1993 Honda Prelude Si review from UK and Ireland

A stuck rear brake-caliper.

Nothing else.

This car is absolutely bullet-proof reliability-wise. It is the first automatic car I bought and I was wary of the gearboxs reliability and performance. The 4-speed auto box is amazingly smooth, reliable and shifts in time. The acceleration is great in pretty much any gear.

The springs are stiff on this car so the ride is bumpy compared to a family saloon as you would expect, but this means it doesn't roll at all going around corners. It is not, however, a particularly good handling car. It will stick to the road like glue and never tell you what it is about to do, and then BANG it's gone. It is not progressive when it loses grip at all so be careful when pushing them to the limit.

It is a heavy car and it is excellent on long journeys as a motorway cruiser and nothing on the car has given me trouble in 2 solid years driving.

It is thirsty though. On a typical fill I will get between 25 and 28 miles to the gallon. If I push it I have been known to get as low as 18 miles to the gallon on a fill. The fuel tank is annoyingly small for such a thirsty tank and I have to fill every 420 kilometers.

It has 4 seats and you will get 2 adults in the back, but preferably not for a long journey.

The boot is quite big for a sports coupe.

Personally I love the dashboard. It is one sweeping pane of glass below the facia under the windscreen. The fuel gauge and the water temperature gauge are lights as opposed to a needle, and the lights go out as the fuel runs out.

The strongest point apart from reliability is the glorious sound of the Honda engine. When you plant the accelerator it usually shifts down for you and screams off at a mighty rate. It will do 115mph in 3rd gear (the automatic remember) and, oh yes, you get respect on the roads if you have a nice one because the shape of this car is quite simply timeless. I will never get fed up looking at it.

The weak points of the car are that it is physically quite wide and the turning circle (I have the 2 wheel steering version) is poor which means you have to get used to it very quickly. Fuel consumption you can get used to. It's way cheaper than most other cars when you consider it has NO running costs at all.