Honda Prelude e:HEV

Parkers sums the Prelude up as a car designed for couples: rear-seat access needs flexibility and the two rear pews are very small, best reserved for young children or small adults on short hops. Carwow is blunter still, calling the rear seats too small to be useful. Vision is the other half of the story - forward visibility is good but looking over the shoulder is terrible because of the thick rear quarters, which hampers you at junctions and when pulling onto a motorway, so you end up relying on the camera and sensors. Anyone who might need to carry teenagers or fit a child seat should try it before ordering.

The Prelude's chassis is the good bit and the engine is the compromise. Both Carwow and Parkers make the same point: the 2.0-litre hybrid is smooth and efficient but only moderately powerful at about 180-181hp, giving 0-62mph in 8.2 seconds and a top speed limited to about 117mph, with no stepped gears for the driver to exploit - Honda simulates them in software with S+ Shift. Carwow says the engine cannot match the excitement the chassis offers and wishes for the Type R unit; Parkers describes acceleration as progressive rather than explosive. At £41,595, with a BMW 2 Series close by, buyers are paying for refinement and rarity rather than performance, and that shows up in used values too.

The Prelude e:HEV introduces Honda's S+ Shift logic to simulate crisp eight-speed stepped gear changes using steering-wheel paddle shifters. However, under wide-open throttle or sustained aggressive uphill acceleration, the internal combustion 2.0-litre Atkinson-cycle petrol engine must decouple from virtual ratios to act as a direct high-output electrical generator. When this occurs, engine RPM flares abruptly to maximum speed and holds a constant loud monotone drone while the vehicle gathers pace, breaking the illusion of a mechanical multi-ratio sports gearbox.