Honda Prelude

The Honda Prelude was a sports coupe produced by Japanese automaker Honda from 1978 until 2001. The two-door coupe spanned five generations and was discontinued upon the release of the fourth-generation Honda Integra (Acura RSX in North America) in late 2001, due to its decreasing sales and popularity. In the U.S. auto market, the sixth-generation and subsequent Accord Coupes became the de facto replacement to the Prelude.

The Prelude's perennial competitor has been the Toyota Celica, another straight-4-powered coupe introduced several years prior to the Prelude. Throughout the 1980s, the Prelude was challenged by the Nissan Silvia, Isuzu Impulse, Mitsubishi FTO, Mitsubishi Cordia (later the Eclipse), Ford Probe and Mazda MX-6. Out of all of these contemporaries, the Eclipse is the only one remaining in production.

In the UK, the Honda Prelude was never considered an essential purchase by the majority of sports car enthusiasts who overlooked it for the trendier Toyota MR2 and other well-known rivals. Within the Honda range itself, the Prelude was usually overlooked for the more popular Civic and Integra models. This might be partly due to the Prelude's reportedly cramped interior, though perhaps the Prelude was also overshadowed by more prominent performance Hondas, such as the NSX. However, the Prelude is competitive in terms of style, speed and build quality, and it has achieved something of a cult status in the UK and US where demand is still high for the sportier, manual transmission versions. This demand is partly attributed to the still rising demand for customizable cars. Both the 4th and 5th generations of the Honda Prelude emerged as popular choices for modders. Being relatively inexpensive, they have a decent amount of aftermarket/replacement parts available.