Hey I was thinking on getting a 97 prelude with the auto tranny. From what i have been hearing, the auto trannys are pretty delicate. I want to know is this in all cases or are there just alot of people out there beating thier cars around in ss mode all day. I have a friend with a 97 prelude that has never had a problem with his, but his car only had 39k kilometers on it, so i can't really base anything on that.

What I am really asking is if the transmission is good when i get the car and i just daily drive it like a normal automatic and change the trans fluid often, will my transmission still explode as though everyone seems to put it?

Anyone with a 5th gen sports shift please ease my mind here.

Also the car is coming from japan so i dont kno if they use different parts from the us or wat.

Thanks

 

The SportShift automatics are just fragile. It's not a question of if, but when they fail. If you do get a 5th gen prelude, get a manual.

 

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I would love to ease your mind... but I wouldnt recommend the auto to anyone. I was like you... wanted a FIF gen so badly (so flippn Sexy). I really wanted the 5speed but I settled for the auto. I thought to my self "how different can it be" The answer is alot. You will also hate yourself later on when your looking to do performance upgrades. However... I bought it and but a few months after it blew up on me. I see stories all the time about this happening. Some people have tried to buy tranny coolers which from what I herd really help. Basically just change your tranny fluid and keep maintain everything and you should be fine. If you dont beat on it (shift mode), you should be fine for a good while I think. After I realized how slow it was in D4... I put in shift mode all the time...yep not a good idea. Anyway, I have done a 5speed swap now and let me tell you... the car is so much more fun to drive and it is alot faster. If your performance oriented... do yourself a favor and just get a 5speed. I could have saved myself over $2000 that way (still not a bad deal ) If your looking for a nice daily driver... and you know you wont be adding mods and or pushing your car, then I think an auto would be okay. But even then... still not recommended, if you want peace of mind then get somthing reliable (5 Speed).

Good Luck