Honda Prelude (2026) Review

The surprising thing about the new Prelude is how little of it is nostalgia. Honda built a two door on the Civic platform, fitted the two motor hybrid system from the Civic Hybrid, then raided the Type R parts bin for the adaptive dampers, the front suspension geometry and the brakes. The result is one of the best handling front wheel drive cars on sale. The steering is quick and honestly weighted, body control over a broken road is superb, and the chassis stays neutral far later into a corner than a car of this shape needs to be.

On a road you know it is a lovely thing. The engine grade is the one sitting under the rest. Two hundred horsepower moves a coupe of this weight adequately and no better, the electric motor's instant torque flatters it below forty miles an hour and then the urgency fades, and the simulated gear steps Honda layers over the continuously variable behavior are a decent imitation of a real transmission rather than a replacement for one.

The reviews all land in the same place: this car wants another fifty horsepower. What it gives you instead is forty four miles per gallon, Honda's reliability record and running costs no sports coupe has any business posting. At just over forty three thousand dollars it asks close to Civic Type R money for less speed, and whether that trade works depends entirely on the roads you drive.