1997 Honda Prelude Si review from North America

Blew engine at about 130,000.

Lost transmission at about 140,000.

Alternator at about 110,000.

The Prelude is a fun car. I really miss the sunroof and the nice low to the ground "point and shoot" driving it encourages...

Having had both a regular Prelude (manual) and Si (automatic) I was disappointed in the Si automatic because the performance could not match the previous Prelude (manual) that I had.

One of my main annoyances with this car is that it is VERY hard to do your own work on it. (Everything is so tightly packed in to the engine compartment that even belt / alternator / thermostat / etc replacement can be quite troublesome.)

That having been said the Hondas that I have had have all been quite reliable and I REALLY liked and miss the speed sensitive power steering. (Full assist in parking lots and virtually no assist out on the open road for good driver feedback.) The Prelude will not win any performance numbers, but is a solid car that is fun to drive and does its job so well in most cases that you forget how many intricately interdependent parts there are in the average motor vehicle.)

The blown engine was due to one of the steepest grades you will see (16% grade) I lost a hose and watched the temperature gauge slowly climbing. All of a sudden the temp gauge started to drop even though I was still climbing... (Immediately pulled over and stopped, but it was too late... The gauge temp dropped because there was no more fluid in the system.)

A month or so after replacing the engine the transmission went and I decided that climbing the mountain every day on my daily commute was a little too hard on the little Honda and sent it on its way...

Now that I moved down into the high desert I kind of miss the old car and wish I had kept it since the commute is now mostly level ground...