It’s been a while since I’ve seen a gen1 Prelude curbside. My full CC on one is here, and that was shot ten years ago. There’s been a few sightings since then, but not in recent years. So here’s my epilog on the Prelude.
The Prelude was a highly pragmatic move on Honda’s part to expand into the then large and lucrative sporty coupe market. The Celica was making hay, and Nissan’s latest 200SX (Silvia) was catching too. Honda took the longer wheelbase platform of the yet-to-be released the gen2 Civic sedan and wagon, messed around a bit (way too little) with the suspension pieces and settings, threw in the Accord’s 1750 cc CVCC four and transmission, and wrapped it in a body that was looked exactly like what it was: a cross between the Accord and the Civic, where the clay model was set in front of a misting fan.
Unfortunately, Honda left out a key element: genuine excitement and sportiness.
The result was, well…somewhat forgettable. Not really bad or truly ugly, and actually a perfectly typical Honda, in all the usual ways, but it just didn’t exactly click. The Celica of the times was a huge hit. But then it was styled in Southern California. It was all too painfully obvious that the Prelude wasn’t. And 75 hp was even a bit modest for the times. DOHC, 16 valves and V-TEC were still a Quaalude-induced dream away. This was Honda’s mild-mannered era.
That’s not to suggest it wasn’t either good or a dud. It sold reasonably well enough in the US, a total of 171k units. But Honda knew it hadn’t really made a mark for itself in the sporty coupe market, and the gen2 Prelude was a profoundly more ambitious car. So this was really just the prelude to the real thing.
Nice take on this 1rst gen Prelude. It really was blander than the Celica, and nothing about it stylistically has made it stand out. It’s a decent looking car for the times, and now so rare that it’s all the more unique, but I never met anyone who was excited to have one. Possibly the same can be said of the 1rst generation Accord (of which I haven’t seen an example in years).
I always thought this was an Accord derivative, not a Civic/Accord hybrid derivative.
I think it was good for what it was. From the outside, it didn’t look awful–it certainly did NOT look great. The Qualude (sorry..PRELUDE) appearance was consistent with the driving experience.
But it had a nice interior. Great mpg for the era. Honda reliability. And it came overpriced (for what it was) from the factory. As I recall, it struck me as pricey for what it was. Of course, I thought Accords were a tad pricey also–but I thought THEY were worth the money.
The original Prelude was a vanilla car. The most important thing about it, was that it led to its unforgettable replacement, the brilliant gen II Prelude in 1983! Which preceded the even better gen 3!!!
(I didn’t care for the gen 4, with it’s Old’s dash and ‘chunky’ styling). But the gen 2, and the Gen 3 Si are among my favorite cars ever.
TomLU86 – I thoroughly agree the gen 2 Prelude was wonderful, and the gen 4 suffered from a GM dash, but I thought it was a Buick dash.
The Prelude represented Honda’s persistence. Another OEM might have given up after a critically panned 1st effort. In similar fashion, it took Honda several tries to get the winning minivan formula (despite my hatred of the lightning bolt belt line).
The G4 Prelude was an unsettling harbinger of thing to come IMHO. The shark had been spotted by Ralph and Potsie, but the Fonz was still putting on his water skis.
I think people were really really really excited about the 1st gen Accord
and people wanted months and months to get one
even more so w/ the 2nd gen Accord, which was really a game changer
This was my impression from afar. My only kind-of contact with these was from a guy who was a friend of one of my bosses. He was a young accountant and drove one of these. My impression was that it was a great car for someone looking for fun-ish, luxury-ish and reliable. But I also remember that they were quite expensive, especially once the dealer got through with you.
I am sure these kept their owners out of the service departments more effectively than anything from VW did at the time, but the VWs were so much more fun to drive.
It kept their owners out of the service departments, but could it keep their bums off the pavement after a few salty winters?
When a car is nicknamed, immediately after its launch, for a relaxing drug that was infamous for being abused, you know that’s a bad sign. At least it took a few years for the “Rustang” moniker to appear. And the fact that several of us still mention the Prelude’s nickname after nearly 40 years, is a worse sign. The Prelude is one car that would have benefited from being renamed when subsequent versions became very nice cars. Still, a good, and rare, find.
Interesting point.
I think in this case, the Prelude moniker was fine. For one thing, the bar wasn’t set too high, and the gen 2 was terrific car. Whenever some one mentions “Prelude”, I have positive thoughts.
On Long Island in the late 70s/early 80s, I don’t remember seeing many of these.
But the gen II, I saw quite a few. And that’s what I associate with Prelude–Gen 2, 3, and 4–two great cars and one good one (Gen 4).
I think when a mediocre car (not a BAD one, a mediocre or decent one) is replaced by a much better successor, it reflects well on the the brand.
The Ford Fusion comes to mind. Original was credible. Current one is highly regarded, people have even complained about it’s impending demise. For most people, I think THAT 2nd gen Fusion is what they think of when they hear the name.
Nowadays I think of the shape as “pert”, but back then I thought it boring and a bit ugly, perhaps even having a mild case of the Pacers. I wasn’t alone, in my peer group at least, the Celica, 200SX and even my 626 Coupe were considered quite a bit more attractive.
The next generation though hit it out of the park with perfect looks, and once the Si version arrived it got the performance credibility it needed as well and lifted the Prelude to a slightly higher rung than the others as a “wise and very respectable” choice, but in a good way even to a teen back then.
My first foray into “classic” car ownership was a 1982 Prelude that I owned from 2012-2017. It was a CA car that was completely pristine and ran like a top even though it had over 130K miles on it. (Most of those miles were from the first 15 years of its life.) I loved the thing – it was peppy and light in a way you don’t get with most more modern cars. The sunroof was huge. It wasn’t the best performing car and it won no speed contests, but it did always get noticed when I drove it around in the MN summers. I eventually sold it when I bought a modern sport coupe and wasn’t driving it as much. The guy who bought wanted to display it along with other classic cars near Route 66 in IL. So maybe its of more historic than practical interest – but it did display the Honda virtues that many folks found compelling during the 80’s.
I knew two people well that had these in the ’80s. Both of them loved their Preludes, no matter what non-owners thought. One was a UVA professor who replaced his rubber baby bumper MGB with a new Prelude. He’d had a string of British sports cars going back to the ’60s, and the Prelude made him wonder when he should have given up on British Leyland. It had better handling and a sportier engine than any of his MGs, and he started sailing a Laser on Lake Anna to make use of the time on weekends when he was no longer fixing his car, a car he pulled the plug on when it was no more than three years old. The other Prelude owner I talked to a lot was a high school girl with pretenses, who thought it was a class above the econoboxes that many of our friends drove. She seemed proud that her car cost more used than the new cheap cars from VW, Ford, Hyundai, Suzuki/Geo, and Subaru were selling for.
I don’t know if the professor replaced his Prelude with another one when Preludes improved by leaps and bounds with the second generation. By then I was a teenager and I’d stopped spending much time in the company of adults. It’s a shame that there’s no longer a market for cars like that, but insurance rates kept lots of young men out of them when they were available.
The.1st gen Prelude buyer I knew w as a schoolteacher who had been given the down payment for his MGB as as a college graduation prresent. He.said he.hadn’t known that cars usually didn’t need to be painted every three years.
I remember when these were jokingly referred to by the car mags as the Honda “Quaalude”! 🙂 Oops! Posted before I read the comments above!
I had one, nice interior, nice engine, but the only thing it really, really did better then others, was rusting. Never before or after that have I owned a car that rusted so bad and so fast.
A friend of mine back then had one that literally broke in half, front and rear, while he was driving it. Luckily, I believe he was doing city speeds at the time. Yes, they rusted. This one had been welded together already and it broke not the weld, but around the weld.
While not a styling knockout, of the three designs that made it to clay, it makes the most sense for what it was. That Civic on steroids one nearly missed production over what we got, so…
How about a story on the ‘86 SI?
Now THAT’S a proper Prelude.
The original was just a, well, prelude to a better one.
The first year had a weird speedo tach combo gauge that resembled a clock. One hand was the speed, the other rpms. Anyone have any pics of that?
This was only on the first two-ish model years:
I’ve driven a Fiat 500 Abarth that ripped off the early Prelude design, only the execution of a poor idea was far worse.
This design graph is pretty interesting as well:
Weird radio too.
I think Honda called it “Consentric”.
I drove a nice clean one in 1991, that was for sale.
Unfortunately, its clutch was slipping, so no sale. It seemed like a well-assembled car. At the time I had a ’79 Accord LX hatch that seemed better in most ways though.
For me, these will always be the Prelude of Priapism.
Not for the vehicle, you understand, which greatly resembled a somewhat gaudy shoe and is about as arousing as one, but for the driver, who was my Form 5 teacher Ms C.
A small group of us St Joe’s kids went on an overnight leaders group-type of camp, packed between a few of the teacher’s cars, and I copped the back cupholder – then advertised as a seat – of Ms C’s Prelude.
Now, I had a bit of a thing for Ms C, and my thing certainly had a thing for being wedged close behind her, meaning the trip was long and hard, as was the journey.
She drove the little shoe with great verve, as I recall it, but three hours with my knees pressed against my face and with two-and-a half legs in my tight ’80’s jeans and a bright red face quite put me off the Prelude, (if not Ms C).
I did the return trip in someone’s Volvo, which had plenty of room for such developments, but the well-documented deflationary effect of a beige 240 did its thing, and for just once, my priapic teenage self was most grateful.
So not much the epilog to a Prelude as The Prelude Of The Epic Log, in my case.
So not much the epilog to a Prelude as The Prelude Of The Epic Log, in my case.
I feel your pain.
Bought one used in the late Eighties when I got first job. Great car but had led a tough life so I never experienced it at its best. Clutch always chattered when shifting, otherwise a sporty little personal car with plenty of room for two especially legroom. Sat very low. Great sunroof, probably one of the best engineering of that era. No P/S or A/C… “they made them simple.” Front styling was plain but good proportions overall and fairly mature. The little brother to my dad’s Acura Legend coupe that I also drove a bit in those years.