Friday 30th September 2016

Shed of the Week: Honda Prelude

There may be a new Civic Type R at Paris, but Shed has a far cheaper way to get your VTEC fix

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We all have our favourite smells, noises, and sensations. For Shed, these include the pungent leathery whiff of a Jag cabin, the hinge-loosening crash of the front door as Mrs Shed leaves for her mother's for two weeks, and the sphincter-twinkling fizz of a Honda VTEC engine climbing onto its power step.

Must be a rare sight in 2016!

This week's SOTW, a very nice looking fourth-gen Prelude, doesn't have leather, but it does have the 185hp 2.2 VTEC motor, which makes it quite rare. Better yet, with appropriately skilful driving by Shed, the 5,200rpm rasp could certainly be used to drown out at least some of the baleful mooing from the passenger seat.

Departed doyen of motoring writers LJK Setright included the Gen 4 Prelude VTEC in his £540,000 dream garage (£100K being far too niggardly an amount to accommodate his selection of Bristols and Honda NSXs) on the simple grounds that 'no other car was as nice to drive'.

Part of that was undoubtedly down to the engine, but Setright was a big fan of the Prelude's advanced electronic four-wheel steering too. He also approved of the independently-front-suspended Honda's feeling of solidity when he was overtaking other vehicles on the approach to blind corners, a gung-ho/suicidal driving style that, along with his penchant for foul-smelling Sobranie Black Russian tabs, gave LJKS a high degree of exclusivity on shared-car press launches.

There is a lot to like about a Gen 4 Prelude even now, a full 20 years after this one was built. Younger PHers may disagree, but for someone of Shed's age at least, the 2+a not very big 2 styling has matured remarkably well. The boot pic in the ad shows why there's not much room for humans in the back: it's all been given over to luggage.

Revs beyond 7K and should be good for a while yet

Cheap interior materials (like in the roof lining) betray the car's age, but the semi-hidden electro-luminescent instruments are well snazzy.

What's not so good? The engine is from a golden age when Honda was really trying to cement its reputation for engineering reliability. You can reasonably expect it to do 200,000 miles and then some while delivering up to 40mpg, all very much depending on usage of course.

It would be wrong to suggest there were no mechanical problems, however. Distributor/rotor arm shaft bearings wear, eventually giving rise to a blood curdling shriek that will strongly incline you to pull over quietly to the side of the road in order to consider your options. Radiators are a bit flimsy and the clutch master cylinders can be short-lived. A sticky pedal or heavy gear selection are your pointers for that.

Coils, ICMs (Ignition Control Modules) and sensors for TDC (top dead centre) and crankshaft position all blow, and Gen 4 Prelude ignition switches were famously dodgy. These switches were the subject of a recall, but even mended cars can suffer from ongoing problems in this area.

Uneven idling could be nothing more scary than failure of the idle control valve under the throttle body. Gaskets and seals on things like the sump and valve covers need regular checking, and the rear brake calipers are known to seize. The sunshine roof which we assume this car has will most likely rattle unless it's been treated to a few squirts of silicon-based lube.

Cheap, reliable and pretty? Top Shed!

Of course any old Japanese car is going to be prone to rust, and the Prelude tends to get it at the rear end. The pics of our SOTW are a bit murky, but what we can see looks clean enough, and with a full service history plus a full MOT there's nothing here that should put you off.

As we speak, Honda is launching a sportmungous concept at the Paris motor show. Shed's lipsmacking reminder of 20th century performance coopery is a practical choice for those fortunate pre- and post-family users who still have time and money left over for lifestyle activities, like golf.

Shed plays. He scored a 69 yesterday, but don't tell Mrs Shed.

Here's the ad.

Honda Prelude 2.2 VTEC 1996 Manual Dark Blue

116000miles, 12 Months MOT, FSH, excellent condition
Recent cambelt change, brake fluid, gear box fluid, front and rear discs and pads
Owned for the last 8 years

[2smoke]

Always liked these back in the 90's when they were well out of reach for a teenager, before the days everything was financed. Can anyone comment on what they're actually like to drive?