At $10,500, Could You Be Steered To This 1988 Honda Prelude Si?

According to the ad, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Prelude has four-wheel-steering, which was a thing back in the 1980s. Let’s see if this classic coupe has a price tag that won’t steer us wrong.

You are all no doubt familiar with the knock-knock joke that ends with “Orange, you glad I didn’t say banana?” That pun employs a Catachresis, which describes the use of a wrong but similar-sounding word to create a pun or alternate phrasing. Interestingly, the 2000 Mazda Miata we looked at yesterday was painted a rare metallic orange and seemingly needed no help, either grammatically or fiscally, to get its point across. 

A $6,500 asking, recently reduced from $7,000, put the well-maintained, clean title roadster in good stead, even though it rocked some hefty mileage and, as pointed out in the comments, was priced within kissing distance of newer, less-well-traveled models. Ultimately, we can’t say no to a Miata and put that orange in the black with a 62% Nice Price win.

One lamentable thing about yesterday’s Miata was that, like a young man exchanging the short pants of their youth for an adult’s sensible slacks, our MX5 had lost its cheerful pop-up headlamps for the same sort of mundane fixed units found on every other car.

Fortunately, today’s 1988 Honda Prelude Si is old enough not to know the danger it presents to pedestrians. It hides its headlamps when not in use, only to unfurl them when nighttime calls like some sort of nocturnal predator.

This Prelude is from the third generation of Honda’s iconic coupe lineup and the second with headlights that are kept out of harm’s way when not in use. The rest of the car is a little less dramatic in style but still impresses with its long-nose, short-deck design. It’s painted a dark blue hue, which might have served it stealthily back in the day, but now could be seen as a less desirable color for a collectible. Somewhat annoyingly, the factory wheels on the car have been mounted incorrectly, with the turbine blade design facing different ways on each end.

The most interesting thing about this Prelude, though, isn’t its looks or how quickly the wheels can be re-mounted, but its steering. That’s because both ends do the heavy lifting when it comes to going around corners and when parking in parallel.

This was a big deal back in the 1980s, but it’s a feature that has fallen out of favor until being recently resurrected for luxury cars hoping to hide their lengthy wheelbase, and by a few of the electric car companies with models that can “crab-walk” thanks to rear wheels that pivot.

On this Prelude, the system is completely mechanical, with two separate steering racks connected by a dedicated shaft running from front to back in between them. Wildly innovative, the system allows for the rear wheels to turn in tandem with the fronts when small inputs to the steering wheel are made and then in opposite directions when greater turns are called upon. On this car, that all seems to work as it should, as does, according to the ad, the old-school A/C and the fuel-injected DOHC B20A5 2.0 engine. When new, that inline four offered up 135 horsepower at a heady 6,200 rpm and 127 lb-ft of torque at a slightly less frenetic 4,000 spins.

Unfortunately for the uncompromising enthusiast, those ponies get routed to the front wheels through an automatic transmission. And, this being an old car, that slushbox has only a mere four gears and no real way to make those all that much fun.

It does have a great beer tap shift lever, and that sits in the center of a velour and plastic interior that appears to be in great shape. Honda in the 1980s was big on giving its cars great visibility, and despite its coupe aesthetic, the Prelude is no exception. Both the front suspension and 18-degree cant of the engine were intended to allow for a low hood line and correspondingly big windscreen. That means the dashboard is an in-your-lap affair, and the seats are mounted close to the floor. This gives the Prelude both a sporty and airy feel, although at the cost of the back seats not being of much use.

Other important information in the ad includes the mileage, which is a reasonably low 104,000, and the recent replacement of the tires, brakes (not breaks), and front half shafts.

Also per the ad, the car has a clean title, a couple of dents on the body (although nothing too egregious), and is only offered to serious buyers. What might a classic coupe like this—with its four-wheel-steering—reasonably be worth?

The seller seems to think that $10,500 is a fair price, breaking through that five-figure barrier with abandon. Do we concur with that assessment? Looking around, there doesn’t seem to be many of these old Preludes left, much less with the 4WS and in as nice of shape as this one. And, it’s a good time to own an old Prelude since Honda is about to reissue the nameplate on a new coupe that’s going to sell like… well, let’s be honest, not all that well.

What do you think? Is this old-school Prelude worth that $10,500 asking as it sits? Or is that a price that will turn buyers away?

You decide!

Sacramento, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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