My BaT flip: 2000 Honda Prelude Type SH

[Bob]

Kevin encouraged me to write a post on this. For obvious reasons, I had not posted on social media or any kind of public forum about this until the auction concluded. During the last week in August, I found a 2000 Prelude Type SH on the Charlotte craigslist that looked very clean. It had 61k miles on it and was a one owner car with literally every service record since new. Asking price: $6,800 (I should have saved some screen shots of the ad, but I didn't). I inquired about it and went to look at the car. It was as good as advertised when I saw it in person. I actually didn't buy on the spot because I wasn't sure if I really wanted to take on this project and the owner wasn't willing to move much on the asking price, which was admittedly way under market. I called the owner back that night and we agreed on $6,000 (this was a Thursday and I wanted to make sure I got in before the weekend). I picked the car up on Friday, 8/31 in exchange for sixty 100 dollar bills.

Based on the research I had done, selling on bringatrailer was going to bring the best ROI. I estimated that the car would bring between $10k and $12k based on some other comps. BaT Prelude page: https://bringatrailer.com/honda/prelude/

Here's a link to my auction: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2000-honda-prelude-8/ The car was super clean and it's almost a little bit sad that I had to sell it. The car brought $12k, which was the second highest amount ever for a Prelude on BaT. I really can't complain about that. The buyer flew in from Philadelphia last weekend to pick it up and the transaction went very smoothly.

How did I do financially? I still have a few loose ends to tie up (property tax refund and insurance prorated refund), but I estimate that I cleared around $5,600 after it was all said and done. Unfortunately, the supply of cars like this is so limited that it's not really possible to do this on a regular basis. As far as ways to make some supplemental income go, this was very fun and entertaining. I also live in a good area for finding deals like this since rust is almost never an issue on local cars.

[Adam]

Nice work!

I've always though about doing this sort of thing, but historically, my inability to start with a nice car has really prevented this from becoming a reality (see my SC400 for example).

[Bob]

Lightning may strike twice... more details to come soon.

[Bob]

Nice retrospective on the Prelude from C&D. This isn't quite as gushing as the Type R retrospectives I have read, but then again 5th gen Preludes are still affordable.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a2 ... qFHP9nJLsE

[kevm14]

Not really high praise for ATTS.

Although we praised the Honda's handling in a November 1996 road test, the system's value was questioned considering the additional 44 pounds it tacked on to the car. In a 1997 best-handling test for cars under $30,000, the system conked out halfway through our track testing, but the Prelude's performance didn't seem to change. "We pressed on anyway," we wrote, "and quickly discovered that whatever it was we were missing, we weren't missing much." Nevertheless, the Prelude beat out a BMW 318ti and a Mazda Miata to take home the victory.

Two decades later, our doubts remain. On the tight mountain roads north of Malibu, the Prelude strongly understeers when entering corners, and no amount of trail braking seems to help with rotating its rear end. It prefers to corner on the power, but physics are physics, and the Honda's front-to-rear weight balance is terrible. It carries 63.1 percent of its 3035 pounds on its front wheels. Under the hefty hood, its 2.2-liter inline-four is mounted well ahead of its front axle, and the car's 12-volt battery sits just behind its right headlight. The 205/50R-16 Goodyears can only handle so much.

This is more what I would have expected. Makes me think that people who say it has neutral handling that belies the FWD architecture has either drank the ATTS koolaid, has very low expectations or....this car's ATTS wasn't working either, in which case, that still does not speak well for the system in general.

Of course the rest of the article goes on to generally praise the car, which is fine. Points include:
- Good overall ride/handling
- Tight build quality
- Organic if a bit slow steering
- Good feeling but poor performing brakes (it's a 90s Honda)
- Feels faster than it is (probably true at the time, too) - 15.5 @ 90 is honestly a few ticks slower than I expected.

I know this has some intangible benefits over other 90s vehicles such as, say, a 4th gen Maxima. But the Maxima probably gives up little in ultimate handling, is a bit quicker, is no heavier, has a very comfortable back seat, etc. Needless to say, ultimately the Prelude went away. Performance sedans made cars like the Prelude obsolete.

[Adam]

Here's an anecdotal story:
A friend of mine used to have a 2001 Prelude SH. I drove it on numerous occasions. Fairly aggressively, when appropriate. Compared to every other FWD car I had driven at the time, it had the most neutral handling (which isn't saying that much). The 'SH' system, however, did an excellent job of allowing you to apply power with the steering wheel turned to positions that weren't straight ahead without having wheel hop or torque steer issues.

Towards the end of that car's life, he had a clutch put in it at a 'shop'. When he got the car back, there were many lights on that weren't on before (can't remember specifically which ones, probably the 'ATTS inop' light). In true 'shop' shenanigans, the problem was 'unrelated' and 'pre-existing' and whatever other nonsense. Regardless of what 'shop' did or didn't do what, the car was never the same. It drove like you would expect a high-ish power FWD car to drive: torque steer combined with moderate-to-severe understeer under power.

That's a shame, you say. I agree. Didn't end up mattering, though. Months later the car was run too-low on oil for the too-many-ith time and it developed a noticeable lower-end knock thereby solving the problem forever.

[Bob]

Looks like someone else is doing the same thing: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2001- ... relude-22/

[Adam]

That one is not an SH?

[Bob]

Not an SH and a somewhat marred history due to paint work. Still went for $9,999.

Nice general article about BaT:

https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story ... ngatrailer