Where did all the “entry” cars go?
Recently the new Honda Prelude has been getting some buzz, while not all of it seems bad it does seem that a lot of people are questioning the price point. Now the new prelude is interesting and does have a bunch of snazzy new hybrid tech in it that is certainly driving up the cost. But for a FWD car that is on par with a GR86 in terms of stats it does seem a bit perplexing to have to stomach the premium in price point. While I was thinking about how much I liked the idea of the new prelude I started thinking about how cars like that don’t really quite seem to exist anymore.
When I say cars like that I mean sporty well handling Front Wheel Drive Coupes. Something that can be fun to drive around, look pretty good and offer the driver something that’s a bit more interesting than the econobox sedan that was the standard fare of options back in the day. In the 90’s and 2000’s we had lots of little options like this. The Acura Integra, Civic Coupes, Chevy Cobalt and Saturn Ion Redline, hell even Hyundai had a competitor in the ring with the Tiburon. Now I'm not saying that any of these cars were the end all be all of performance but for kids in High school and college they were cheap and fun. I think its safe to say that a large margin of car enthusiasts today either have had, knew someone that had or at least have a story involving some kind of car at this “tier”.
New Honda Prelude Shown off at the LA Auto Show
It wasn’t that long ago that you would be able to go and pick up something sporty and fun for a couple thousand dollars and have a blast beating the brakes off it with your friends, I think for a lot of people that’s the part that really drew them into cars. Spending time with friends, tinkering and learning on something that was an affordable platform to get into and cheap to modify. But lately what’s replaced that, it seems like these cars are still the same thing from 10-20 years ago. There aren’t many successors to these platforms, you have less and less hot hatches or fwd coupes available now. If you are a kid in college who’s working what are you left to buy? Maybe a Ford Focus ST? but that’s still a hatch, maybe a genesis coupe those have gotten pretty cheap, ahh those are Rear wheel drive.
Of course the age old choice of a Honda is still there but are they quite as simple and cheap as they were? FK8 Type R’s are still commanding a pretty decent premium over stuff in the segment and that’s not available in a coupe. So when I saw that the prelude was gonna be this new 200 horsepower Hybrid Honda powered coupe I was a bit excited. Not quite for myself, but for the people who could have found that as their entry point into the community that we love and cherish. And there is still a chance it might do that, but should a kid in college really have to spend north of $40k Dollars just to get a taste of that experience in a car that’s not 20-30 years old? Of course there is a bit of a pricing issue for a lot of aspects of life right now, not even just for enthusiasts. But I think the prelude is another strong reminder of something that we once had that isn’t readily available anymore.
On the other hand we have hit a point where some pretty good modern platforms exist. While we may not have the same “entry” cars available to us anymore there’s a lot of platforms that have aged that offer a lot of performance for the dollar. Maybe it means some of those students with a little bit of extra cash and are ready to make a few compromises are swinging for funner upper tier platforms off the rip. With things like C5 and C6 Corvettes or Mustangs as well as a whole slew of other cars in the used range costing just as much as new “entry” cars it does seem at least slightly worth investigating, after all who doesn’t wanna have fun at that time.
So is everyone okay with just starting out in more competitive chassis now? Has the potent growth of the drifting scene in the states fueled a Rear Wheel Drive Biased car scene since that’s what’s most popular at the moment? We very well might be seeing more than a single variable at play here but it would be nice if we had some affordable options to offer potential enthusiasts or even those who want to stray away from the greyscale field of hopped up crossovers. I think a better bet is that we start to see more options like a Kona N or Nismo Juke’s appearing from different manufactures. stuff like the GR Rav4 and might be the upcoming popular segment for “affordable and practical sportiness” but I suppose we may just have to wait and see.
2026 GR Rav4