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.
Additional remarks, now that I've had the car a week:
* Since this is a front-engine car, it cries out for high-performance, super-grip tires on the rear -- as the back end will certainly try to get away from you on a sharp corner. I gather that the 4ws version addresses this tendency better. (I suppose I could throw some bags of sand or water-softener salt in the trunk rather than buying $100 tires; although acceleration would suffer a bit doing so.)
* Appears to be running better on mid-grade gas than regular; the missing problem appears to have gone away after a few short "Italian tune-up" jaunts using the 10% ethy.
* My car runs so straight, it's amazing. Once leveled on a flat stretch, I can ran a mile with my hands of the wheel without drifting over a line.
* The short gears continue to be annoying; if I'm in 5th and take my foot off the gas, the car wants to quickly slow down to 40mph. But if I accelerate to 80+, then engage neutral, the car will coast for a good twenty or thirty seconds before dropping to 50. Provided I'm not in a hurry for the first ten feet, I can take off from a dead-stop in 2nd gear; 1st is completely unnecessary once the vehicle is actually moving faster than a snail.
* I am amazed at the stability of the car; the body-style's aerodynamics glue it to the road better at 90 than at 50. No shimmying or shaking whatsoever. Lots of down-force, even without a rear spoiler. With taller gearing, this little rusty sleeper would flash by most anything on the highway without getting anywhere near the 6800 red-line.
* There appears to be no way to adjust open windows and opened sun-roof to circulate the air-flow in such a way that my Aragorn-style mane won't blow around into my eyes (very aggravating for us long-haired, freaky people) -- and especially not with the driver's side window all the way down. If the tiny rear triangle windows were able to open, I suspect the turbulence in the cockpit wouldn't be so bad.
--mike18xx{at}yahoo.com.
Just one more brief comment: I continue to be amazed at the ultra-low gearing in this car -- it's the only thing I've ever driven which gets better fuel economy in stop-and-go city driving than while cruising at 70mph on the highway.
The car has phenomenal stability at very high speeds; it handles just as well at 100mph as it does at 65. I suspect the wedge-shaped hood design generates a lot of downforce.
Swap in a tall 5th gear, put on performance tires, and I'm gonna say an '89 Prelude would hang with the Big Names at 150+mph autobahning (although it wouldn't be particularly quick accelerating to that point without a turbo- or super-charger).
Although Preludes seem fast when you first own them, they are actually not compared with other cars.
I have owned an 84' BMW 323i and 528i as well, and both were faster. The thing is torque - the 323i is a car of the same size and weight as the Prelude, but while the Prelude has 174nm of torque, the little Bimmer has 205nm - a considerable difference for the size of both cars.
The Prelude is indeed zippy and quick, but it hasn't anywhere near the urge of such German engines. In short, I think you'd get a MUCH better sports car if you had the patience to hunt around for a well maintained e30 323i or 325i; these cars both impressed the pants off me!
But back to Preludes. I have a 89 2.0si 4WS job, and indeed it handles fine. It is not particularly communicative or engrossing, but it is definitely direct, stable and predictable. I have heard that the two wheel steering jobs (which we didn't get in Australia) tend to have lots of understeer. I can only imagine that a 4WS job will handle better than a 2WS one. But I don't think you can install this system.
If you like the Prelude, I would suggest putting on some wider tyres (perhaps 205s or 215s if they fit), a front and rear sway bar and lowering the car. My 4WS Lude handles like it is on rails around bends at 120km and this is stock. Doing these mods would make the handling nothing short of sensational! This is the beauty of a crappy front wheel drive 4-potters with lax torque; you can peel around bends and leave the more substance-filled RWD 6 cyls in the dust!
Personally, I wouldn't bother with such cars (I'm afraid I have outgrown little sports cars and pine for my 528i!), but if you are interested, then the above suggested mods will really enhance the engineering of the Lude.
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