The Honda Prelude Is Already Outselling The Subaru BRZ

Home News The Honda Prelude Is Already Outselling The Subaru BRZ

But neither sports car can outsell this Japanese icon.

Photo by: cars_n_stuff3 & Honda Anthony Alaniz By: Anthony Alaniz May 4, at 1:00pm ET

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The Breakdown:

The Honda Prelude outsold the Subaru BRZ last month.
Honda Prelude sales for the year outpace those of the BRZ.
The Mazda MX-5 Miata is outselling both.

The new Honda Prelude was not the sports car many had expected—it's essentially a Civic Hybrid coupe without a manual transmission. Yet, buyers are still choosing it over the Subaru BRZ.

Honda sold 357 Preludes in April, bringing its total to 1,152 so far this year. This might not seem like much, but the automaker is hoping to sell between 4,000 and 5,000 Prelude coupes in 2026—and it is on track to hit that target.

The BRZ isn’t doing as well. So far this year, Subaru has sold 1,086 BRZs, down 4.2 percent. The automaker added 283 coupes to its sales total in April, up 14.5 percent from April 2026, so maybe the Subaru will catch up later in the year.

Neither of the two sports cars outsold the MX-5 Miata. Mazda sold 1,163 Miatas in April, an increase of 60 percent compared to the same month last year, but year-to-date sales are still down 9.9 percent, with 2,858 sold so far.

Model	April 2026 Sales	April 2025 Sales	YTD Sales
Mazda MX-5 Miata	1,163	727	2,858
Honda Prelude	357	N/A	1,152
Subaru BRZ	283	331	1,086

Honda's Strong April 2026 Sellers

Honda sales overall were up last month by 1.6 percent, with the automaker selling 125,571 vehicles. The Accord saw a massive increase, with sales up 42.5 percent. Accord hybrid increased by 27.0 percent, which really helped last month.

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Only two other Honda models had sales increases in April—the Civic and the CR-V. The two increased by 6.3 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively. The Odyssey suffered the greatest last month. Sales for the minivan were down 23.0 percent, followed by the electric Prologue, down 28.5 percent.

The Honda Ridgeline also saw a sizable decrease in sales, falling 15.7 percent for the month. They are down 4.2 percent for the year. The Honda HR-V, the automaker’s only crossover that starts at under $30,000, had sales fall 11.8 percent.

Source: Honda

Motor’s Take: The Honda Prelude is not your typical little sports car, with its hybrid powertrain and lack of a proper gearbox. Maybe the car’s 200-horsepower hybrid engine is enticing consumers, which has a combined fuel economy rating that’s double that of the BRZ—44 miles per gallon versus 22 mpg.

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