One of the new Honda Prelude’s unique features is S+ Shift. It offers the hybrid coupe, which lacks a transmission, the sounds and sensations of shifting via virtual gears. S+ Shift is activated via a big button on the center console, and when you press it, a simulated gear and tach pop up on the digital instrument cluster, and the Prelude goes into manual mode. For a time, anyway. Because while S+ Shift lets you punch through eight fake gears with the Prelude’s metal paddles, if you take too long to shift up or down, the car will do it for you until the next time you press one.
In other words, there is no way to lock in a true manual mode on the Prelude. You don’t have to press the S+ Shift button after the car steps in to activate it again (thank goodness, that would be absurd), but as it stands, S+ Shift never relinquishes indefinite control to the driver.
The coupe’s three driving modes—Comfort, GT, and Sport—modify how long the software will let you remain in lower gears before automatically shifting up. To give Honda some credit, the logic isn’t terrible at this. For example, just before a string of switchback corners while in Sport, I shifted down to fourth, and the car remained there through every turn until the road straightened out and it automatically shifted up without me telling it to.
I was very curious about the rationale behind designing the mode in this way, because it’s clear that Honda put plenty of effort into making S+ Shift an engaging structure to tap into the Prelude’s 200 horsepower and 232 lb-ft of torque. Why go to that trouble and give drivers a taste of control, only to wrestle it back without asking? It has to do with the Prelude’s mission, according to development manager Tomoyuki Yamagami.
“[With] this vehicle, we were focused on carbon neutrality,” Yamagami told me. “It has to be fuel efficient, you know, friendly to the environment—that was the theme. So, technologically, it is possible to hold only manual [mode], but it would kind of conflict with the initial concept of carbon neutrality and efficiency, and kind of the ‘glider’ image.”
Yamagami-san is referring to Honda’s vision for the car—that piloting it should be lithe and serene, like a glider. He said that if S+ Shift gave the driver full control indefinitely, “the driver may subconsciously hold to a high engine rpm,” which would be inefficient and at odds with the vehicle’s concept.
Still, it’s worth a reminder that everything S+ Shift brings is really happening in software, and that makes it malleable. I asked Yamagami if the team would reconsider its approach and give the driver more freedom, whether in an update or for future model years.
“It’s not completely a ‘no,'” he said. “It is possible. We would continuously consider, for example, that you can customize how long you can hold the gear. So you have your own input, and you can customize [the experience].”
I’ll admit that I spent a solid several minutes trying a bunch of things, like long-pressing the S+ Shift toggle (that just activates the customizable “Individual” driving profile) and combining the feature with every drive mode to find some way to lock into manual shifting. I couldn’t believe it when one of the product experts told me it wasn’t possible. S+ Shift is being pushed so hard as central to the Prelude’s character, and a bridge between electrified, efficient motoring and traditional driver engagement.
It seems that Honda may be willing to budge a little on S+ Shift’s behavior, but the company doesn’t seem apt to fully take the restrictions away. If that’s really what you want, you’ve either got to slide down the ladder to the Civic Si, or pony up more cash for the Type R.
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