Honda Prelude (2025 – ) review

Sporty coupes have always been an indulgence, with the emphasis on thrills over affordability, fuel economy or running costs. The Prelude is an attempt to show you can have it all, with its combination of Civic Type R foundations, sleek looks and efficiency of a regular hybrid Honda. For more on why that’s a good thing see Rory’s video on life with a Civic using the same tech. True, Honda’s preferred hybrid system doesn’t score company car drivers Benefit In Kind friendly CO2 figures, and nor does it claim triple-digit mpg stats like some plug-ins. But you’ll go twice as far on a tank as you would in an equivalent GR86, the fact thirst and emissions figures are partly what killed sporty options like the Toyota telling you all you need to know. The Prelude at least looks a lot more reasonable to buy than the Civic Type R, though it’s priced it just over the £40,000 threshold beyond which taxing it incurs the punishing ‘expensive car supplement’. For the sake of a few hundred quid off the price you’d be saving the equivalent in your annual running costs on tax alone. Annoying.

Honda is a company led by engineers, and it takes huge pride in the quality and reliability of its cars. The e:HEV system in the Prelude is also – relatively – straightforward in terms of moving parts and the rest, so we’ll take additional confidence in that.

Moaning about speed limit warning bongs sounds like boy racer sour grapes but the real issue is how often the system gets it wrong. So, often as not you’ll be getting an electronic telling off for exceeding the limit of the side streets you’re passing, not the road you’re actually on. Most cars have a shortcut to silence these systems but Honda’s natural conservatism buries this in a sub-menu you have to dig into every time you get in the car. A shame to have to focus on this because the rest of the Prelude’s safety tech is really impressive, and seems to work well!

This is a sporty two-seat coupe, so set your expectations to realistic on that score. There are back seats but the chronic lack of head- and legroom rules them out for all but the smallest of passengers. At least the boot is huge, and easily accessed from the hatchback at the rear. It’s better up front, Honda’s attention to detail meaning driver and passenger get differently shaped seats, with chunkier side bolsters for the person at the wheel and more emphasis on comfort for whoever’s riding shotgun. The driving position is suitably low and sporty, the excellent forward visibility helping you place the Prelude accurately on the road to boost confidence when the going gets twisty. Light, accurate steering and suspension hardware from the highly acclaimed Civic Type R will also delight keen drivers even if … the powertrain might not. More on that in a bit. That clever suspension can at least adjust according to the chosen mode, meaning the Prelude can cruise in relative comfort or hunker down into the corners as your mood and the road takes you. Refinement is generally good, though tyre noise on rough surfaces and engine roar intrude at times.

We’ll exercise self-discipline on discussing the geekier delights of the Prelude’s engineering but, if you’re interested in that kind of thing, there’s plenty to honour the brand’s tradition for doing things its own way. Back in the real world the one trim level keeps things simple, the only dilemma being whether to go with the standard black or pay a little more for one of the other colours. We’d happily do that for the jaunty bright blue of the car pictured. We’d also pair that with the two-tone black/white interior option, which looks a lot funkier than the monotone alternative. Screen junkies will have to look elsewhere, though, the Prelude sticking with a trad instrument binnacle and relatively small infotainment hub in the centre of the dash, the graphics and menus all pretty basic by modern standards. CarPlay is at least wireless, though Android Auto seemingly not. Cue shrug emoji!

Rather dependent on what you were expecting. But if you hoped Type R handling would be matched by Type R performance then, sorry, the news isn’t great. Basically, you need to understand that – most of the time – the Prelude is driven by a (not especially powerful) electric motor, with the 2.0-litre petrol engine acting as a generator. Honda has done its best to fool you into thinking otherwise, the S+ Shift system simulating changes with what sound and feel like throttle blips as it goes up and down the gears, whether automatically or via the paddles on the wheel. Even if there actually aren’t any gears, and it's all fakery. To add to the confusion the petrol engine CAN power the front wheels at times, but this all done automatically and you won’t know when it does. Whatever is going on under the bonnet it generally makes an awful lot of (fake) noise about not going especially quickly, though you can glide for short distances on electric power alone. If your eyes haven’t completely glazed over there is, perhaps, a silver lining of sorts. Especially for Honda fans with fond memories of previous hybrid coupes like the CR-Z or late 90s Insight. In what may sound like history repeating the latter was once dismissed as an underpowered curiosity but is now celebrated for its forward thinking, futuristic style, incredible efficiency and engineering cleverness. And if that’s your bag the Prelude looks to be doing much the same thing, in endearingly quirky Honda fashion.