Is that better than the Prius powertrain’s idea of high performance? You would say so – and by some distance. In the Prius, you can’t even pretend to pick a gear. There are no paddles. It’s a surprisingly quick car, with lots of accessible torque, but if you want it to go fast, it’s that ‘elastic band’ delivery or nothing.
The Golf GTE’s powertrain gives the Honda some tougher competition, which is precisely why it’s in our line-up. You can actually select gears here for real. There’s also significantly more power on tap in the GTE, and stronger roll-on performance. The Golf’s powertrain ought, surely, to show the Prelude’s up as a transparent charlatan. Well, here’s the thing: it doesn’t.
The Prelude’s impression of a paddle-shift auto ‘box is actually good enough to make the GTE’s dual-clutch automatic seem slow-witted and clunky. Philosophically, you might well detest that idea, but in practice, I couldn’t deny it. The Honda’s make-believe upshifts are instant, the lack of interruption in the power delivery accompanying them a little strange but not lastingly problematic at all.
In the end, the Golf seems like a performance car fraud more often than the Prelude because of the way it insists on continuing to shut down its engine under light loads and when braking, to restart it again only seconds later, even when you’re using Sport mode and manual mode on the gearbox. The Golf is quicker, and its powertrain is ultimately more controllable, yet it’s no more intuitive or engaging in an aggregated sense. Somehow, it has plenty of ‘computer says no’ moments all of its own.
A touch of class
So the Prelude’s hybrid system is worthy of it – worthy of a mature, versatile and sophisticated sort of driver’s car definitely, and though it might be outpunched by its rivals here, it certainly isn’t outclassed. Which, if this were a 4x100m athletics relay race, would hand the baton to its chassis narrowly in the lead, and the field’s favourite on the anchor leg. What happens next is predictable, yet plain as day.
The Honda is not tetchily firm-riding or bristling with dynamic intent but it does handle and steer like a car with less bulk, a wider stance and a lower centre of gravity than either the Volkswagen or Toyota.