2026 Honda Prelude.
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The new Honda Prelude has been caught testing in Europe. Where it is scheduled to go on sale next year.
As you can tell, it will look exactly like the “Concept” we saw last year. I saw the concept myself at the Los Angeles auto show and thought it looked quite nice. And was actually a nice design for a new Prelude.
The new Honda Prelude is rumored to be a hybrid-only model. Which makes sense since I believe Honda currently only offers hybrids in Europe. There is also a crazy rumor about a manual transmission. Something that is becoming so unpopular these days, it is actually very rare.
Honda has still not officially announced any plans for the prelude in North America. it was on display exactly a year ago in L.A and nothing…
I can’t really blame them. After years of geeky fans demanding the return of the Acura Integra, with sales already down over 16% from last year. The Integra is a nice car, but is it with a big premium over the Civic Hatchback? Not really. The new Prelude will basically replace the Civic coupe that was discontinued when the current generation arrived.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure a Hybrid only 2 door coupe called Prelude would have a bright future in the US.
But I hope I’m wrong…
Might’ve had at a chance at bright future if they’d make it a liftback hatch like the Integra. There’s tremendous pressure for all vehicles to have a utilitarian business case now in order to garner interest and any hope of survival in this market.
Making a sporty car more practical and usable is the only way to keep it alive, because people can’t afford multiple task-specific cars anymore. Buyers are slowly, year after year, being forced to compromise on whatever has the best practical use case, which is why you see manufacturers willing to build fewer and fewer types of cars.
People can barely afford homes to park multiple cars in, let alone the cost to purchase them. And to top that all off, they’re probably sharing vehicles with another driver too. This all plays into the reason rideshare companies are thriving as well, it’s not rocket science.
The middle class who can afford these kinds of things is being whittled away to non-existence. The actual reason for preference shifting to multi-purpose vehicles like crossovers is that people are too broke and dejected to care, and with very few exceptions, car companies can’t afford to make lots of different products (e.g. little coupes with tiny trunks) anymore either.
Sales of this thing will be small enough to count on two hands, and its chances of long term survival are slim. On the plus side, that might make it even more collectible.
I wrote about this last year when I saw the prototype at the show. It is indeed a proper hatchback.
It should have the same motor as the current “Integra”. Offering a hybrid might be better for other markets.
Considering that this is a hybrid, it will be fairly cramped inside, and the hatch’s opening is truly in the tiny category, I suspect this will fall into the same track as the CRZ and Insight revivals – very few find homes.
No stick. No intrest.