1989 Honda Prelude Si review from North America

Things wrong with car at time of purchase:

* Burns a minor amount of oil, according to the seller.

* Rust around the fenders and gas-cap; there were minor dents, and hail dimples on the roof.

* Water leaking into trunk somehow; seller suggested looking at the drainage tube from the sunroof (?)

* Dash lights wouldn't turn on with the head-lights

* Small tear in the shift-shroud.

* One of the cylinders was missing every couple dozen firings; also smells like it's burning "rich", possibly for this reason.

* The antenna broke off in an automatic carwash; radio reception is still good in the metro area.

* Squirters were cruddy and wasted wiper-fluid

* AC was, as expected, dead.

Seller's ad mentioned: "...it has a new OEM Honda timing belt at 89k miles. New pads in rear, good brakes all around. New power steering hose (replacing) the one that goes bad and leaks powersteering all over the exhaust manifold, so you don't have to worry about that now. New OEM oil pan gasket, OEM valve cover gasket, plugs, OEM wires, bled the brakes and clutch."

What a freakin' bargain! For a measly $1,000 hyper-inflated, pink toilet-paper 2006 dollars, I just bought a 5sp manual with a sunroof and cruise-control -- and which wasn't a totally blown wreck!

***Note: The vehicle I am describing is NOT one of the four-wheel-steering (4ws) models -- if anyone has any information as to how different these two models are, and whether or not the "base" models can be upgraded, please let me know. Email mike18xx (at) yahoo.com***

The car was in amazingly good condition for a 25+ year-old 5sp manual purchased in salt-encrusted Minnesota. According to the seller, it had its original suspension and control-arms.

It drove flawlessly; the suspension was very stable, and handled very well in corners without subjecting me to bone-jarring shakes going over the slightest pavement imperfections. Shifting was extremely smooth, and I couldn't sense the slightest vibration through the stick. The engine didn't "shimmy" when reved, and there wasn't any sign of oil-seepage (see above comment regarding seller adding new gasket).

Pleasant surprises:

* All-wheel disc-brakes stopped me on a dime

* Lots of leg-room compared to, say, 80s Fieros and Z24s, which cram/wedge your legs together and to the right; in the Prelude there's plenty of space between the gas, brake, and clutch.

* The trunk is surprisingly big for a sport-coupe.

* The car has enough steel fore and aft that it won't mash into a ball of tinfoil if you hit a mouse (as will a modern "crumple-zone"-legislated vehicles)

* The "frog-eye" headlights rose fast and flawlessly.

* Power-retracting sunroof, also with drawscreen to block out the sun.

* No door-lock button jabbing me in the funny-bone when my arm is on the window-sill. (Yay!)

* Rear-view mirror attached to the roof, not a lame glue-on type. (Yay!)

* Bucket seats looked brand-new. (Caveat: They may not be the originals.)

* No cracks in any of the vinyl (and this car is white with a coal-black interior, so you know it baked in the summer with the windows up).

* Cruise-control with accel/deaccel on the wheel -- very handy on the open highway.

* Reminds me of my mid-80s 2.0 4cl 5sp rust-bucket-model Cavalier (non-z24 model), which has similar crisp shifting and fast acceleration.

* Tilt steering-column.

Model demerits:

* A telescoping steering-column would have been sweet for 6+ foot-tall persons, who, while we fit comfortably in this car, find both the wheel and shift two or three inches farther away than we'd like.

* Small sun-visors, without mirrors -- anyone know where I can get giant-ass huge 18" ones with slide-out plastic inserts to make them even bigger? (On my Cavalier, also with stubbies, I wrapped newspaper around the driver's side one to slide out to keep from getting blinded when driving perpendicular to a rising/setting sun; later I found some monster Olds Regency suckers whose screw-pattern matched.)

Lastly: the transmission must have the tiniest gears ever put into a manual; essentially it's only a three-speed, because 2nd and 4th are completely unnecessary with even the most modest acceleration -- within twenty minutes of owning the car, I wasn't even using them for anything, but compression-braking. The car chugs along just fine in 5th at 35mph/1500rpm (and probably gets its best gas-mileage at that speed/gear). While this enables no-messin'-around driving between 30 and 65, it begins whining like a hair-dryer over 70mph as it nears 3500-4000rpm.

-- I sure would like taller 4th and 5th gears, as I'm sure this low-slung, aerodynamic, froglit car would get 40+mpg highway cruising instead of 28-30ish, and the engine would certainly last a lot longer (although it is apparently unkillable anyway, and the tac has the redline at a very generous 6800, which I've yet to remotely near).

So, advice is sought on how to (cheaply) upgrade the vehicle. If you know of Prelude-oriented websites and forums, please list their URLs.