What happened to buying a car for the way it drives? What happened to appreciating a car for its mechanicals like its engine?
BUILDING on my review of the Honda Prelude in the past two pages, a car that comes with never-beforeseen technologies, it had me wondering about modern day car buyers.
These days, it seems like car buyers are only interested in a handful of features such as the size of the infotainment system, acceleration times, type of audio system and others like the size of the panoramic roof.
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Where did we get it so wrong? What happened to buying a car for the way it drives? What happened to appreciating a car for its mechanicals like its engine?
Driving the new Prelude was a nostalgic event for me. It took me back to the early 90s when I drove my first ever sports car; the thirdgeneration Prelude.
It came with four-wheel steering, which completely blew my teenage mind back then. It took me some time to understand it, but I felt the system working as the car cut through corners on a knife’s edge.
I’ll never forget how I felt back then, just like how you never forget your first kiss. Fast forward to 2026, I am now in my 40s and driving the latest generation Prelude around Sepang Circuit.
Once again, it is a technological wonder. Honda’s S+ Shift is a revolutionary new system that mimics gear shifts for a car that does not come with a gearbox.
Just to bring you up to speed, the powertrain of the Prelude includes a 2.0-litre Atkinson cycle engine, an electric generator and an electric motor that sends power directly to the wheels.
Because the electric motor drives the wheels, there is no need for a gearbox. Power is immediate and linear; it is like driving an electric car. But therein lies the problem. There is no joy in driving a car without the huffing and puffing of gearshifts. It is a sensationless, sterile feeling. Honda recognised that as well and worked on fixing it.
They first added augmented sounds of gearshifts to the Civic hybrid about three years ago. The Civic runs on the same powertrain as the Prelude, and it has a system that mimics the sound of gears shifting that is piped into the cabin through the speakers.
It sounds good, but you know it is fake. Some liked it, but the social media war mongers had a field day criticising it. Honda did not just give up but set out to build on that. And now it comes with something called S+ Shift.
This does not only create the sound of gears shifting but also comes complete with power cuts as the augmented gears shift upwards or downwards. Imagine shifting gears in a manual car. You will first engage the clutch, which cuts power to the engine, then you select whichever gear you want to be in. You feel that very short loss of power.
The S+ Shift feature in the Prelude works that way as well, but it shares more in common with Porsche’s PDK or Volkswagen’s DSG dualclutch systems. It is quick, precise and you feel a short but satisfying thud when the system cuts power as it selects the next gear. I applaud Honda for this engineering genius. This is what car makers are all about – innovation.
We live in a time where too many car makers are simply copying what the other car maker is doing and making it cheaper. Very rarely do we see true innovation like what Honda has just achieved. The Honda Prelude makes a return after two and a half decades, and now it is more of a Grand Tourer (GT) rather than an all-out sports car.
Never discount Honda because when it truly matters, the company delivers every single time. Don’t believe me? Just search which engine provider powered Max Verstappen to his four world championships.
