The Next Honda Prelude Has Big Shoes to Fill

There’s a new Honda Prelude on the horizon, and this is pretty good news. Though currently slated for 2025 release just in the UK, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the car will arrive on these shores as well.

In the greater scheme of things a new Prelude doesn’t have quite the impact of a new Miata or an NSX, but the Prelude was a mainstay of the coupe scene throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and a pretty good shop window for Honda’s latest and greatest technology, from four-wheel steering to VTEC engines and double-wishbone suspension.

Will the new Prelude debut anything new, give us anything to latch onto, other than being that increasingly rare thing in the 2020s, a new coupe? For that we’ll have to wait for the car’s launch, but the return of the badge is likely to raise interest in the five generations that came before it. The Prelude has long been underappreciated—but perhaps that’s about to change.

First Generation (1979–82)

The original Honda Prelude seems, in retrospect, like the entire Honda brand finding its feet. That’s how it was in the market, too. The Civic and Accord were selling well, but for real growth, Honda needed a wider model line. Pushing into a new niche was a way of not just expanding its range, but generating some excitement for the company’s four-wheeled offerings at the same time.

Through the lens of 2024, the excitement is a little harder to see. Honda devised a new platform, but underneath the Prelude was mostly Accord, with strut suspension at both ends (albeit with a rear anti-roll bar, which the Accord lacked), Accord-sourced brakes, and the Accord’s CVCC 72-hp 1.8-liter four-cylinder powering the front wheels through either a five-speed manual or three-speed Hondamatic auto.

Styling was attractive but conventional, the flair more in details than in form: hood vents, plenty of chrome trim, and a set of chunky alloy wheels on the options list. The cabin was less conventional though, the standout feature being the concentric speedometer and rev counter, and inside both of those a bank of warning lights.

It was more appealing as a package than as a driver’s car, and upon its 1979 launch in the U.S. it cost $6445, about $400 more than a VW Scirocco. While the Prelude’s handling was objectively fine, it couldn’t top the VW for verve, and it suffered from torque steer.  There was certainly room for improvement when the next car came along …

Second Generation (1983–87)

The second generation Honda Prelude, launched in 1983, was quite a departure from the original. The idea was the same: a grown-up, technologically advanced coupe (anti-lock brakes were available for the first time), using familiar mechanicals but sitting on its own platform. But the execution was altogether more rakish and exciting, a design for the 1980s rather than a hangover from the 1970s.

Its platform was all new and adopted double-wishbone suspension at the front end, paired with MacPherson struts at the rear. Retractable headlights kept the hood line low (but, whether open or closed, retained the family “H” shape to the grille and headlights), while body length grew from 161 inches to 169 inches, and width from 64 inches to 66.5 inches—not just giving passengers more room, but making the new car look far more dynamic and low-slung than its predecessor, despite an identical height of 51 inches.

Dynamic, too, was the new 1.8-liter, 12-valve, twin-carb four-cylinder engine with 100 hp—28 horses more than the first-gen car—and that was replaced in the 2.0 Si trim for 1986 by a 16-valve, fuel-injected 2.0-liter making 110 hp, for a notable increase in performance.

And the Prelude finally handled. That attitude did come at the expense of ride quality, which was firm for the time, but by 1980s standards there was little roll. The nose could wash wide in corners, but it would also tuck neatly with a lift, without being difficult to control in a slide; it was a planted feel that every following model would replicate.

Third Generation (1988–91)

You can make a fairly strong case for 1988’s third-generation Prelude being the model’s peak. It was an evolution of the previous models in the same way a Porsche 911 evolves, becoming objectively better in every metric that matters.

The third-generation was more neatly styled inside and out, and it was easier to see out of, more powerful, more technologically advanced, more sophisticated, more aerodynamic, more spacious, better handling, better riding. All this on a car that was already popular with both press and public.

The biggest news was the introduction of mechanical four-wheel steering on the Si. A thin shaft took steering movements from a separate rack and pinion at the front to a steering box at the rear axle. Inside you’d find an eccentric shaft turning a planetary gear, which itself had an eccentric output. Small steering movements turned the rear wheels in the same direction as the fronts, but steer further—as you might when parking—and the steering box would then push the rears in the opposite direction for a tighter turn.

On the road, this meant fast but stable responses at speed, and a tight turning circle around town, with few ill effects. Some credit had to go to the new, four-wheel double-wishbone layout—which, apart from anything, helped give the Prelude the most remarkably low hood lines of any front-driver we can think of, just a hand-span from the top of the front arch.

Fourth Generation (1992–96)

Until the latest Prelude arrived, the fourth-generation car of 1991 might have been considered the odd one out in the model’s back catalog. Take its profile, which has a notably high tail compared to generations one to three and five, and its frontal aspect, whose sleek nose loses the distinctive “H” shape formed by the headlights, grille, and raised hood edges of every other generation.

Inside, too, the fourth-gen was a departure from its predecessors. The low scuttle remained—this was a Honda, after all—but the notably driver-focused instrument cluster made way for a full dashboard-width instrument panel. This included a crescent-shaped speedometer and tachometer, and in the center, a pair of FLT (fluorescent light tube) gauges for fuel and coolant temperature, with warning lights stretching well over into the passenger side.

Outside and inside, the fourth-gen car split the press. Some found the design genuinely beautiful while others were turned off by its new 1990s curves. Inside, Car and Driver called the dash “retro,” saying it evoked American luxury cars of the 1970s. U.K. testers were less generous; Autocar variously called it “awful” and “ugly,” while Car described it as “gimmicky.”

There were no such worries about how it drove, though. The Prelude found itself at the sharp end of most group tests of its era, especially the 1993–96 cars equipped with Honda’s still fairly new VTEC system: The 2.2-liter VTEC four made 190 hp at 6800 rpm. Four-wheel steering made a return, this time under electronic control, as did a true four-corner double-wishbone setup. Few front-drivers of the time were easier, or safer, to drive quickly.

Fifth Generation (1997–2001)

As so many manufacturers have found when delivering exactly the product they thought people were crying out for, you can’t keep everyone happy. The fourth-generation Prelude was clearly a departure for the model line and despite its road test successes, it missed out on the third-gen’s sales numbers by some margin. The fifth generation, then, clearly needed to be more conventional.

Traditional three-box styling returned for 1997, with a front end that cleverly replicated the nose of the original car, just with bright-eyed, modern headlights, while the interior retained the fabulous low-slung seating position but ditched the Starship Enterprise dash for a regular instrument cluster and conventional console.

U.K. and European testers hated it. Top Gear deemed it “incredibly ugly” outside, and the U.K.’s Autocar called it “dubiously styled,” but in retrospect the harshness over the Prelude’s sharp, well-proportioned lines seems baffling. The cabin was conservative at best, dull at worst. U.S. testers were more positive, however, perhaps because domestic sport compacts were in a bit of a lull.

To drive, though, the fifth-gen was arguably even better than before. It had gained only a few pounds in like-for-like spec despite being longer and taller than its predecessor. But a stiffer structure meant greater refinement as well as sharper handling. In the U.S., only base and SH trims were offered, both with 195-hp 2.2-liter VTEC fours. New to the SH was ATTS, or Active Torque Transfer System, a hydraulic planetary gearset in the diff to replicate the behavior of a limited-slip, at least in some conditions. This resulted in a sure-footedness with sharp responses and fantastic body control.

Sixth Generation

The upcoming Prelude shares little to nothing visually with the five generations before it, and the prospect of a hybrid drivetrain already has those who fondly remember 2.2-liter VTEC engines down in the dumps.

But it’s also quite refreshing to see a company launching an all-new coupe in the mid-2020s, a segment that seemed to be fading away in the first decade of the new millennium. The last Prelude was gone by 2002, and the sector was becoming a premium game, with only the likes of the Audi TT or dedicated rear-drive models like the Nissan 370Z or the Toyota GT86 and Subaru BRZ twins persisting into the 2020s.

Though it has confirmed the model for the U.K. in 2025, Honda has still released relatively few details on the new Prelude, beyond hints it will be a hybrid—likely some derivative of the current Civic Hybrid’s 2.0-liter setup—and that it will deliver “the perfect balance of exhilarating driving pleasure and outstanding efficiency.”

The car’s proportions suggest some relation to the coupe version of the previous Civic, though smooth new styling hides it well, while the interior design, always a contentious point with the Prelude, is yet to be revealed. The return of the stylish, grown-up coupe—the “date car” its Japanese inventors envisioned—is long overdue. Here’s hoping the Prelude finds its way to America soon enough.

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