I am here in Delaware (about 45 minutes from Philly) looking for a used Prelude.

I am looking to spend $11,000 or less. So obviously its going to be a 97-98 with a good deal of miles on it.

I want black and automatic, those are my biggest requirements.

 

try the newspapaer classifieds, or www.autotrader.com

 

just curious, why does it have to be auto? do you drive in traffic a lot or you just prefer auto?

 

Prefer automatic, never driven stick. I have heard the ups and downs to both and overall I would prefer an automatic.

 

yea, but one of the huge downs to the auto on the 97-98 is that they had probs with it if you dont know... and I believe it finally became a recall, so if you were to find a lude you liked, try and find out if it had it replaced or if it would still be able to be covered, last thing Id wanna see is someone fork over all their money on a lude and then have the tranny go out like a lot of them do and then not be covered, so try and find out about that if you didnt know already.....

 

There was no recall I believe they just extended the warrenties on the trannys.
THat said you lose half of why the Prelude rocks if you dont get a 5spd.

 

Agreed. The SportShift on Preludes was not a very reliable system. Main thing with them was the vaccum actuated solenoids. Along with the five speed SportShift on Acura CLs and TLs. The Accord autos were included in the warranty extention as well, even though they are not SportShifts. If you must have an auto Prelude, I suggest two things: make sure it has substantially less than 100,000 miles (100k is the warranty extention), or if it has more I would want the trans to have already been changed. You would be looking at boku bucks to have to pay to replace that tranny. And no, they do not repair them: dealers do not repair sportshifts. Honda ships them factory rebuilt entire assemblys. The task to tear down these complex transmissions is very daunting.

 

WHAT?

I have read consumer report after consumer report saying that they have had their car for 75-100,000 miles and NO PROBLEMS?

You guys are freaking me out. I am going to end up buying an automatic 1998 'Lude.

 

Reports don't take a sample from everyone. There's not been an "offical" recall... doesn't mean there's not a common problem that's been seen by lots of people.

I have a 96 auto... boy do I wish I had a 5pd now. I regret it now... I found a nice looking prelude and I jumped on it. I should have taken my time and found a nice VTEC... now I have an auto S... the slowest of the slow preludes. I've been seriously considering trying to sell mine and find a VTEC. Just some thoughts to consider.

Having a Prelude of any kind is awesome none the less... Couple people have asked me, if I had a million dollars what kinda car would I get... I'd either get one of those Corvette Sledgehammers... or a 96 Prelude VTEC and do it up nice.

That and maybe a Humvee

 

Even though there was not an official recall, the trannys aren't as rock solid reliable as most other Honda products. They don't last forever. Also, the estimated number of bad units is 1.6%. Not large enough to issue a recall. Having said that, after 100,000 miles you are on your own. Am I saying for sure it will go bad? No. But even if it doesn't, I have heard many more people complain that the SportShift on these cars downshifts with a hard thunk and they can be slow to respond when using the SportShift mode. Above all, if you do get one, the first thing I suggest you do is take it to a Honda dealer (not a local garage) and have the fluid changed. Then change it every 30,000.