Early 90's Honda Prelude VTEC opinions please

Early 90's Honda Prelude VTEC opinions please

Author
Discussion

loudpedal

Original Poster:

3,934 posts

276 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2003
quotequote all
Hi Guys,

basically, I was after some informed opinions on the car in the thread title....

what's the handling like?
what are the costs/reliability like?

that sort of thing...

ta very much

Jake

loudpedal

Original Poster:

3,934 posts

276 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2003
quotequote all
Gazboy said:
but the hooligan in me won over!


'hooligan'? please explain...

I woulda thought an engine that revs to 8000 would be pretty holigan?

loudpedal

Original Poster:

3,934 posts

276 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2003
quotequote all
nice motor... had thought about an mr2 turbo, but they dont seem as cheap as the Hondas...

Mr E

22,126 posts

266 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2003
quotequote all
Friend of mine runs a 1996 Prelude V-Tec.

Bit plastically (but then so is my car).

Great engine. Grips well. Goes like stink if you keep it on the cam. Built out of solid rock.

Quite cheap now.

Some of the Jap spec cars get a LSD as well....

loudpedal

Original Poster:

3,934 posts

276 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2003
quotequote all
I was considering using one as a track car... good idea or no? I was thinking plenty of power, nice and revvy not too heavy, and should be reliable... only not too sure about the fwd aspect.

is it understeer all the way or is fun available?

dern

14,055 posts

286 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2003
quotequote all
I had a jap import prelude vtec for 3 years. It was a 91 with 2ws and not 4ws. It was extremely reliable, we did roughly 50k in it and the stuff that went wrong was...

Clutch died
Rad died
Electrical fault due to a dry solder joint in the dash somewhere

...and that's pretty much it. When I drove it warped its discs fairly regularly but after I gave it to my wife after two years it didn't. They use oil a bit if you use the vtec a lot but just keep topping them up and they go on and on and on.

It's a nice car to drive and pretty quick. I got bored of it in the end because of the fwd (although doesn't understeer too much and is an exceptional fwd car compared to all the others I've had) and the vtec got on my nerves after a while. My wife loved and was a bit p*ssed off when I traded it in.

Mark

PS. Handling is very neutral. I didn't think the servicing was too bad even though we always had it serviced by Honda main dealers (nice bunch imo too). The bits we did need such as the clutch, rad, discs etc aren't too expensive at all. I did go through 2 exhausts though, should have got the 1st one in stainless in retrospect.

>> Edited by dern on Wednesday 22 October 21:18

Podie

46,645 posts

282 months

Thursday 23rd October 2003
quotequote all
Watch for rust around the rear arches... other than that, very solid. Friend of mine has one that's done 150,000 miles... still pulls like a train..

loudpedal

Original Poster:

3,934 posts

276 months

Thursday 23rd October 2003
quotequote all
thanks for replies chaps...

they sound good...

now thats another car to add to the ever-growing trackday toy shortlist...

MXDi

13,993 posts

256 months

Thursday 23rd October 2003
quotequote all
Prelude would have been one of my options when I was looking, but the styling put me off, they just dont "look" fast.... but like they say, never judge a book by its cover.

stackmonkey

5,077 posts

256 months

Thursday 23rd October 2003
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Mine's a humble 2.0 on a K plate. had it for about 18 months. No problem at all, bit of rust around rear whhel arches ( I do mean just a bit), very reliable, cracking handling, understeers a smidge in wet on 195 section tyres. v good throttle response. Up to 35 mpg on motorway run (75-80) dropping to mid/high 20s with a bit more 'spirit'. Insurance high though.. anyone recommend cheap broker? got a (Janspeed) stainless exhaust when old one went. bit of extra power and sounds great