2026 Honda Prelude Up Close: Putting the Green in Grand Touring

Key Points:

• The Honda Prelude is back for the 2026 model year as a hybrid coupe, sharing the Civic hybrid’s 200-horsepower powertrain. It also features a simulated S+ Shift system instead of a transmission, as well as chassis hardware from the Civic Type R.
• The new Prelude offers the comfort, practicality and sportiness you would expect from a grand tourer with niceties such as an eight-speaker Bose sound system and heated leather sport seats.
• When the 2026 Prelude goes on sale in the fall, its starting price for its only trim level is expected to be in the high $30,000s to mid-$40,000s.

For a sizable group of enthusiasts, this is the big one. The Honda Prelude returns to production for the 2026 model year, closing the loop on a whopping 25-year absence since the fifth generation settled into the big junkyard in the sky after the 2001 model year. A whole heck of a lot has changed in that quarter-century, including technology, automotive design, purchasing habits, consumer priorities and brand identity, so it’s no surprise that the new Prelude has changed with the times.

Related: All-New 200-HP Hybrid Honda Prelude to Arrive Fall 2026

Or has it? Looking over the five generations of Prelude, five key identifiers are shared under that badge: It must be a sporty, four-seat four-cylinder coupe with an available manual transmission. The sixth gen’s got four of those five handled all nice ’n’ tidy, but that fifth one’s a doozy considering it doesn’t really have a transmission at all.

Related Video:

Grand Tourer Interior

• Key takeaway: The 2026 Prelude features good comfort, practicality and nice materials inside while differentiating itself from the rest of the Honda lineup with unique front and rear styling, a double-bubble roof and flared fenders.

Somewhere around the end of the third generation in 1991, the Prelude became more sporting grand tourer than canyon slingshot — heavy on the tech, heavy on the options. It’s the same story here, with the new car offered in one spec only and packed with all of the creature features you’d expect on a Touring trim from Honda. There’s a choice of exterior and interior colors and a few dealer-installed aesthetic kits, but all Preludes will arrive with heated leather sport seats, 19-inch black wheels, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, 10.2-inch digital instrument panel, 9-inch center infotainment display, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless device charging and eight-speaker Bose sound system.

In person, the 2026 Prelude feels reasonably primo. I dig the materials and houndstooth pattern on the seats, as well as the general seat comfort and flat-bottom steering wheel. Stylistically, it’s not quite a transplanted space from the Civic or Accord, presenting as a distinct branch in the family tree. The Prelude is a smart and mature space with a healthy dollop of sport — just like you’d expect on a grand tourer.

It’s also a rather sharp-looking profile, pushing the envelope of Honda’s design language in the same vein of older Preludes. Even in a more staid white, it’s a striking shape I reckon will attract more attention than the four-door Civic Type R, especially with a double-bubble roof and flared fenders. I also think the unique front and rear treatments are a smart way to differentiate the premium Prelude from the rest of the lineup, a face we can potentially expect on future Honda products.

It’s pretty practical, too, at least for a coupe. Honda says its 2+2 seating configuration offers 32 inches of rear-seat legroom, but that backseat will most often be used as a sizable parcel shelf — not that you’ll need to, with the (reasonably) capacious cargo space under the rear liftback that can be expanded with the second row’s 60/40-split, folding function. Both sample models on hand were packed with various cargo detritus, including golf bags and carry-on rollerbags.

Leather, luggage and a Bose thumper means you’ll want to drive far, but the Prelude’s use of Civic Type R chassis hardware means you’ll also want to drive fast. Honda says the Type R’s adaptive dampers, “dual-axis strut” front suspension, widened track and standard four-piston Brembo brakes mean you’ll easily hit the limit of its 200 hp far before the chassis lets go. The automaker says the suspension components are retuned and moderately softened for the Prelude, but I expect its raw dynamics to be significantly above that of a Civic Si, especially if it channels some of the Type R’s exceptional steering.

Read More Honda Hybrid News Coverage:

• Prelude to the Prelude: Honda Previews Upcoming Hybrid Coupe’s Proven Suspension
• Honda Bringing Prelude Back to U.S. as Hybrid
• What Real-World MPG Does the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid Get?
• What Are the Most Fuel-Efficient Cars?
• 2025 Honda CR-V Hybrid Review: Popular for Good Reason
• Is the 2025 Honda Civic Hybrid a Good Car? 5 Pros, 3 Cons

Shifting Without a Transmission

• Key takeaway: The new Prelude pulls parts from various Civic parts bins, including the Civic hybrid’s powertrain and Type R’s suspension, and utilizes a new S+ Shift system. But even though it’s expected to be a bit quicker than the Civic hybrid with potentially better fuel economy, the 2026 Prelude may not be as engaging to drive as the current Type R.

Pop the hood and you’ll find a copy-paste iteration of the existing Civic hybrid’s powertrain right down to the naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and twin electric motors. The Civic’s combined 200 hp and 232 pounds-feet of torque carry over, too, as does much of the platform under the sleek coupe wrapper. There’s no third pedal, but come on — the Civic Type R is right there! I can promise you with absolute authority, even without having driven the new Prelude, that the current Type R is and would be far, far more engaging to drive than the sixth-gen Prelude with a hypothetical manual transmission.

So far, the Prelude might come across as a well-engineered parts-bin special, but its killer tech is the debut of Honda’s S+ Shift system. Since the 2.0-liter four-cylinder acts more as a generator for the electric motors than it does as a direct power unit, the S+ Shift system simulates, uh, shifts as you’d experience in a performance-minded automatic transmission — which, reminder, the Prelude doesn’t have. I didn’t get to experience any of the S+ Shift’s tricks during the studio preview, but Honda says to expect “quick simulated gearshift responses through seamless coordination between the engine and high-power motor, including downshift blips, rev matching and gear holding.”

Performance? Only Honda knows at this point, but I expect it to be a skosh zippier down an on-ramp than the standard Civic hybrid. Ditto on the expected fuel economy, though its slicker profile and potentially lighter weight means it might improve upon the 2025 Civic hybrid sedan’s impressive EPA-rated 50/47/49 mpg city/highway/combined.

The same goes for the Prelude’s price, though Honda freely admits this will be a “low-volume product,” presumably reflecting its internal expectation of consumer demand versus production capacity. My guess? Based on fit, finish, Type R hardware and single-spec primo packaging, look for a base price in the high $30,000 range or even approaching the Type R in the mid-$40,000 space. Regardless, I’m just happy to have the Prelude badge back — even if we left the manual transmission on the factory shelf.

Cars.com’s Editorial department is your source for automotive news and reviews. In line with Cars.com’s long-standing ethics policy, editors and reviewers don’t accept gifts or free trips from automakers. The Editorial department is independent of Cars.com’s advertising, sales and sponsored content departments.