When the first Honda Prelude landed in showrooms in 1978, it soon gained notoriety being called ‘the date car.’ As a wedge-shaped, low riding affordable sports coupe, it was seen as the ideal car to take your girlfriend out on a date. That was up until it went out of production in 2001. The first two generations were actually targeted at single men who were looking to impress women with their ‘date car.’

Fast forward 23 years, and Honda suggests that the definition of its all-new Prelude ‘date car’ has changed to a more broader one that encompasses not only guys taking out their girlfriends, but parents taking out their kids, and even grandparents taking their grandkids out for a drive.

I wrote about the Prelude concept car when it first surfaced at the Japan Mobility Show in October 2023. One year on, it’s time for an update.

It may have ceased production in 2001 after going through five generations, but now, we can expect to see the rebirth of Honda’s Prelude. But according to Japan’s biggest-selling car publication Best Car, the coupe is destined to land in showrooms in early 2026, and not 2025 as we’d originally expected at launch.

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The new model however will need to not only redefine its nickname of the ‘date car,’ but also spruce up its less-than-stellar performance that the early Preludes were known for. Sure, the first and second generation models were good lookers but were heavy and underperformed. So the all-new variant will need a competitive powerplant to challenge the likes of Toyota’s GR86 and Subaru BRZ.

And that’s exactly what Honda plans to give it. A decent powerplant. Sitting on a modified Civic platform and suspension, the all-new model will not employ an electric powertrain, as some had hoped. It will however be powered by the so-called ‘2L e:HEV’ 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder hybrid borrowed from the Civic. And it will have two electric motors, one to keep the battery charged. Expected to pump out in excess of 200 horsepower and 253 lb-ft of torque, and be mated to a continuously variable transmission, the Prelude will be front-drive and rival the 228-hp Toyota GR86.

While the cockpit design will be a mixture of retro lines and the latest hi-tech gizmos, the new Prelude will definitely not employ a controversial seat feature that appeared on earlier models. That’s right, unlike the second generation model, the new Honda coupe will not feature the ‘date seat lever’ which was a manual reclining lever function fitted to the inside edge of the passenger seat, and not the outside edge as with most cars back then. That meant of course that the driver, if so inclined (no pun intended), could easily reach the reclining function of his passenger’s seat and lower the seat.

Expected to debut by mid-2026, the new Prelude, which will be arguably the brand’s last internal combustion powered sports model, should land in showrooms with a price tag of around ¥4.5 million or just under $30,000 using today’s dollar-yen exchange rate.

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