The 2026 Honda Prelude—the first new Prelude in a quarter century—starts at $43,195. Many of you think that’s too much, given the stylish coupe’s modest specs. To that end, I’ve been curious to know if there’s any possibility Honda could deliver a less-equipped version of the budget grand tourer, considering that the Prelude only comes in one trim with all the fixings. The answer from the vehicle’s project lead, however, didn’t instill me with a ton of confidence in that prospect.
Earlier this week, I had a chance to chat with Tomoyuki Yamagami. He’s the Prelude’s development manager, and it’s clear he holds a special reverence for this nameplate and the history of innovation it’s brought to Honda’s lineup. Yamagami-san spoke about how there were moments during the vehicle’s planning stages where the project seemed on thin ice, simply because compact two-doors don’t exactly print money these days, but the Prelude’s positioning as an aspirational north star for Honda’s electrification technology ultimately helped see it through to the end.
One of the Prelude’s advantages is that there really isn’t anything to compare it to on the market; it’s not a super practical entry-level sport sedan or hot hatch, nor is it a hard-nosed, track-proven missile. At the same time, that also made the question of how to price it very difficult to answer, and Yamagami-san told me that, as such, the company spent a lot of time mulling it over.
“So, as you know, bringing a coupe to the market today is a challenge,” the development manager told me through an interpreter. “Especially for this new Prelude, it’s hard to benchmark with others. I think deciding the cost was specifically thoroughly considered. We want to make sure this will be kind of a pioneer to get to the next step, in the future—coupe, or other product. It’s very critical to set the right price, so customers will buy, and it will be a good start for the company.”
Regardless of how you judge the Prelude’s inherent value, it is encouraging to hear Yamagami refer to the car less as an experiment and more as a “pioneer” and a “start” on the way to whatever may follow. It instills hope that the Prelude’s return won’t be short-lived or merely last one more generation.
In determining the Prelude’s final cost, Honda ultimately decided to price the coupe exactly the same in the U.S. as in Japan, taking the exchange rate into account. Yamagami recalled that the sentiment from automotive media back home, upon learning about the car’s price, wasn’t terribly different from that of North American journalists.
“In Japan, we sold Prelude in advance of the U.S.,” he said. “So in September, we started selling. Initially, we got a similar reaction from media, mostly talking about, ‘it’s very pricey.’ Especially, if you do the exchange rate, it’s the same price—Japan and the U.S. So, we got a lot of comments like, ‘it’s very pricey,’ but the actual reaction from the consumer was that we sold five times more than what we expected.”
Indeed, the Prelude’s launch in Japan was very successful, with all 2,000 cars allotted for the first year of production reportedly selling out during the pre-order period. It also should be noted that, if you adjust the fifth-gen Prelude’s $24,040 MSRP during its final year here in the States to 2026 dollars, you end up at $44,770. The Prelude has always had its own set of priorities compared to other sport coupes, and those priorities have never made it cheap.
“We think it’s set right. But, at the same time, again, it’s a brand new car in the market. Nothing to benchmark [against]. So, we want to keep listening to reactions, thinking about the next step,” Yamagami-san concluded. He’s keeping an open mind, but all of the reasons he’s stated—and the historical context—leave me thinking that Honda won’t be stripping the hybrid GT of its Civic Type R-derived chassis hardware, nor its suede dash and perforated Houndstouth seats, in pursuit of a lower price anytime soon. If you’d like to know what the new Prelude feels like from behind the wheel, look out for my driving impressions next week.