Thoughts on the 2026 Honda Prelude
 

Personally,after hearing the specs,I honestly don't know why anyone would buy this car. For the price($40k is what I heard) you could buy a better car and have money left over,and have fun driving it.



https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a6...sions-opinion/

For the $42k i'd buy a late 70s-90s Camaro or Firebird and use the leftover dough to make it a great handling dragstrip monster and still likely have a few thousand leftover for tires and fuel. I read the whole C&D article, looks like a disappointment, of course its my opinion and seems like yours too, or you wouldn't have made a post. Most of the reboots of Japanese classics are turning out to be. The new Supra has turned out to be largely a failure, just a rebadged BMW and will never be the legend as i remember it.

Like just about every Honda in the last 20 or so years (mind you I used to be a Honda fan) there is nothing here to be excited about. As far as I can tell other than having two doors, there isn't anything unique about it.

Now, mind you, the original Prelude was really a two door Civic with a slightly angled rear glass (I always thought it was more a straight drop off than a fastback, but technically it did have some angle to it) but somehow it was more distinquishable than other Hondas.

This is just a continuation of the "one styling fits all" that is eating up the industry right now, similar to Cadillac and Tesla.

I still feel like all could've been forgiven with the Supra had they launched it with a manual tranny. By the time they actually did make it in manual,I'm not too sure enough people cared anymore.



I do think it's a really nice sports car,but like you said,it will never be the legend that the Mk IV was,and still is.

yes i know someone who bought an automatic in '19, only to trade it in '23 for a standard trans and yea by then it didn't matter much. The car is quick don't get it twisted, its just who cares now? If you know what i mean. Imo and tastes there hasn't been any car the last 10 yrs that even grabs my attention, my FRS was the only one and thats why i purchased it. IPads shouldn't be standard equipment. Lol

Eh. I like it. I'm glad they're making it. Can you get "more" car for less? Of course - that's exactly what everybody said about the Twins too (Herp-derp buy a Mustang). If it proves to be $40k, it's still cheaper than the final MY Prelude was adjusted for inflation. I'd certainly prefer that it was more in the $30-$35k realm, but so it goes.

What you can't buy is a classic sport-ish coupe any more. Used to be nearly every manufacturer offered a relatively inexpensive two-door, sport-adjacent car (the Prelude and Celica were always more expensive than the Civic or Corolla). Sadly those don't make fiscal sense any more which means they're mostly gone. I was personally a Celica guy which, All-trac aside, was not the fastest or best handling but was a load of fun while still being relatively efficient. I hope the Prelude does well so Toyota gets on the ball and actually builds the new Celica - and I'm absolutely down for the hybrid formula being used there too.

My stable could use a new addition.
https://i.imgur.com/Z5GlX53.jpeg

Yes i agree 100% my man, it doesn't make much sense for fortune 500 car companies to spend time and money in r&d for a sports car that will sell only 10-15k units per year. Hard to believe but my year 2015, only 10,507 FRS were sold in the U.S, despite being well under $30k. Even less sales Internationally. People the last decade or so just want gas guzzling trucks that they don't even use for "truck" things and then complain on Youtube videos about what a piece of crap their truck really is, and also about spending $100 or more per week in fuel. Well duh you moron, trucks are work vehicles, not to be pavement princesses driving 25 mph down main street to go grab a gallon of milk at the grocery store.

That's what everyone wants to believe but sales say otherwise. In the top 20 vehicles sold in the US in 2024, 35.6% were Trucks (All flavors Ford, GM, RAM and Tacoma). That means that 64.4% were something else.

40.25% were SUVs, mostly small ones that really are large cars.
17.89% were Sedans
06.30% were Model Ys, where are considered "Electric SUV".

Compared to other modern offerings it's decent but overall it's a meh for me. They're definitely catering to the masses vs the small batch of potential enthusiasts

I see you have it highlighted,but isn't the Outback a SUV and not a sedan? I know it use to be a wagon but I think it might be legit classified as an SUV now. I could be wrong though.

I hear you but those numbers can be made to say something else more practical. Top 20 is nice, but of the top 10 sellers, only ONE is a non Truck/SUV. Furthermore, the volume of sales is key: the trucks (Ford+Chevy/GMC+Ram+Tacoma) sold more total units than the other seven badges combined. In fact, you have to include through #12 on the list to catch up.

All that is to say - it's even more shocking Honda is even trying the Prelude, so I'm super glad they are and hope it finds a market.

I had 2 preludes in my life, a 1981 burgundy red one I rolled over a few times in the rain (buckle up, the seat belts do work!)
and a 1983 Charcoal one that ended its day due to a drunk re-parking it on a sidewalk after midnight.
This new one is just a reuse of the name by the marketing guys to sell the new package .
They could have called it a CRX if they really wanted some discussion on their new concept.
I'm not in the market for a new car so its value is a little lost on me right now...

True. The truck sales includes all variants though, including work and fleet trucks (just like the car sales includes fleet rentals, etc) so it does skew the numbers higher. Also some of the "SUVs" are really just "fat cars" rather than trucks. The CRV and RAV4 really are more car than SUV. To me an SUV to be counted as a non-car needs to be built like a truck, body on frame or at least of a similar size.

But I agree, any manufacturer willing to build an traditional car should be applauded.

The stats I saw actually classified it as a station wagon, which I consider a car, not a truck.