Summarized I'm reading a few guys here really complaining a lot that basically the new Prelude is not a CTR coupe. Probably because that is a car they want to see enter the market?

It's a Prelude. It's not a Type R, not even a Type S. Have you forgotten what the base Prelude has always been back in the day?

This is Honda's version (economy) of a GT car. It looks nice outside and inside, it drives nice, is well equipped. A "date car". It's not fast nor really sporty.

That's what a Prelude always was. That's what the Prelude is, and that's what it does.

Like the poster above me says: beating a dead horse. Better yet, if you wanted a performance car, the horse was already dead on arrival: barking up the wrong tree.

 

I believe this is a different horse. The previous one was the CTR horse. Same dissertation, by the same people, over and over and over, until another horse comes along.

 

Nope, until they wake up. And this one will sting and hit them in the wallet. If a company continues to make crappy offerings, people are going to give constructive criticism. This is a car forum. People are into this shit. But yes, we realize “beating a dead horse” hurts the feelings of Honda sycophants. It’s the same on every car forum there is. We have a saying in TX when someone gets their ass whooped. “He had that beating coming to him.” So break out the dead horse and the bat. Make it Louisville Slugger.

 

 

Yah, I'm sure the Honda execs are monitoring this car forum and are going to take all the "constructive criticism" into account when designing their next abomination, the same way the Ayatollah is going to be swayed by 50 protesters in Butt Texas waving their little signs condemning his regime. (not a political statement, just an analogy).

 

Considering that the 5th gen Prelude was awarded the best handling car for $30,000 or less by Car and Driver, I respectfully disagree. Unless segment defining performance = "not really sporty" to you.

 

The same criticism is coming across the board from various sources. You think I or anyone criticizing cares either way? You don’t like something I say or think it isn’t relative? Great. I’m not losing sleep. You, nor I, have any idea if anyone from Honda is looking at this forum or not. Given it’s for one of their legendary products, I’m sure some geek is assigned to check all forms of social medias.

And we don’t do politics here, analogies or otherwise. You know when have stricken a chord when someone ‘reaches’ for a political analogy. Aces!

 

Handling does not equal total performance. All the reviews say the new Prelude handles great (being on the same tech as the CTR and all that). It's just slow is the criticism. So yea, pretty much the same as the base 5th gen when it came out.

Anyways, my point was I get that we as enthusiasts want performance Hondas. But it doesn't make sense to me to expect that from a Prelude. If it were a Prelude Type S MAYBE, but it isn't.

 

No one said handling equals total performance. The Prelude in its day was decently quick relative to the competition, and certainly within the Honda lineup. When the 5th gen debuted, it beat the competition in its price segment, was the quickest Honda (not Acura) available, and it was generally well regarded, and despite all of that it was a slow seller, namely due to cannibalized sales from the Integra and eventually the EM1 Civic Si. As far as I know there never was a Type S/R, only a type SH. And it made more power than the Integra Type R, and had a bigger motor.

In short, it makes sense to expect performance out of the Prelude.

 

At first I was confused reading your message, but after doing some research I think I see where the difference lies.

So the USA only got Preludes with the biggest motor, which was roughly on par with the Japanese Prelude Type S. However in Japan and also here in the EU there were also the more common base spec Preludes which had less than 140HP.
With the new Prelude, judging by it's name also being a base spec, we really don't see any issue in Japan and the EU. But I can see how that doesn't hold up in the USA.

Honda probably focussed more on other markets than the USA when designing this car. Nonetheless the release was still global.