Honda is tapping into the nostalgia of the 1990s and early 2000s by reintroducing the Prelude in the form of a ‘performance-oriented’ hybrid coupe. The result is a $43,000 car that seems cool on paper, but isn’t super competitive in reality. Honda should have made it an electric car.
In this current economic climate, with more than $40,000 to spend on a new car, the buyer pool is quite small to begin with. And the type of shopper with that kind of money who is willing to give up the practicality of a sedan or crossover typically wants a more analog experience with a manual transmission, and/or wants something with serious performance. The Prelude offers neither, despite its trick CVT with the S+ Shift system, and only 200 horsepower.
While the Prelude gets the braking and suspension components of the Civic Type R, it’s not really intended as a track car, so few drivers will actually do that feeling the added benefits of improved handling over the already excellent Civic Hybrid, which costs about $10,000 less with similar equipment. While it’s difficult to look at performance cars from a rational angle, you could argue that the Civic Type R’s capabilities go some way to justifying the price premium over the standard Civic. I’m not convinced the Prelude’s driving experience is tens of thousands better than its commuting cousin.
Who is actually going to buy this?
Let’s examine the hypothetical buyer for the Prelude. This is not the car that is bought by someone who randomly walks into the showroom. Honda is well aware that nostalgia is a great drug, and is aiming this model squarely at someone like me who grew up on 90s and early 2000s imports and subscribed to Sport Compact Car magazine. My first fun car was a ’95 Prelude Si 5-speed (non-VTEC) that I bought for ten thousand dollars, then “upgraded” it over the years with a cold air intake, headers, cat-back exhaust, clear taillights, and a coilover suspension kit that arguably ruined the factory setup.
I’m in the age and income range where a Prelude might work. My kids are old enough to sit in the front seat or crawl into the back of a compartment and still feel comfortable. My current car is a 2015 Volkswagen GTI, manual, but we are also a Honda household as the family carrier is a 2019 Odyssey. When it’s time to get rid of the VW, I wouldn’t mind another Honda. Still, the Prelude’s appeal just isn’t there. I get the appeal of the Civic Type R if I want an even more extreme experience compared to the GTI, or even the Civic Hybrid if I want to prioritize better MPGs but still like to poke around.
I have to admit, I have a strange mentality where I feel like if I’m going to give up on the clutch pedal, I might as well take advantage of an all-electric car. The Prelude was originally intended as a “high-tech” performance coupe with the super cool digital dashboard and available “super handling” four-wheel steering system. Other than perhaps the transmission, there’s nothing particularly “high-tech” about this new Prelude.
A missed opportunity
However, a small electric coupe would have been a high-tech option that no other automaker offers. Honda now has their own dedicated EV platform with the upcoming 0 Series, it could have had a futuristic interior and a torque vectoring system (Super Handling) like the original Prelude. You could say the market for EV buyers is still quite small compared to ICE/hybrid cars, but the EV market is growing steadily while demand for $40,000 front-wheel drive coupes is virtually non-existent. The automaker could have relaunched the Prelude using an EV setup, which would have created buzz and been a great transition for the brand. While Honda is considering sporty EVs in the future, the Prelude was a missed opportunity.
The reality is that a special parts bin on a nostalgic nameplate makes more financial sense for the bean counters at Honda. The result is an expensive car that’s less efficient than an EV but with performance just on par with much cheaper cars, wrapped in a body that has hints of previous Preludes but is overall quite generic in styling.
Maybe I’m just a jaded Gen-Xer, and it’s certainly possible that Honda dealers will sell Preludes with markups because there are buyers willing to pay top dollar for this thing. But my prediction is that after a little hype at launch, Preludes will collect dust in dealer showrooms.
Tom McParland is a contributing writer for Jalopnik and runs AutomatchConsulting.com. He takes the hassle out of buying or leasing a car. Do you have a question about buying a car? Send it to Tom@AutomatchConsulting.com
#Honda #Prelude #Jalopnik