Hey Dudes.

I am planning to purchase this prelude. I KNOW NOTHING about cars really. I owned a 1994 Toyota Camry 13 years that had 300,000+ miles. A semi truck slamed into me on the freeway so after the accident I am looking to purchase another vehicle.

anyway i dont have much money so i'm getting a used vehicle. I have found a 2001 Honda Prelude from a small dealership for $7998 (they orginally wanted 9000 but I was able to talked them down a grand)

2001 Honda Prelude Base Model (Automatic) 67,000 miles. 1 Ownder. Clean Title. No Accidents.














Please let me know what you guys think? Or let me know if its not a good buy.

Thanks!

AndroO

 

Wow, it does look really clean The miles aren't that bad either and the price is decent IMO.

Those auto trannies are one of the only things that you have to watch out for on 5th gens, and ask if it has had a timing belt replacement done. If not, you will probably want to replace the T-belt and the tensioner as that's one of the other issues with those.

 

Looks like a good buy

 

Preludes are great cars, but those auto transmissions fail at a very very high rate. Why aren't you looking for a manual?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Hawkze_2.3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Wow, it does look really clean The miles aren't that bad either and the price is decent IMO.

Those auto trannies are one of the only things that you have to watch out for on 5th gens, and ask if it has had a timing belt replacement done. If not, you will probably want to replace the T-belt and the tensioner as that's one of the other issues with those.</TD></TR></TABLE>


whoa cool info man. i had no idea i'll definitely do a timing belt change and replace the Tbelt and the tensioner.

i dont know what it is yet but i want a good happy running car.

i'll be test driving this car out tomorrow morning around 6am. I want to run the car cold and see how it response. if i hear any noise or any hesitation then it should be a bad sign.

do you guys have any suggestions on what to look for besides this?

Thanks! im friggin excited!!#%!#$^%$#@

 

In the long run Preludes will never fail you
For god sakes its a HONDA

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vinuneuro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Preludes are great cars, but those auto transmissions fail at a very very high rate. Why aren't you looking for a manual?</TD></TR></TABLE>


is the tranny that bad? I mean i can udnerstand on a 97 tranny but after4 years honda should have worked out the kinks on the 2001 right?

meh I'm the type of guy who has a burger in one hand, a drink in the other, while steering with my knees. thats I've been driving for the past 13 years. i'm a safe driver, i dont speed, i never got a speeding ticket in my life. the only time i ever got in a car accident was when the semi truck totaled my camry while i was sitting at a dead stop.

i dont know i can drive a manual like the average person but when i think about long term i dont see myself riding in a manual.

 

If you don't to drive manual, everyone here will agree that the Prelude isn't for you. The auto trans is that bad.

 

its clean but auto, get one with 5 speed ull love it

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by androO &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
meh I'm the type of guy who has a burger in one hand, a drink in the other, while steering with my knees.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

maybe you could learn to have a burger in one hand, a drink between your legs, a phone on your shoulder, your other hand on the shifter, one foot on the gas, and the other knee steering. It's a bit of an advanced skill, but it's one that i've learned to master.

I really like the one where you talk on the phone with your right hand and reach across your body to shift gears....i do that a lot too.

 

yay...go buy that lude!! you are going to love replaceing the POS AUTO box every other month, go for it bro!!!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vinuneuro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Preludes are great cars, but those auto transmissions fail at a very very high rate. Why aren't you looking for a manual?</TD></TR></TABLE>


is the tranny that bad? I mean i can udnerstand on a 97 tranny but after4 years honda should have worked out the kinks on the 2001 right?

meh I'm the type of guy who has a burger in one hand, a drink in the other, while steering with my knees. thats I've been driving for the past 13 years. i'm a safe driver, i dont speed, i never got a speeding ticket in my life. the only time i ever got in a car accident was when the semi truck totaled my camry while i was sitting at a dead stop.

i dont know i can drive a manual like the average person but when i think about long term i dont see myself riding in a manual.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vinuneuro &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you don't to drive manual, everyone here will agree that the Prelude isn't for you. The auto trans is that bad.</TD></TR></TABLE>

bad in what sense? that its slow? not as quick and responsive as a manual?


OR is it bad in a sense of not as reliable.

 

honestly i think i know why they're bad. because racers abuse the tranny. anything that gets abused often goes bad.

but hey, what do i know.

handle with care.

 

the auto trans is known to go out in many different years, yes the 01 as well. its just not a reliable trans. you can take your chances if you want but looking at a few mods still makes me think the last owner beat the trans in some way.

 

well not reliable but 5spd swaps run about $600 so i would buy it but dont expect the tranny to last forever

 

dude when i get this car tomorrow if any of you want this cold air intake and the exhaust please come and take it. I will trade you your stock stuff for these modified equipment.

but yeah i think im going to pick up this car anyone considernig it has only 67,000 miles. i'll ride the car until the tranny explodes by then i should be ready to sell the car anyway = )

i'm sure it will give me a good 100000 miles. i mean i checked autotrader and brought up all the automatic preludes from 97-01 and found many of them in the 150,000-170000 mile range.

which by then im sure i wont probably evne own the car anymore.

 

People say the auto transmissions are junk but not once will you get a response to why or how they brake down. I think if you beat on those transmissions then yes they probably have a tendancy to brake down but I think if you drive normally then I can't see the tranny just failing on someone. Because it has mods on it, you can assume that the car was driven hard but who's to say.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CAN97SH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">People say the auto transmissions are junk but not once will you get a response to why or how they brake down. I think if you beat on those transmissions then yes they probably have a tendancy to brake down but I think if you drive normally then I can't see the tranny just failing on someone. Because it has mods on it, you can assume that the car was driven hard but who's to say.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah i dont know i cant justify why all racers are saying automatics are shitty. we all know autos dont perform as well as manuals but im not looking for performance.

i mean i checked on many different used car websites and a lot of these cars have high mileage and they are still kicking. i think if you run it hard like most of you guys do on the forum anything is going to break.

for the past 13 years everymorning i got into my camry i always warmed up the car. No matter how late I was I always allowed the car a 2-4 min warm up time. I ran the car nice and rarely did I ever accelerated near redline. the car had 313,000 miles and it was still going strong just like the first day i bought it. the only major thing i ever replaced on that car was 1 water pump and 1 radiator. i changed my oil every 6,000 miles. my friends grandpas camry has 433,000 miles and he is still driving it until this day!

well maybe camrys are a different story but as long as you take care of it, it will take care of you.

 

looks like a good car to me

 

I'd stay away from a modded car especially if you just want a comfortable auto DD. It's much more likely to be beaten on by some "enthusiast" (read: entire population of this forum) than a stock car. Plus do you really want that fart can hanging off the back all the time?


Auto 5g transmissions do not have a great reliability record. Honda did extend the warranty on the later 5gs up to 100,000 miles because of this. That said, not every transmission is going to drop out of the car and explode.

 

i see maybe 5-6 preludes come through the shop in a year that need transmissions. if u change the fluid every 30,000 and dont believe your Prelude is a racecar u should be fine. preludes would be at the bottom of the list of honda trans going bad.

and u still have some time left on that belt. honda recommends belt change at 7 years 105,000 miles whatever comes first. no need to replace the tensioner unless its defective.

 

In my opinion, i just bought a 99 Type SH prelude for 6900 with 111k miles and i paid 400 dollars for Timing belt /tensioner, synthetic oil, ac recharge, tranny flush etc. I don't know as much about the auto but with 67k miles and for 8k your not doing bad.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by spoonfedcrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i see maybe 5-6 preludes come through the shop in a year that need transmissions. if u change the fluid every 30,000 and dont believe your Prelude is a racecar u should be fine. preludes would be at the bottom of the list of honda trans going bad.

and u still have some time left on that belt. honda recommends belt change at 7 years 105,000 miles whatever comes first. no need to replace the tensioner unless its defective. </TD></TR></TABLE>

weird thing you said that because i went to hardin honda and talk to some guy thats been working there for close to 10 years and he said the same thing... "preludes do come in but if you take care of the tranny and service it every 30000 miles you should be fine."


+ i have 25000 miles on the tranny for warrany. i should like empty out the tranny fluid ride it for a mile and fill it back up with the old tranny fluid and say wtf happened? hahahahahaa JUST KIDDING

 

ok i probably wont reply for the rest of the time being but around 7am im going to headout to the dealer to go test drive the friggin thing. the only crappy part about the car is that i have to put 91 in it. geeze!

hey any of you guys want to trade me a stock exhaust for this n1 apex full cat exhaust on this prelude. i cant stand loud cars. hate x10000

this car is going back to stock as soon as i get it.

anyone want to trade a cold air AEM intake for a stock one?