Womp womp. It turns out that the report of a manual transmission for the upcoming Honda Prelude was incorrect. A top exec has confirmed that the coupe will be automatic only. And yes, that’s a photo of an Acura TL Type-S up there, another Honda that was cruelly denied a stick shift, much to the disappointment of enthusiasts.
Shinji Aoyama, Honda’s head of electrification, told Motor Trend the bad news. The article states that the Prelude will have the same powertrain as the latest Civic, a dual-motor hybrid system that was upgraded to 200 horsepower and 232 lb-ft for 2025. The Prelude will feel different, says Motor Trend, because its automatic transmission will have a different shift map than the Civic’s.
Recently, Aoyama also confirmed to The Drive that Honda is working on a manual transmission for fully electric cars. The system wouldn’t actually have any gears, instead mimicking the sound and feel of gear changes.
Are we surprised by this news? No. Are we disappointed? Yes. What the rumormill giveth, it taketh away. If you want to experience the joy of rowing your own in a Honda Prelude, go buy a classic one instead.
I guess Honda has totally lost me as a customer now.
Oh well.
I wish them luck…
NOT!
I am bummed about the lack of a manual, and please please please, do not make a fake manual shifting electric. It will en up slower than the pure elec and nobody will use it.
So, an auto-only, hybrid Prelude… Let’s hope it will feel sporty enough to have a place in the lineup! With luck, it might start a new era of sporty cars like we had in the early ’90s.
Do people remember if Toyota had any foreshadowing of putting a manual transmission in their latest Supra? I wonder if there’s continuous push for the manual, maybe Honda might change direction and add a stick shift. Sometimes this “late add” could also serve as a way to increase sales: “Oh well, it’s only automatic, but yeah, I’ll still buy it.” then when the manual version comes around, you get another round of people buying it.
I’m trying to figure out what other cars will the Prelude compete with, and I’m somewhat lost on this one.
Its hard to admit it but manual transmissions are only sought after by a select few these days. My 28 year old daughter has a 2009 Honda Civic 5-speed and not one of her four roommates knows how to drive one. She was just telling me that she was at a party recently and someone had parked a manual car so that people could not get out. The owner was rather inebriated and could not move the car. Of the about 15 people at the party (owner of said parked car excluded) no one except my daughter knew how to drive it. Honda is wise to spend its development dollars in other areas.
Not surprised. Honda always finds a way to crush all their diehard fans’ hopes and dreams. Gone are the basic, small, lightweight sporty cars. Everyone seems to be competing for the exact same market. They only care about selling millions of more premium cars to the lowest common denominator.
When i had my prelude (2nd gen) i was so happy with the analog glory it brought with it.
everything it did was a result of good mechanicals, engineering in fake shifts will do the exact opposite.
Honestly, at this point the might as well make the prelude a crossover SUV as it’s got none of the evolutionary styling of its predecessors nor the mechanical honesty.
I don’t think it’s possible to design a manual for a modern power split hybrid car? correct me if I’m wrong but the insight was a parallel hybrid with both petrol and electric portions constantly on, so you can treat it as an ICE car during take off.
It should be possible, like you said, it was offered on the first Insight and the CRZ…
The bonus of the torquey elec motor would be a blast both for the enthusiast dropping the clutch to roast some tires, and for the engineer finding a way to make a start-assist for a driver getting used to a manual transmission. The gas engine then plugs along doing most of the higher-rpm work, and you can make it sing when you get to the VTEC rpm.
It could make for the perfect modern car to learn stick on, instead of being light and easy to modulate, it could be engineered to feel light and easy to modulate!