1988 Honda Prelude 2.0 4ws review from Australia and New Zealand

The A/C has failed.

A hydraulic line for the clutch split causing mass leaking of the clutch fluid. A friend replaced the line with a non genuine part for $80.

Front right (pop-up) headlight wobbles.

Tacho is about 1000rpm out.

Seats and carpet have some ware.

The Honda Prelude has been a favorite car of mine ever since I knew it existed. The old Preludes are attractive because of the sporty coupe looks and the long list of standard features that would usually be found on more expensive cars such as, an electric sunroof, curuise control and pop-up headlights. Mine looks even better with mag wheels, driving lights, blue neons, exaust tip and a clarion sound system. Despite the old age of the car it still looks great in a crowd of new skylines, supras, civics and pulsars.

I am 19 and this is my 2nd car so here is an honest rundown on a 1988 Honda Prelude.

Performance and handling (6/10) :

Nothing sounds better than a high revving Honda. 106kW out of a 2.0L engine sounds impressive, but that isn't achieved until you almost reach the red line of 6500rpm. Toque isn't this engines specialty either so with so little power until you hit 400rpm, performance around town leaves you wanting a little bit more...

Where it lacks in power it makes up for it in handling. The rear wheels turn up to 20% of the front wheels during sharp corning. The result is that it is impossible to over steer during cornering unless. A low snug and 1100kg body means sharp and easily controllable steering with less tire ware on the outside tires. The disadvantage of 4 wheel steering is expensive wheel alignments. The brakes are OK. There are disk breaks on all 4 wheels so they look nice with the mag wheels.

Comfort (9/10) :

The seats are multi adjustable with side walls for stability during cornering. There is ware on the seats, but the intetior has aged really well for a car that is just about to clock over to 300 000km!

The layout of the dash are similar to newish cars. The interior is so nice! It isn't ugly and square like most old cars from the 80s. I have a silver calrion cdplayer and it looks like it is part of the car.

There are many good features to help make driving more fun and comfortable such as, electric mirrors, windows, and sunroof, power steering, air conditioning (mine broke though), curise controll with buttons on the steering wheel and even a coin pouch with a light. The negatives, the back seat is very small for one person and even smaller for two. Also the lack of storage space can be anoing. There is no space in the center bit to put things at all and the glove box is really tiny. The boot however is quite roomy and the back seat is more useful for carrying shopping rather than carrying people. (This is a sports coupe so the lack of storage space and the small back seat do not reflect badly in the overall comfort mark.)

I hope this has been helpful so please vote for my review :-)