Great summer car
The car had poor handling in winter. My 18 year old son wiped out around a corner, going 35km/h, rear end slid, car flipped and landed in ditch.
Awesome car in the summer for fun back roads and highways. Cheap, good on gas, sticks to the corners.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 6th March, 2008
Quick, sounds great, but costs too much to fix
Master cylinder went out on clutch, clutch went out, burns oil, loud when driving at 65mph and the RPM is around 3250. 5th gear is pointless on this car.
Quick...can beat my friends civic with a ZC motor swap, VERY nice seats, but small back seats, fits 4 VERY uncomfortably, fits 2 great! has a lot of torque compared to a lot of other hondas. I have added Tokico lowering springs, catback exhaust, NGK's, and intake (has that AMAZING DOHC Honda sound at 4500 and above). will definitely buy from Honda again, just NOT a Prelude.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 21st January, 2006
Rice rocket
Replaced half shafts.
Window wiper broke.
Antenna won't go up anymore.
Seat belts won't stay buckled.
Brakes froze up.
Win a lot of races, but I wish it had a taller 1st gear.
Speed and handling all rapped up into one.
I got D C headers for it, a exhaust kit, Eibach lowering kit, 17 inch chrome and brand new money green paint..
Flashy.
Tons of looks for it's age.
Starts smelling hot at 130 mph.
Sweet e braking car.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 29th February, 2004
Fun to drive, but expensive to repair.
Rust has started in the rear quarter panels.
Engine burns oil more than it should. I plan to have the dealer look into the cause. If it is valve seals, then I will have it repaired.
Exhaust system needs replacement every 5 years, which is very expensive at the dealer.
If the oil burning can be reasonably repaired, I plan on fixing the rust. The body is in mint condition otherwise; with no dents or leaks.
The car is still very fun to drive, even though I've had it for 13 years.
Other than the oil burning; the car has been extremely reliable.
Changed the timing belt at 80000 miles.
The seats are comfortable for short trips, but not for long distance traveling.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 23rd January, 2004
4 years of payments, 12 years of fun!
Seatbelt recall at 10,000 km.
Valve train noise when engine is cold, has done this from new, no problems from this "fault".
Both door and glove box switch's gave problems after first year.
Cooling fan timer went out at 102,000 km at a cost of $178.00.
Key and tumbler failed at 105,000 km and 5 days later and $350.00 later car was on the road again!
Rust is forming on lower rear quarter panels.
This car has been serviced and maintained since new and is only starting to cost more to drive.
Back seat is too small, even for a child!
Sits so low you can't see traffic lights when driving behind a Mini!
Fun to drive in all weather!
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 14th November, 2003
Great car, change the timing belt every 100,000 km
The timing belt went at 167,000 km. When I bought the car, the seller said he had changed the timing belt. I doubt this is true, since it was an original Honda belt and several Honda technicians said they have never seen one go before the recommended 100,000 km mark.
The belt went on a vacation, just outside of Calgary. A Honda Dealer in Calgary said "When the timing belt goes, the pistons will hit the valves, causing valves to break and likely the piston to crack and even the connecting rod can bend." Their solution was to buy a used engine for $3,500 and spend $1,500 having them put it in, total bill $5,000. I told them, no thanks.
I bought the service repair manual from Honda at a cost of $100. This was probably the single best investment I made on the car. I followed the manual to the letter and took the head off the engine. I had 3 bent valves. I had the head serviced at a block shop in Edmonton and the total cost for head servicing was $400, including knurling of the value guides. There was no damage to the pistons or to the connecting rods.
After buying new gaskets for everything I took apart, new belts and new thermostat, the total cost for parts and head servicing was about $800.
Total time for me to fix was about 120 hours over about 6 weeks of evenings and weekends. I am not a mechanic, but am no stranger to fixing the odd thing on my car. It was tough to do at times, but saving $5,000 over taking it to Honda, helped spur me on.
My advice: Change the Timing Belt every 100,000 km, or when you buy the car, if you are unsure.
The oil pan gasket was leaking. Took off the oil pan and found the gasket was cracked, possibly due to our cold Edmonton winters. Replaced the gasket and the car hasn't leaked any oil since.
Transmission is now having some difficulty going into first gear, from neutral, when I am stopped. I know it is getting old, so I try to put it into first, before the car comes to a complete stop. I figure if I baby the transmission, I can probably get another 100,000km out of the car.
It burns some oil now, about 1L between gas fills, not great, but oil is cheap.
Great little car, good on gas and it still looks great after all these years.
Just starting to show the first signs of rust, but just over the wheel wells and very minor rust at that.
I drove a 2000 Honda Civic a few weeks ago and found that my 1991 Prelude is a far more comfortable car.
I wish Honda still made the Prelude.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 31st July, 2003
I also have the SR (Canadian) model, and found a few things that have gone wrong:
Driver's side dome light door switch often sticks. If I keep it oiled with WD-40 I usually don't have a problem.
Retractable antenna wouldn't extend or retract fully. I disconnected power to the antenna while it was in the 'UP' position, but I later broke the antenna when opening the trunk. This was of course my own fault, but you would think the brilliant minds at Honda could have designed an antenna that didn't interfere with the trunk mounted spoiler.
Blower motor (interior car fan) stopped working after about 250,000km (150,000 miles). Honda wanted C$350 (US$250) for a new blower. Canadian Tire auto parts wanted $87. I simply replaced the brushes, springs and cleaned the commutator. Cost of the brushes and springs was $17. The replacement brushes are slightly narrower than the previous original brushes, but it still works. The blower makes a faint ticking sound, likely due to the narrow brushes not having as great a field of contact. I can live with the slight extra noise and feel good about not giving Honda $350.
A/C compressor warning light comes on intermittently. Oddly enough, after I repaired the blower motor (one week ago), the A/C warning light hasn't come on. Normally I would have expected the light to come on at least 4-5 times by now. I do not know why it appears fixed, I did start to remove the evaporator unit (next to the blower assembly) and wiggled the unit several times before I realized that I did not need to remove this unit. I did clean out a small leaf or two from the unit, once I had the blower was out. Could there be a connection, who knows? Maybe its just dumb luck (heavy emphasis on the 'dumb' part).
Paint on the hub caps started to fake off about 1998. As of last week nearly 50% of the paint had come off. This might have been due to driving on the occasional gravel road, but I am not sure. I took the hub caps off, sanded them down and have started to repaint them with Exact color match paint from Canadian Tire. It has taken me about 1-2 hours per hub cap to sand and then repaint. They look nearly brand new. Honda wanted $76 for a new hub cap and $40 for a new center cap.
HELP: I have a rattle in the sunroof, when driving about 100 km/h (60 mph). I don't know how to fix this. Has anyone else experienced this problem and know how to fix it?
HELP: Retractable Headlights sometimes wait up to 4 minutes before going 'UP' after I turn on the headlights. I can turn if off and on again, but it still will wait about 4 minutes. Could the switch be starting to fail? Has anyone else experienced this problem and know how to fix it?
HELP: My right side fog light works intermittently. I took it out and everything looked in working order with no corrosion on the contacts. When I was working on it, the light worked, then about a week later it started acting up again. Has anyone else experienced this problem?
20th Jan 2006, 21:03
Deffinently a sweet e-braking car!!!