No way...

IMO Motortrend's line of reasoning seems to make more sense -- ie. how it is unlikely the hybrid Prelude will have a manual tranny:

https://www.motortrend.com/news/hond...mission-rumor/

TL;DL -- the Prelude is expected to get the Civic hybrid's drivetrain, and that drivetrain only features a single speed "tranny" for the ICE.

No new info on the car, other than that a test mule is caught out in the wild looking nearly identical to the concept car. I suppose this is good news since the concept (or this test mule) doesn't look ugly.

If you peel off all the sheetmetal, I wonder if it is really just a 2-door hybrid Civic coupe in disguise...? And if that is the case, could Acura release this as a proper 2-door Integra?

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod...115b06f4fc.jpg

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod...1177a74345.jpg

https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod...1180c9268b.jpg

its giving me porsche vibes. not ugly, but not original or pretty either.

:heckno: that back end looks like ass. Some Lexus parrot fish front end with a long sloping dog pooping back. Looks like the last Gen eclipse Altima where they just stretched the back over the chassis.

Preludes always had that long sloping rear glass. But the tail light treatment doesn't look great. I imagine they are gonna stick the Accord 2.0T in so it gets some oomph. I don't remember they said it'll be hybrid only or not, cause the drivetrain in the Civic/Accord hybrid is the same and they have zero sporting pretensions.

To all you people saying the ass is ugly, does that backend look like a taycan or a 911? :troll:


https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod...1180c9268b.jpg
https://pictures.dealer.com/t/thecol...ensity=1&w=520
https://archive.izmostock.com/img-ge...gular-rear.jpg

Prelude always had the long hood and short trunk

https://www.sedgeclasscars.co.za/carimages/H11_13.JPG

https://media.carsandbids.com/cdn-cg...t=170811069339

The A-pillar is too close to the hood on the new one. You can see the doors were further back in the older versions giving it better weight distribution and s sportier coupe look.

Traditionally, the "concept cars" that Honda releases to show the public already looks 99% like the way the final production car will look. So when EvoFire says the tail lights don't look that great, make sure you are not making that judgement based on the camouflaged test mule. Instead, the final product is almost certainly going to look like the white concept car we saw here:

https://i.imgur.com/6mB4dcF.jpg

It's basically the same thin protruding heckblende that became the current form and everyone is using it. It looks good on the 911 and their SUVs, but it doesn't look good on the Taycan.

This feels like a ripoff.

https://p.turbosquid.com/ts-thumb/qm...12ad56/ttt.jpg

it looks like a stupid gorilla's head.

https://archive.izmostock.com/img-ge...gular-rear.jpg

It is definitely a design cue ripoff from Porsche. Personally, I dunno how I feel about it yet because the camo-ed backend obscured the overall look, and the concept car picture was taken with an UW angle lens taken from an akward vantage point so that the whole thing looks distorted.

I supposed the best news about seeing the test mule in the wild is -- it looks like Honda is really going ahead with this one. Hopefully we will see it in the showroom within a reasonable time frame.

In before $50000+ Honda prelude :accepted:

The Sport Hybrid Civic starts at Cdn $35k, and the Sports Touring Hybrid Civic at just below $39k. So I think it is pretty safe to expect this hybrid Prelude to start at $40k+ somewhere?

There's no tail pipes on the mule, and it's probably gonna be another hybrid thing and I feel a flop from Honda just like the CRZ where they tried to draw on the equity of an old nameplate and failing.

I can also see this as just a more elaborate Accord coupe, since that was removed from the lineup last gen, and this just fills back into that space. Probably with the same hybrid drivetrain. I don't have faith in Honda to pull something out of the bag. Their hybrid drivetrain also doesn't seem all that flexible unless they have already developed it with a bigger motor in mind that would go in, say a next gen Odessey.

I'm a bit of a pessimist you see :failed:

Sadly this is a name plate I don't get why they are bringing back. Who's gonna buy this? It's gonna be too expensive and not fast enough to compete. Hybrid means auto cvt barge. So there's no way this thing will be sporty enough. :okay: just go back to the shed and build more type rs

I don't get this Prelude - usually when Honda comes out with a low volume mainstream car it comes with something novel that they are testing out. Like ATTS or 4WS or how they rolled out the Insight (or the Clarity). This one seems to just take existing off the shelf items to make a coupe that has no market.

Maybe like you say there's a bigger hybrid motor in there that could go into their large car platform OR maybe they've come up with a rear motor to give it e-AWD like Toyota does (Acura would really stand to have this to replace SH-AWD) but none of the rumours suggest this is happening.

Even if it handles like a Si or CTR why would anyone buy this over a Civic hybrid hatch?

Back in the 10th gen Civic days -- that's 2016 - 2021 -- the coupe sold sufficently well at first -- 16% of total sales, according to Wikipedia. But as time passes, its sales numbers dropped big time to a mere 6%, and then it was discontinued for 2021.

This Prelude appears to noticeably shorter than the current Civic hatchback, with far less room & headroom for the rear passengers as well. But as a few of us have already noted, market demand for this sort of vehicle has really waned compared to its heyday in the 90's or even early 2000's.

I hope the car will be sporty and fun to drive. But at $40k+, how can it hope to compete against something like a GR86 / BRZ?

When was the last time you heard someone saying they wanted a big fwd coupe, never. :lawl:

The problem is most ppl are putting practicality quite high up in decision making, and for a car like this that doesn't bring any performance cred to the table, it's a hard sell.

The M3 is in much higher demand than the M4. They are discounting the G82 whereas G80 is MSRP only. F80 also sells much quicker than the F82, a F80 will demand a premium over a similar F82 on the used market.

Porsche just put backseats in the GT3 Touring.

Audi just stopped production of the A5/S5 Coupe for MY25, though we don't know if they will bring a new one in 26

BMW is axing the X4 model it seems on the release of the new G45 X3, there doesn't seem to be a G46 on the horizon.

The return of the civic coupe in hybrid form and under a different nameplate & body. Might as well buy an auto GR86 or BRZ instead.

For the price you maybe able to get a auto gr Corolla :lawl: