[Auto] Tested: 1997 Honda Prelude SH Gains Sleeker Style, Sharper Moves

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Tested: 1997 Honda Prelude SH Gains Sleeker Style, Sharper Moves
Honda's Prelude has suffered from a touch of split-personality disorder these past few years. Despite its undisputed appeal—particularly the VTEC-engined model—the Prelude has had to endure styling better suited to the twenty-something crowd combined with a price more appropriate to boomers with trust funds.

Add the recent sales trend of moving away from coupes to sport-utility vehicles and minivans, and you can see that the prognosis has not been great—even for a car good enough to garner three 10Best awards in a row. Last year, Honda sold 12,517 Preludes, down from 15,467 the year before. Compare those figures with sales of 36,040 Preludes in 1992 and annual volumes of more than double that from 1985 through 1987, and a precipitous sales slide is evident.

There isn't much Honda can do to dissuade customers from crossing over to other types of vehicles, but the company knows how to make an improved car. So for 1997, the new coupe will be available as two models—the Prelude and the Prelude SH—and both will be powered by the top-drawer 2.2-liter VTEC engine, which now musters another five horsepower (thanks to a new exhaust header and revised valve timing) to peak at 195 horsepower at 7000 rpm. The more ­pedestrian engine variants available on '96 Preludes didn't make the cut.

In tailoring the look of the car to fit a more upscale buyer, this new Prelude has styling that evokes the very successful third-generation Prelude (which old 52,541 units in '88), but with distinctly modern touches. Among them, unusual double-decker headlights with compound reflectors, and flat-planed body panels that remind you a little of Nissan's 240SX at first sight. Soon afterward, though, the car assumes its own identity and presents a crisp, well-proportioned if slightly conservative aspect to the outside world.

Inside is a new instrument panel as tidy and functional as in any other Honda. The instruments are grouped ahead of the driver, and the rest of the panel is sleek and straightforward. It's a welcome replacement for the controversial wide strip of instruments found in the previous model. The overall mood inside is rather dark and somber except in green cars, which get a two-tone black-over-ivory upholstery treatment. Interior room has been improved so that the rear seats—unlike those of the previous model—are genuinely usable by adults for short trips. We discovered this when our six-foot-two photographer occupied the rear seat for some down-the-road shot and then declined the opportunity to return to the front seat for the rest of the trip.

The base car will be priced at about $23,000 (in the same ballpark as the former mid-level Si model), which isn't bad considering the now-standard VTEC power and good equipment levels. In fact, the base car has just about everything the SH model has. What differentiates the $26,000 SH model is a leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearshift knob, racier­looking alloy wheels (of the same 16-inch size), and a handling package that includes firmer springs, dampers, and anti-roll bars as well as a stability-enhancement yaw­ control system known as the Active Torque Transfer System (ATTS).