Preview: 2026 Honda Prelude Promises to Be Fun and Fuel Efficient

It’s hard not to be excited about the return of a vehicle this beloved by the Consumer Reports staff. Throughout its five prior generations, the Prelude was a frequent recommendation from us, with a solid reputation for reliability.

While we previously tested it against dearly missed sport coupe contemporaries like the Toyota Celica and Mazda RX-7, it could also hold its own with cars that were considerably more expensive, like the Porsche 944. Honda also used this more upscale nameplate to debut new innovations, such as a moonroof, an antilock brake system, and four-wheel steering. (This latest version doesn’t have the latter, which is fine by us; we liked the handling of the standard Prelude enough back in 1988 that we recommended skipping that four-wheel-steering option, which behaved strangely at lower speeds.) 

The same thing we said about the first-generation Prelude in June 1981 rings true about this latest version: “Although Honda makes it simple, it doesn’t make it spartan.” The new Prelude follows a similar formula of putting some upmarket options and a reasonably powerful drivetrain in a small coupe, so we have high hopes that it will deliver the same kind of easy, enjoyable driving experience that older Preludes were known for. 

There’s no mistaking the Prelude as anything other than a sport compact coupe, with its aggressive front-end design, flared fenders, black chrome grille louvers, and black 19-inch alloy wheels. A full-width taillight bar further emphasizes the Prelude’s low, wide stance. The Prelude even gets its own shade of blue for accents, including on its brake calipers and badging. 

While much of the Prelude hails from the Honda parts bin, the automaker seems to have cribbed Toyota’s notes on the Prius’ front lighting. Still, the look fits on this sleek, modern coupe. A large front under-spoiler and a flat rear spoiler on the liftgate help provide some downforce to keep the Prelude planted on the road. It uses flush door handles and an antenna embedded into the rear liftback glass to further reduce any aerodynamic drag that might slow it down or hurt fuel economy. As with any good throwback sport compact, a black decklid spoiler, front underbody spoilers, and blacked-out accents are among the optional upgrades. 

It is essentially the heir to the long-retired Civic and Accord coupes. It measures 178.4 inches, making it almost five inches shorter than the current Civic sedan. Its wheelbase is 102.6 inches, about 5.5 inches shorter than the sedan—that may aid handling and compromise rear seat space.

The new Prelude comes in only one trim level, but that one trim level includes a lot of premium features. In front are leather-trimmed, heated sport bucket seats that feature a perforated houndstooth pattern and contrasting blue stitching to match the Prelude’s other blue accents. Interestingly, the driver’s seat is more aggressively bolstered than the passenger’s seat to better hold them in place during hard cornering maneuvers. The steering wheel is also trimmed in leather and features blue stitching and a set of alloy shift paddles for the new Honda S+ Shift system. 

Like many other Honda hybrids, the Prelude’s drivetrain is fairly unique because there is no real transmission. The Prelude pairs a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder Atkinson-cycle gasoline engine with a dual-motor hybrid system. One motor serves as a generator to feed the battery more energy, and the other motor is dedicated to propulsion. That propulsion motor takes the place of a traditional transmission because it directly powers the Prelude’s front wheels. 

It’s a drivetrain plucked from the Civic Hybrid, which is the second-most-powerful version of the Civic on sale after the high-performance Type R. Both the Civic Hybrid and Civic Si make 200 hp, but the hybrid packs a more impressive 232 lb.-ft. of torque—40 lb.-ft. more than the Si. If you’ve turned away from Hondas due to a lack of low-end grunt from its infamous VTEC engines, perhaps you should consider one of Honda’s hybrids, where electric-motor power delivery ensures that there’s plenty of immediate torque to get up to speed relatively quickly. 

The Prelude coupe gets a party piece that the Civic Hybrid doesn’t, though: a new Honda S+ Shift system, which simulates shifts for drivers who still want the sensation of flipping through the gears using the car’s wheel-mounted paddle shifters. In S+ mode, the car turns up the engine sounds and imitates the sensation of rev-matched downshifts. We’ll have to see whether that actually makes a difference in performance or whether it’s mainly a fun gimmick. 

The Prelude looks fun and frugal. It uses regular gas and is EPA-rated for 44 mpg combined, which is 46 mpg city and 41 mph highway. In contrast, the roomier Civic Si is EPA-rated at 31 mpg combined and requires premium gas.

The Prelude comes standard with the full Honda Sensing suite of advanced driver assistance features, which includes adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection, blind spot warning, rear cross traffic warning, lane centering assistance, lane departure warning, lane keeping assistance, adaptive cruise control, automatic high beams, and traffic sign recognition. Additionally, the new Prelude comes equipped with a post-collision braking system, which applies the brakes to slow the car after a crash to lessen any potential other collisions that may follow.