Ironically, this age of lightning-quick technological advancement and modern inclusivity also has quite a large appetite for nostalgia, especially when it comes to the automotive market. Old-school namesakes have been popping up everywhere, and virtually all mass-market brands have participated in it. You can think of examples like the Ford Maverick, the Toyota Supra, and the Acura Integra.
There’s also the new Honda Prelude, which re-entered the fold following a 25-year hiatus. Its job was to resurrect what folks loved about the original Prelude, some of those being well-balanced driving dynamics and a decent, but adequate, amount of power at its disposal.
Alongside the Prelude’s return, Honda’s luxury arm, Acura, was also planning on re-releasing the RSX as an electric crossover SUV, but unlike the Prelude, plans for an all-new RSX simply vanished. The reasons behind the decision can be traced to both models going about their resurrected selves in very different ways.
Honda Remembers What Made The Prelude Special
1997 Honda Prelude exteriorHonda
From the outset of the Prelude’s production – which began in 1978 – it was designed with sporting prowess in mind. The original model borrowed much of its suspension and associated underpinnings from the Accord, but the chassis itself was a clean-sheet design wherein athletics came first, and comfort second. Throughout the remainder of the original Prelude’s life, which was snuffed out in 2001, the model maintained its Accord roots mixed with a hunger for handling.
The now-resurrected Honda Prelude was designed to emulate as much of the original model’s sportiness as possible. For starters, Honda avoided the temptation of bringing back an iconic sports car nameplate as, say, an electric crossover. Instead, the new Prelude maintains a two-door coupe body. While it no longer borrows its bones from the Accord, it does nick its platform from the Honda Civic.
2026 Honda Prelude heroJared Rosenholtz/CarBuzz/Valnet
Thankfully, it’s not an electric vehicle, as Honda decided to give it a hybrid powertrain consisting of a 2.0-liter inline-four throwing out 200 horsepower and 232 pound-feet of torque. Its main objective is to give drivers an enthusiast-oriented experience. One of the main pieces of evidence for Honda’s decision is the inclusion of the brand’s new “S+ Shift” driving mode, which allows users to use steering column-mounted paddles to simulate shifting through an eight-speed automatic transmission. The tech features artificial rev-matching, and is meant to give you at least some old-school car/driver interaction that’s sorely missing in many models today.
2026 Honda Prelude rear 3/4Jared Rosenholtz/CarBuzz/Valnet
One major caveat and downside to the new Prelude is its lack of a manual transmission option. Old-school Preludes predominately boasted manuals, meaning the new boy falls short of fully living up to its ancestor’s reputation. However, despite the lack of a stick, it’s clear that Honda still worked hard to preserve as much of the original Prelude’s countenance without having to completely reinvent the wheel.
Jeep Shows Us That Model Names Can Evolve Without Abandoning Heritage, Too
2026 Jeep Cherokee hero shotJeep
No, it’s not a Honda, but the sixth-gen (KM) Jeep Cherokee does manage to pay homage to the past without becoming something unrecognizable. Now, while the new Honda Prelude is virtually a modern copy of the original model, sans manual transmission, the now-canceled Acura RSX was something that strayed far from the norm. As for the KM Jeep Cherokee, it’s somewhere in the middle of the two in terms of its respect to heritage.
For obvious starters, it’s still an SUV. The Jeep Cherokee was, at one point, Jeep’s most popular smaller SUV, with most folks remembering the XJ-gen version fondly. The new KM iteration is still a compact SUV, although the word “crossover” has now been inserted into the middle. At the same time, the Cherokee still occupies a lower slot in Jeep’s lineup, below models like the Grand Cherokee and Grand Wagoneer.
Jeep Grand Cherokee with eBoost Air e-compressor concept on 6-cyl Hurricane HOTom Murphy / CarBuzz / Valnet
However, as for where it doesn’t look like the original model, there are a few more differences than there are between Honda’s original and modern Preludes. For example, the Cherokee is now a crossover SUV, and has been since 2014. It no longer has the stout, old-school AMC 4.0-liter straight-six engine, opting for a 1.6-liter hybridized inline-four-cylinder mill taking advantage of dual electric motors instead. It’s much more fuel efficient, too.
You can even draw a relatively noteworthy contrast between the fifth and sixth-gen Cherokees without having to resort to XJ-to-KM-gen comparisons. While the outgoing model was a crossover, too, it was tailored more towards ruggedness, exemplified by things like the Cherokee Trailhawk model, which was beefed-up to better-handle off-road use. At the end of the day, however, the new Cherokee can still be recognized.
As for the defunct revision of the Acura RSX? Well…
Acura Wanted To Take The RSX Down A Stange Path
Acura RSX PrototypeJared Rosenholtz/CarBuzz/Valnet
…Not so much. Those who remember the original Acura RSX will know it was virtually nothing like what’s pictured above. It was a small sports coupe, based on the Honda Civic, and came with things like front-wheel drive and a lightweight, sporty chassis. It was positioned to be affordable, and an entry point into the performance world for the younger crowd who couldn’t afford all that much in terms of full-blooded sports cars. It also managed to slot into the same enthusiast niche occupied by models like the Honda Civic.
Acura
When Acura teased the return of the RSX, people got excited. Once images of it surfaced, much of that excitement faded immediately. What was staring back at them was yet another electric crossover that carried an old, venerable namesake. It was to be built on Honda’s new Zero EV vehicle platform. Its expected MSRP was to sit around $40,000, and sporty variations of the model were slated to sprint from 0-60 mph in just about four seconds.
2026 Acura RSX EV Prototype rear 3/4 angle in yellow while parkedAcura
We need to acknowledge that we’re giving the electric RSX a lot of flack, despite the fact that it never even made it into a showroom and was canceled shortly after it was announced. There’s no evidence that it was going to be bad, per se. It showcased Acura’s confidence and willingness to bet on the RSX namesake bringing its proposed, new electric crossover SUV enough popularity to get it off the metaphorical launchpad.
Acura RSX PrototypeJared Rosenholtz/CarBuzz/Valnet
Sadly, though, the use of the RSX namesake felt strange. The original RSX’s popularity came from its compact lightness, rev-happy K-Series four-banger engine, and simple overall mechanical make-up. Giving the RSX namesake to a heavier, more-complicated electric SUV that happened to have a quick, expected 0-60 mph time looked to us to be an odd move, and appeared solely as a marketing ploy, rather than a genuine homage to the RSX namesake.
The Prelude Sets The Standard For How Nostalgia Should Work
Mugen Prelude partsMugen
When you think of the three revived nameplates we’ve discussed today, it goes without saying that the Honda Prelude shines as the most respectful nameplate revival of them all. Its basic formula remains unchanged, and its approach to reconnecting with its former self is very much the same. It has a coupe body, a four-cylinder engine, and a lightweight-handling-focused chassis, all of which helped to make the original Prelude great, too.
The modern Prelude also shows us that you don’t need to completely copy every single detail from an original model to respectfully pay homage to it. The new Prelude, for example, has a hybrid powertrain, whereas the original, obviously, never did. The new one also has a somewhat-disappointing simulated gear change setting, but at least enthusiasts were given that as opposed to nothing at all. The new boy is also safer and cleaner-running than the old dog.
2026 Honda Prelude front three-quarter view.Honda
The planned Acura RSX, on the other hand, completely ignored what made the original model great. Sticking a former popular, performance-oriented badge on something like a run-of-the-mill electric crossover that just so happens to have a quick projected 0–60 mph time probably won’t sit nicely with the majority of people. That explains, then, why Acura was forced to cancel it just 15 months after it was originally announced due to a lukewarm reception and a slowing of new EV sales. The Jeep Cherokee, of course, occupies the middle ground: you can still see it as a Cherokee, but it’s quite different from the previous model.
Acura RSX PrototypeAcura
When you think about it, the Honda Prelude/Acura RSX difference could serve as a teaching point for automakers going forward. You can’t simply slap a once-popular badge on anything and call it a day, especially if said badge carried some sort of performance-oriented merit in the past.
Honda understood the assignment with the new Prelude but Acura seems to have missed class entirely.
Sources: Honda, Acura, Jeep, Road and Track, The Drive, Motor Trend, Kelley Blue Book.
