Honda Prelude

Honda has form in bringing back models from the past. The Civic Type R disappeared for five years before coming back with a bewinged bang in 2015, while the NSX spent more than 10 years off sale before its successor arrived. And then there's the, erm, Passport, which is returning after over a two-decade absence. But that's more of a thing across the pond, so we'll forgive you if you haven't heard of that one.

Another resurrected name that might sound more familiar is the Honda Prelude. It's spent a similar time away to the Passport – around a quarter of a century, in fact. It's a car Honda has been making as long ago as 1978, the latest one being the sixth car to wear the name. The curvaceous fourth-gen car and its boxier fifth-gen replacement are arguably the two most memorable Preludes, coming at the height of coupe popularity in the 1990s. 

Back then, there were also sorts of affordable coupe options out there, including the Toyota Celica, Ford Probe and Volkswagen Corrado. These days, though, it's slim pickings. That market has all but evaporated, so it's a surprise to see Honda bother at all, rather than doing what Ford has now done more than once, by bringing back old coupes as SUVs in the form of the Puma and Capri.

We're really glad Honda has, though, because the new Prelude is a superb-looking car which will stick out amidst the high-riding horde in the best possible way. Costing just over £40,000, it won't break the bank, nor will it be particularly expensive to run, using the same hybrid powertrain as the Honda Civic it's based on.

That might not sound like a particularly exciting starting point, and indeed, the 203PS output and resulting 8.2-second 0-62mph time seems underwhelming. But Honda has worked hard to spice things up by adding simulated gears (the powertrain here technically doesn't feature a gearbox at all) and a whole load of Civic Type R suspension parts. 

Do we wish it had a bit more power? Sometimes, but the star of the show here is the excellent chassis, which makes twisty roads hugely enjoyable without compromising comfort too badly the rest of the time. It's deliberately been made a lot softer than the Civic Type R, and it really shows during more relaxed driving. 

We're not sure who'll end up buying these things, although over in the USA, the car is proving a real hit with nostalgic Gen Xers, driving high demand that's outstripping supply. Whether that's the case or not in the UK, it might not matter, with Honda only bringing 400 cars here in 2026, and a further 500 in 2027.

This one is simple because the Honda Prelude is offered in just one trim level, Advance, and with one powertrain.

That means there is no agonising over engine choices or equipment packs. Every Prelude gets the 2.0-litre e:HEV hybrid setup, adaptive dampers, the Bose sound system, leather front seats and the full standard safety package.

In one sense that limits choice, but it also works in the Prelude’s favour. Honda has pitched it as a complete, carefully thought-through package, and in fairness there is very little missing from the standard specification.

The Honda Prelude is currently priced at £41,595 on the road in the UK.

That makes it more expensive than a regular Civic, but not by as much as you might expect given the amount of bespoke engineering involved. It also means the Prelude undercuts or at least neatly avoids the option-list spiral that affects many premium-badged coupes.

In that sense, the Prelude makes more financial sense than its niche status might suggest. It is not cheap in absolute terms, but as a low-volume coupe with this level of engineering attention, it looks reasonably good value.

There are not many direct alternatives left. The BMW 2 Series is the obvious one because it still flies the flag for a relatively compact coupe with a mainstreamish price point, although the BMW is a very different proposition in both layout and character.

You could also argue that the Prelude overlaps with performance hatchbacks and fast saloons more than traditional coupes now. A well-specified Honda Civic, Volkswagen Golf GTI or even something like a Toyota GR86 will all appeal to slightly different buyers looking for driving enjoyment at roughly comparable money.

The Prelude’s problem is not that there are many like-for-like rivals. It is that buyers tempted by a stylish coupe often also want more power or more badge cachet. That is why the Honda has to win on engineering integrity and charm rather than simple showroom swagger.

If you've ever had a look inside a Civic, the Prelude's cabin will look very familiar. The design bears a strong resemblance (even if it's not entirely the same), and the infotainment system plus the (physical!) climate controls look to be carried over unaltered. There's a much chunkier centre console, though, which is supposed to make driver and passenger feel a bit more cocooned, but not cramped. 

Interestingly, Honda has elected to give the driver and the front-seat passenger slightly different seats. The driver's side features a different seat base design, which hugs the thighs a little more tightly to keep you more secure, should you feel like driving enthusiastically. 

Rather than going for the now quite common approach of housing the infotainment screen and digital instrument cluster in one big panel stretching across much of the dash, the Prelude goes for a more old-fashioned approach of having a proper cowl for the latter. 

Coupes aren't exactly known for their practicality, but even so, the Prelude's 269-litre boot is pretty small, especially when a BMW 2 Series has a far more generous 390 litres of load volume. A hatchback-style opening will make it easier to load than the BMW's saloon-style arrangement in some respects, but then again, there's a quite a high lip in the Prelude, which could be awkward when chucking in anything heavy and or bulky. 

The rear seat bench folds to increase this to 663 if loading to the windowline, or 760 litres if you load to the roof. The Prelude is probably better like that anyway, as the rear seats aren't much use for anyone apart from smaller kids. Taller young-uns and all but the shortest of adults will find that headroom is extremely limited thanks to the car's heavily sloped roofline, and legroom isn't great either.

The Honda Prelude measures 4,520mm long, 1,880mm wide & 1,355mm high. That gives it a low, broad stance on the road and helps it look properly like a coupe rather than simply a chopped-about hatchback.

The trade-off for those sleek proportions is limited rear headroom and a less useful boot than some alternatives, but visually the dimensions work very much in the Prelude’s favour.

The Prelude uses a 10.2-inch touchscreen infotainment system and a separate digital instrument display, rather than the one-piece widescreen approach now favoured by some rivals. That makes it feel a little more old-school, though not necessarily in a bad way.

The graphics and layout are functional rather than dazzling, and some smartphone integration details feel behind the best systems in the market. Even so, the menus are simple enough and response times are acceptable.

Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, while the Bose audio system is one of the highlights. This is not the car’s strongest area, but it does the basics well enough and avoids becoming irritating.

The Prelude’s cabin materials are good rather than truly luxurious. There are plenty of soft-touch surfaces, the main switchgear feels well damped and the physical climate controls are a reminder that Honda still understands usability.

There is also enough variation in shape and texture to stop the cabin feeling plain, even if it does not quite deliver the sense of occasion some buyers might expect from a coupe costing more than £40,000.

In short, it feels like a high-quality Honda rather than a cut-price premium coupe, and that is probably the right way to look at it.

The Prelude is only available with a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder hybrid engine shared with the Civic. It's an unusual engine that lacks a gearbox, with the engine spending a lot of the time merely topping up a 1kWh battery pack, which in turn drives the front wheels via a powerful electric motor. The engine can also directly drive the car via a smaller electrical generator, for instance, at cruising speeds for better fuel economy. 

This doesn't sound like the most thrilling starting point for a sports car, so Honda has worked some engineering magic to liven things up. Normally, this powertrain responds in a sort of 'elastic' manner, much like a continuously variable transmission (CVT), with the revs spiking under full acceleration. But here, there are eight simulated gear ratios that manage the engine speed in the way you'd expect, were there actually a bunch of cogs between the engine and the wheels. When you're shifting up, the sensation can be pretty uncanny, although there are occasions – particularly during downshifts – that you can see through the ruse. On the whole, it's extremely clever. 

The hybrid powertrain makes 203PS, making for a 0-62mph time of 8.2 seconds. Which isn't very quick, especially when even the cheapest version of the BMW 2 Series manages the same in 7.5 seconds. The Prelude feels brisker than you might imagine, though, helped by its 315Nm of torque coming in instantaneously from the electric motor. 

If you're on a really twisty road, 203PS does actually feel enough. There are still times when you are left wanting for a bit more poke, though. We're not suggesting Honda should have shoved a Civic Type R engine under the bonnet and jacked up the price accordingly, but something like 250PS or so might have been nice.

There are also times when you won't even get the full 203PS output. On particularly hilly, demanding roads that leave the battery at a low state of charge, the Prelude appears to limit its power, feeling especially sluggish as a consequence.

While based on the regular Honda Civic, the chassis of the Prelude owes more to the mighty Civic Type R. It has a similar 'dual-axis strut' front suspension system, intended to separate steering and damping forces to cut down on understeer and torque steer, and it has much wider tracks (the width of the suspension) than a boggo Civic. It even features the same adaptive dampers as the Type R. 

Don't go thinking that means the Prelude is super stiff and unforgiving, though. Honda has given the Prelude a softer setup described as being between that of the Type R and the regular Civic. It's a much softer, more forgiving car than the former, which is downright unusable if its sportier suspension settings are selected, yet still quite sporty feeling. 

There is a bit of body roll, but it's nothing excessive. The Prelude feels very confident with fast changes of direction, and feels nicely stable when going through quicker corners with a bit of pace. The steering's great, too, feeling well-weighted and natural. 

There's bags of grip, and plenty of traction, but then again, it's not like there's a lot of power to trouble the front wheels. Which leads us to our next section.

The Honda Prelude does not yet have a Euro NCAP rating, and as a niche low-volume model it may never receive one.

That said, it comes with a broad spread of modern safety systems as standard, including blind-spot monitoring, lane assistance, driver attention monitoring, autonomous emergency braking, traffic sign recognition, cross-traffic monitoring and adaptive cruise control. The structurally related Civic achieved a five-star Euro NCAP result in 2022, which at least provides some useful context.

Official combined fuel economy is 54.3mpg, which is a strong figure for something sold as a sports coupe. It is also believable enough given how efficient Honda’s latest hybrid systems have proved elsewhere.

In the real world, your result will depend on how you drive it, but the Prelude should still be appreciably cheaper to fuel than a conventional petrol coupe or hot hatch with similar showroom appeal.

Honda covers the Prelude with a three-year or 90,000-mile warranty. That is not class-leading, but the brand’s strong reliability reputation does help soften the blow.

Honda continues to perform well in owner surveys, and the hybrid system itself has a reassuringly proven feel. So while the warranty is only average, the broader ownership story should still reassure.

The Honda Prelude sits in insurance group 33. That is not especially cheap, but it is also lower than some more overtly performance-focused coupes.

Given the car’s niche status, £41,595 list price and coupe positioning, that feels fairly reasonable. It is still worth getting quotes before ordering, but the Prelude does not look excessively punitive to insure on paper.

The government removed the token £10 discount for Vehicle Excise Duty (VED)/car tax on 'alternatively fuelled vehicles' in April 2025, so you'll be paying the same £200 annual rate as anyone else from year two of ownership. Unfortunately, the Prelude is just above the £40,000 threshold for the government's premium car tax supplement, so you'll need to shell out an extra £440 annually from years two to six.