put them up on your shoulders. This guy, he figured
it out, we're going to kill it. And then that same
guy sitting for three years of his life in the
corner of a room, while all these other people
say, oh, we should put a hybrid in it. And
they're like, wow, high five. And then this guy is
just bashing his head, like, or it's the other way,
which is like, you know, well, what are we going to
do now? Let's come out with it. We'll go back to
the prelude. Well, what else do we have this
commonality in, you know, in the kind of the
worldwide market segment? Well, we got this
platform, we could turn it into this. And we
got this hybrid system, we could dump it in
there. I don't know.
I think also look at it like, from their
perspective, if we come out with this, this
coop that is basically stealing the engine from
the Civic Hybrid, and we call it the Geel 6 or
some whatever name they come up with, right? Is
they going to hit as hard or have as much
attention if we put the prelude name on it,
but the prelude name on it, you get people
talking, right? Because there's a lot of
prelude fans out there. There's a lot of
people that had those cars in the past.
This way you get some height built, right? It
helps for sure. Let me let me propose one
other situation, because we did obviously
take it a little bit to the extreme by
throwing, you know, like, you know, the K20C
in there and different things in
hypothetical nature. Let's say they nailed
the exterior styling to be just a little
bit closer to maybe what made you feel
like it was a modernized last gen. I
think it was third gen prelude, right?
Right. Then instead of doing that, they
put the Accord two liter turbo engine
into this car. And, you know, I think
that that car would do fine.
I think the styling is the biggest, the
biggest factor. There's no tie in to the
old one. And I think you, I think you
lose a lot of the prelude fan base
that's been around for, I mean, for
decades, right? You lose a lot of them
when the car comes out and looks this
way. It doesn't have any kind of throw
back to to any of the generations prior
to, you know, there's nothing there. I
don't see it anyways. Right. Maybe
somebody else does. I've looked, I've
looked at the car a few more than a
few times. And I it's a possible
not to. It's all over my feet. It's
everywhere. Yeah, I mean, luckily I'm
not hot enough that maybe I'm not
hot enough that I that it's infiltrated
my feet yet. But yeah, I will say
that I just there's nothing that I
look at that car and I'm like, Oh, I
can see it. Nothing. Yeah, I don't
say anything. So I mean, I guess, I
guess time will tell. It's got to be
driven, right? And reviewed. And people
get an idea of what it can, can it
can't do. But there's not much to
really change it from the civic
hybrid that's already out. You do
have the suspension changes and the
break changes that you're getting
from the type R, which is really
cool. But is that enough?
I guess we're going to see. You
know, from a from a three quarter
looking down angle, the car has good
lines on the on the side. Like the
cars got good lines. It the problem
that I have is the front doesn't
really give you that feeling of like
anything. I do like the back they
kind of take the three they almost
take that like the new Z straight
back thing there as well. But then
the rear is just so bubbly. It's
just yeah, it's really round. Even the
front just really bubbly. If you
look at like, like all of the
previous generation preludes, they
all had a much more angular cut in
the rear, especially they're very
angular. I don't know. That's what I
liked about them. You know, a little
bit sharper. But you know, this is
years and years later. So I guess
it's got to have a more modern
design. Yeah. So I guess I guess
we should pose the question out there
to people listening or watching. What
does the does the prelude do it
for you? What do you think it
would have taken for this prelude to
be the prelude that would have done
it for you? And be realistic. Because
understand that like, you know, you're
not going to put like it would be
great if they made a real drive put
a V8 in it. You know what I mean?
Like, I didn't mean to make a real
drive. You know what I meant? Like,
you know, put a drivetrain in it
that's like completely uncharacteristic
for Honda. But like what would what
would what would make this car
something for you is a is a our
coupes? Are coupes that aren't like
super powerful sports cars? Are they
still a thing? Should they have just
gone on to do something different? I'm
curious to see what people's actual
reaction and do me a favor, try to
embellish a little bit more than or
elaborate a little bit more than just
saying pray there's trash. I would
like I would like to really hear what
some people have to say about this
car. But it's interesting. I feel I
feel every time I see one of these
cars, you know, nine and nine times out
of 10, I feel like it's just a totally
missed opportunity. Right. Right. But
then again, we're on the outside
looking in, right? We don't know what
Honda's doing. So for us, we think we
know it all right. But then if
you're if you're behind the doors
there, it might be completely
different. This is what has to be
done because of this, this and this
and I mean, there's a bunch of
moving pieces, right? It's easy to
say, make the prelude, you know,
faster than, you know, a bigger
engine type R more power all will
drive this than the other. But the
reality is maybe that's just not,
it's not a possibility. Yeah, I mean,
we get that kind of stuff with
wheels, right? Like all the time
people say, right, you should have
made it two pounds lighter. You're
like, that's not possible. Like it
can happen. Like you should have
made it this, you should have done
this, right? So I get it, like
they don't have the insight. We
don't have the insight. I mean,
the truth is, if you were to look
at renderings as they were
sketching them with whatever
they're using as inspiration behind,
maybe they nailed it. Like maybe
side by side, they feel from, you
know, with their design language,
you know, keeping their current
design language and moving
things forward, maybe they feel
they've got the best of all the
worlds combined in. They felt
really good about this car, you
know, and we just don't
understand that there is an
actual thing for people that
don't know that actually is
design language, they have
entire, you know, principles
and stuff that are in these
companies where they got to
keep this design language. So and
that's what allows you to feel
like, oh, that's definitely a Honda.
And that's definitely this. So
maybe when you factor in design
language and safety features and
platforms and what you can get
EPA and the whole thing. And maybe
like you said, it just comes
down to that's that's what the
recipe delivered.
Yeah, it could have been that
they you're looking at them
designing around the platform,
right? Because it's the global
platform. It's the same one that
that's used for everything. So
they had to build around that.
And maybe this is what the best
it could be. You know what I mean?
There was no way to incorporate
some of that older prelude stuff
into this, which is sad because
it doesn't make any sense to me.
Like I just that's really
lose me. If you're going to build
a modern prelude, you've got to
bring something from the older
prelude, some some sort of like
a design.
Can you go back up one one
quick second?
Why are they showing an insight
next to a prelude? I'm looking
at car and driver and they're
showing an insight next to a prelude.
And I'm thinking myself, if
that's the car you're trying to go
after you missed, that's why you
missed.
That's right.
You know, I don't
know. I just
I struggle to see it.
They bring back some of these old
preludes and I'm like, I don't
see the, you know,
but who knows?
I mean, but maybe maybe
if they had done this
and use the hybrid setup
and all that, but then it may
let's say it made two hundred
and ninety horsepower, for example.
And let's say two hundred and seventy
foot pounds or pound pound feet of
torque. What that have been
enough to kind of push people more
toward it. Because right now, the
two hundred horsepower thing, it's
odd because because Honda's played
it safe with that.
You know, the Civic Si
since the
since the EP three has always
been about two hundred horsepower,
two hundred horsepower ish.
And that was from the two liter
to the two point four liter, now
the one point five liter turbo.
It's always been in that
range, which is crazy for what is
that like twenty five years that
they've stayed in that same horsepower
range and they've never kind of veered
from it. I can understand now because
the type bar, they don't want to have
the Si and type are too close,
but it's a little a little strange
that would never bring that up
further than than that.
You know, the Japanese are very
efficient. They may have printed a
lot of flyers back in the day
that said two hundred horsepower and
they're still using them.
I don't.
Right, right.
I don't know.
Yeah, that's a that's a that's
an interesting piece. I'm not I'm
not really all together too sure.
I mean, look, here's the thing.
I feel like if I look at the prelude,
if you would have told me this was
the modernized Honda beat,
I probably would have believed you.
It actually does.
It could be anything.
There's nothing private about it,
right?
Because it could have just been a
whole, a whole new thing.
It could have just been, you know,
civic hybrid Coupe, right?
Never want to be like, all right,
cool. Right.
It's a hybrid Coupe.
Right.
So for those that are, again,
still with us, drop, drop your
comments down below.
I'm interested to hear what you have
to say.
So yeah, that's it.
Anything else to add on the prelude
before we get out of here, Matt?
No, I'm a little disappointed.
So I'm going to soak for a while.
We're going to end it on a level of
disappointment.
That's right. The theme for this
year. So I should probably take the
rest of the day off and just go
to soak.
Absolutely.
Of course.
That's right.
So all right.
Take care of everybody.
We'll catch you next week.
See you.
We'll be good, Max.
About this episode
The discussion centers around the new Honda Prelude, which is based on the Civic platform and features hybrid technology. With a price point over $40,000 and 200 horsepower, the hosts debate its market appeal and whether it can capture the spirit of previous Prelude models. They express skepticism about its design and performance compared to competitors like the Civic Type R and GR Supra. The episode also touches on the challenges of reviving classic names without losing their essence, and whether Honda's approach will resonate with enthusiasts.
The Honda Prelude is back — but is it the comeback car enthusiasts wanted, or just a nostalgia play?
Are we paying for performance… or prestige?
In this episode of the Behind the Wheel Podcast by KONIG, Matt & Scott break down the return of the 2025 Honda Prelude. With 2,000 units selling out immediately in Japan, all eyes are now on how it will perform in the U.S. market.
Will it appeal to real car enthusiasts?
Is Honda playing it too safe?
How does it stack up in today’s market?
What this means for affordable performance cars in 2025 and beyond Let us know what you think — is the new Prelude a hit or a miss?
Subscribe for more automotive insight from KONIG and the Behind the Wheel team.
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