cars in a color is higher than it is in a grey or something. Greyscale isn’t what people want, but more importantly for dealers, it also isn’t what most people definitely don’t want.
It’s also more about the manufacturers than the dealers I’d say, because they know there will be an easier time for dealers moving those units. To your first line and anecdotes – growing up white seemed basic and appliance-y, we only had a string of white cars at my mom’s urging because we moved to a hot weather area. But now I know 2 people in the last 6 months that sought out white, and another that was shopping it, and another that went from white to black – all Millennials, non-family car purchases.
Coworker got a new Integra – chose white instead of grey, but – the interior was the bigger motivator as he wanted red. Long term he wants a color though like a Tiger Eye TLX Type-S. (However I have seen a ton of Integras in Still Night Pearl, the blue.)
A friend bought an Outback end of August, they specifically wanted white because “it’s the safest color,” called around to Subaru dealers asking for what they had in stock and that determined where they went.
Friend shopping hybrid crossovers – shey wanted white or black. preferred black, put a deposit on a black CR-V Sport Touring but at least chose the 2-tone light interior instead of more black.
Another coworker had a used white/black prior gen Grand Cherokee, replaced with a used black/tan current gen, but wasn’t color motivated. But she did want the tan interior which helped land on that one.
I think the non-negotiables for people are interior – understandable since that’s where you spend more of the time, but it’s getting tougher on some models to find not dark – and then trim details, mostly wheels, which is how we have the unfortunate black wheel trend too. Color comes third.
My sister sought white on black for her (used) car, but ours parent’s last 4 new cars have been shades of blue. My dad’s Civic was silver and Niro now is white which he didn’t want but the used car factory had only so much available. 🙂
The “safest color” thing is funny because my mom would rage against anyone in a white car because she found them the hardest to see.
It was a new one to me too, but some searches pulled up studies that affirmed it. Maybe it is skewed by government/fleet cars, usually white, that people don’t drive recklessly in because it’s work related.
But then the LED headlights on my car don’t seem to always make it any more visible so who knows.
Might be contextual too. White in some places might stand out, white in cold weather places less so.
In my experience, white also hides dirt way better than dark colors. But, I always shopped the very bottom of the market, so the color was whatever I could actually afford
I’ve had silver and white and silver is even better for hiding dirt as the car just gradually turns more gray until you make the mistake of rubbing against it one day and it turns your clothes black.
I think something like the uncommon (though not rare) bright blue on my GR86 would be far safer when over 50% of vehicles are white and it stands out less in fog or snow.
My car is bright blue and everyone comments positively (OK, one didn’t) on the color, many asking if I painted/wrapped it in that color because they’re so used to seeing non-colors, which they mention in a disappointed way. Then they get into their B/W/G vehicle, but that’s just the thing as you said: I can’t recall anyone but my BiL who wanted B/W/G on anything, they just buy a car because the old one is dead/not financially smart to keep on the road, so they need a car and the dealer only has B/W/G on the lot, maybe red for a premium, so they settle. For a regular, boring daily grinder, it makes sense to have a scratch and dirt-hiding shade, anyway (though that doesn’t explain the popularity of black), but it’s the large majority of people who show me their new car who comment unprompted that they wanted some non-B/W/G color, but would have had to wait too long or gotten a bunch of expensive options to get it.
I recently had my car declared a total loss after it was stripped for parts while it was in the shop. It was an orange M2. I argued with the insurance company for quite a while about the valuation, because they were basing their numbers on white (sorry “Hockenheim Silver”) or black cars, and the actual colors sell for a solid $10,000 – 20% – more. Eventually I had to settle for thousands less than what the car was actually worth considering the spec. (color, slick top, stick. :cry:)
I’ve been searching for a replacement for months, and the majority of the hits are white or black.
Anyway, that’s my anecdote. Don’t need anecdotes, ’cause the data is clear. Used cars sell for more money when they’re an actual color instead of bland.
Definitely stealing “Toyota Busyforks”, thank you.
(this is 100% how Toyota employees refer to it)
TIL. Thanks!
Recently bought an NB Miata. Wanted blue, waited for the right one, happy.
Autotrader liked showing me ads for the Pontiac solstice and Saturn sky. This is probably an exaggeration, but I don’t think I saw the same color across any two of those. So many choices, and so many of them were really nice colors.
Man, that thin-lipped nose looks like a mug shot of Greta Thunberg.
Oh, you mean this car will try to do some good in this world instead of walking around like a Neanderthal dragging his knuckles on the ground grunting “ev bad”?
Umm, ok? Dude, she was the first thin-lipped celebrity that came to mind. I guess I could have gone with Kermit the Frog but it’s not that serious either way. Have a snickers or something, lol.
In that case, sorry. Just came over from Topgear that’s filled with commentators who match that description. Snickers reference made me laugh.
WHO PUT MY TESLA IN THE DRYER!!!
Funny how striking it is because it’s so … simple? As Hans Brindfors, the designer of the Absolut Vodka bottle, is quoted to have said: “When all others scream, whisper.” This design is like an island of tranquility in a sea of meaningless design “features.”