Honda announced Tuesday that the 2026 Prelude is landing at dealerships as you read this, and it costs $43,195 including delivery.
That price shouldn’t vary too much—excusing dealer-installed accessories and to say nothing of potential markups—because the Prelude will come in one trim level. That’ll include adaptive dampers, Brembo brakes, leather-trimmed seats (and steering wheel), and an eight-speaker Bose audio system. Additionally, Honda’s confirmed the Prelude’s EPA-rated fuel economy, and it’s a tick behind the Civic Hybrid it borrows its powertrain from, at 46 miles per gallon city, 41 mpg highway, and 44 mpg combined.
In other respects, though, the Prelude is well ahead of the Civic Hybrid—like in how much it costs. At $43,195, it’s almost $13,000 more expensive than a base Civic Hybrid. In fact, it only comes in about $4,000 less expensive than the Civic Type R.
Comparing the Prelude to other compacts is a bit challenging because competing brands don’t really offer a counterpart. Most cars this size tend to be tuned to be economical, efficient, or performant above all else, and the 200-horsepower, hybrid Prelude sits between those last two extremes. The Hyundai Elantra N, for example, is a fantastic driver’s car on a budget, at $35,595, but it won’t be anywhere near as comfortable as the Prelude should be, let alone as good on gas.
At the other end of the spectrum is the Mazda3, which has a sublime interior for the money and is certainly powerful enough if you spring for the 2.5 turbocharged powertrain. A fully loaded sedan costs $37,975. But the edge it has on the Prelude in power it’ll naturally lose in gas mileage, and without a Type R-caliber suspension, it doesn’t lend itself quite so well to spirited drives.
We haven’t even considered the fact that the Prelude has two fewer doors than either of those cars. And it should go without saying that the rear-wheel-drive Toyota GR86 and Subaru BRZ aren’t intended for quite the same audience as Honda’s small coupe, either.
With this, Honda’s answered all of our basic questions around the Prelude, and even let us loose on a track for a couple of laps in one. But we’re looking forward to spending a little more time with the budget grand tourer to get a better sense of what it’s like to live with—and if $43K is, in fact, too rich for this car. Stay tuned.
Got a tip? Email us at tips@thedrive.com
Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.