2026 Honda Prelude Is Great If You Can Be Honest You're Almost 38

When you're young and haven't driven much of anything yet, it makes sense to overcompensate by learning as many facts and figures as you can. Driving cars is expensive, but reading first drives, reviews, comparison tests, and anything else you can find on ad-supported sites is basically free. Even as an adult, it can be easy to get caught up in which car has the best specs for the money. But does that always matter?

A while back, BMW sent me an M3 Competition with some gorgeous paint to get to an event where I drove a few new Mini convertibles. Objectively, it was an incredibly capable car that accelerated hard and cornered even harder. You may not love the design, but there's no denying it's a serious performance machine. The problem was, everything that would have made the M3 Comp a delight up in the mountains or on a track meant it wasn't all that enjoyable as a daily driver.

The seats were impractical at best, everything about it was too stiff on broken pavement, and getting it up and down the driveway at my parents' house was way more work than it was worth. So many younger enthusiasts, whose parents can't afford to buy one for them in their 20s, dream of one day owning a car like the M3 Comp before they turn 40. The problem is, by the time your 40th birthday rounds the final corner, your body's no longer in its 20s anymore, either, and your priorities are probably a bit different. That's where the 2026 Honda Prelude comes in.

Full Disclosure: Honda wanted me to drive the new Prelude so badly, it flew me to the Indy 500, put me up in a fancy hotel, and then offered to let me drive a Prelude if I wanted. As much as the internet hates the Prelude, how could I say no?

On paper, the new Prelude looks wrong. Honda built a front-wheel-drive Civic Coupe with a hybrid powertrain, the Civic Type R suspension, and no manual transmission. How is anybody supposed to have fun in that? You can't do donuts, you'll lose every drag race, and the same money could buy you a used M3 that's better in every way and also has a manual transmission. Clearly, it's a stupid, dumb car, and everyone at Honda is a bunch of morons for selling a coupe without an easily understandable transmission.

Except, when Honda tossed me the keys to the Prelude you see here, that wasn't my experience at all. In fact, I actually enjoyed it. A lot. Granted, I was driving the car through the greater Indianapolis metropolitan area, not flogging it at ten-tenths on a race track, but Honda still found some pretty good roads for the drive route. In person, you really don't notice the Prius styling comparisons I keep seeing thrown around online, and especially with that gorgeous blue paint, I think it looks fantastic.

That said, considering where I took the photos, I should also probably clarify that I didn't attempt to rally the Prelude. Not out of any desire to be responsible with the $45,000-ish car I didn't own, though. Because you're actually looking at a short service road that dead-ended a stone's throw from where I parked to take the photos.

Even without room to slide it around in the dirt, the Prelude was still a fun car. The torque from the hybrid powertrain's electric motor made it feel pretty quick. Not pin-you-back-in-your-seat fast, but quick enough to keep things interesting. Since roads usually have speed limits and other cars on them, who cares? Especially since a lot of cars that offer quicker 0-to-60 times often feel a lot slower than their official times would suggest if the car's already rolling. I thought we believed in slow car fast 'round these parts.

The Prelude may not come with a manual, but for this car, I'd argue the two-motor hybrid system borrowed from the Civic Hybrid is the next-best thing. At least if we're dealing with the real world, not "just make the new NSX front-engine, give it a V8, and sell it for $30,000" nonsense. While a regular old automatic can't accelerate until the computer finds the right gear, the Prelude's 232 pound-feet of torque is technically available at zero rpm. Unless you hammer it when the light turns green, the Prelude accelerates more like an EV than the terms "hybrid" and "eCVT" probably suggest (at least until the engine kicks in). And if there's no manual or DCT on the table, give me a taste of that electric torque, please.

That said, I played around with the S+ shift mode and, just like Daniel, quickly lost interest. I understand why Honda offers it, and maybe it would make a day up in the mountains more interesting, but I don't know. It didn't do anything to make my drive more enjoyable, so I stopped using it. Oh well, no car is perfect, and you don't have to use the S+ feature. I'd also prefer it if Honda had angled the infotainment screen toward the driver and included a better backup camera. It's a small thing, but when you interact with something like the center screen so frequently, the small things matter. Also, people who prioritize passenger convenience usually don't buy coupes.

I'm also a noted push-button gear-selector hater, and the Prelude's exhaust note isn't exactly what I'd call invigorating. It was just hard to get too mad about those things while driving a coupe with the suspension that was more or less borrowed from the Civic Type R. It's missing the CTR's stiffest suspension setting, but I couldn't get mad about that, either. The Prelude is agile, the steering feel is great, it wants to turn, and it does it all while still being incredibly comfortable. Even in Sport mode.

Why buy the Prelude instead of a Civic Si, a Civic Hybrid, or an Acura Integra A-Spec? That suspension. It's just so good. That's not something you can measure with a number on a spec sheet, so you'll never be able to truly appreciate how nice the Prelude is to drive without experiencing it yourself. Because, again, I'm talking about fun and enjoyment here, not lap times at Road Atlanta. Cars aren't supposed to feel as nimble as the Prelude without sacrificing ride quality and comfort. Where are the harsh, unpleasant jolts and vibrations that I'm forced to accept in exchange for better handling?

I may end up eating my own words here, but considering how disappointed I was with the last car I road tripped (a Mercedes-Benz CLE450 cabriolet), when Honda told me it had a Prelude in the Atlanta fleet that would be available when I wanted it, I started planning another trip to Savannah. The two cars aren't competitors in any way, but since the Prelude's suspension — and therefore its comfort — is the star here, why not see if the Prelude makes a better grand tourer than a convertible that costs twice as much? Having friends who live close to the beach is great.

At the very least, the trip itself should cost less, since the Prelude is rated at 44 mpg combined, while the CLE450's only rated at 26 mpg. Oh, and did I mention the Prelude calls for regular? Even in Georgia, premium is already well over $5 a gallon, and not every gas station has had premium available recently. Putting more expensive gas in your car because you can is sometimes fun when you're young, but it's a lot less fun once you've seen exactly how much money you'll need if you ever want to retire.

If we're heading to the track, there's a long list of cars I'd rather drive than the new Honda Prelude. As a one-time experience, you can definitely find more memorable cars. First car you buy after starting an adult job with a salary and benefits? The Prelude is too responsible a decision for you, whether you can afford it or not. Still spiritually 27, no matter what the birthday on your driver's license claims? You'll probably hate it. But if you're a grown-ass car enthusiast who can be honest that you're almost 38, it's hard to beat the 2026 Honda Prelude.

This is not a car for doing hard launches at intersections, but once you start to appreciate Costco's generally superior quality and quarter-free shopping experience over Aldi's lower prices, you probably don't do a lot of hard launches anyway. That doesn't mean you don't still want a coupe that makes otherwise boring drives more fun and encourages you to go faster and push it harder than you would have otherwise. That's the Prelude. It would be better with a manual, but it would also be worse, because then it wouldn't get over 40 mpg.

If that sounds like the kind of sports coupe that would make your life better, go test drive the Prelude. You can figure out whether the price works for you once that's taken care of. Because you don't buy the Prelude for the spec sheet or to impress strangers on the internet. You buy it for the way it feels when you drive it. Not everyone's looking for that specific feeling or brave enough to choose something just because it makes them happy. For those who are, I don't think roughly $5,000 less than the average new car transaction price is too much to spend on a car that makes you happy.