swilly

I was wondering if anyone on this board has gone from a honda prelude to a c230k or even had experience with both... i currently have a honda prelude (auto) and is wondering how the drive difference... yea i should go out and test drive but i just want to get some feed back ... hp vs hp? torque

Outland

Do Prelude's even have any Torque?

RE-Agent

Had three Acura Integras (close enough to a Prelude). They are very different animals than the 230. Both cars are fun in their own right. Just test drive a 230 and you'll know if it is right for you.

bwco

^whoever said the prelude had no torque obviously never driven one yet

I'd a prelude SRV for more than a month and I drive my GF's C230 almost every other day. If you're talking about quick (from inside the car), the Prelude is obviously a quicker car (just the feeling). Prelude motor sounds awesome, feels quick, steer quick, nimble, seats are low, shift smooths, suspension is a bit stiffer relatively. For fun factor, you can't beat the Prelude with a C230.

On the other hand, C230 is extremely comfy, nice interior, soft springs (but really good in high speed corners like offramp or onramp), quiet, sits perfect, drives perfect, stable, quicker than most Stock honda on the highway. From a dead stop, C230 would lose to a prelude for sure.


If you want a fun sunday to rev around and burn some oil, drive the prelude. However, I love the C230 after a full day of tired and boring work from the office. Sorry, I don't own neither car, but I own a Subaru with horsepower and torque.

morph860

depends what model prelude....some are slow as ****.

morph860

I think the most they ever had was 156 ft lbs.

Capt Nemo o2

I have driven my friends '97 Prelude VTECH hundreds of times, and I disagree with every thing you say about the Prelude. It is not as much fun to drive as my C230k, doesnt handle as well, and the ride sucks and is just an uncomfortable car to sit in. It does accelerate ok, a little bit slower than my C230k, but thats probably because the 2.2L revs up more than my car. It has about an extra 1000 RPMs. The manual might be a faster car to 60 by maybe less than a half a second, but I have to make 2 shifts to 60 instead of 1. But its still not as much fun to drive!

C32Andy

I came from a 96 Prelude to my C32

e1000

Prelude is the faster car but it's also FWD. I always liked the balance of RWD cars better.

k_lundquist

I came from a 1992 Stanza, is that close?

Kenzmbz

I still have my 2000 pearl white prelude. Its a manual. Fun car to drive.

I also love my C class. I owned a 2001 c320 for 2 years before it was totaled.

Both the 230k and the prelude is fun to drive. I feel that the prelude responds better in the morning and the C class will eat the Lude on the freeway.

bwco

That's funny how many times you drove your friend's prelude but still can't find out how much faster it is compared to your C230 !

I owned a 95' Prelude SRV 5 Speed, leather, sunroof, and stock ! Then, it's passed to my cousin, I still drive it from time to time for fun.

However, my girlfriend owns a 2005 C230 Coupe, automatic, leather, and Stock ! I compared both cars with my honest opinion and I hate to tell you ! The C230 is so slow !! No matter what, the C230 just can't beat the Prelude off the line nor from a roll. Maybe you'll defend the C230 and say that it's automatic, I'm sorry, I don't have a C230 5 speed to boot !

What FWD ? It's so naive to conclude that FWD sucks. As far as I know, the Prelude does understeer, and the C230 does take the high speed corners with more confident. But in general, the Prelude does edge out the C230 in my case. I raced the C230 with a POS American car, and the C230 ate it with only 1 car length by the end of the block. On the other hand, I drove the Prelude and ate numbers of C230 on the highway and my gf's C230.

I admit myself to be "dumb" because I'm arguing it in this Mercedes Benz World with all Mercedes owner. Again, I'm a Subaru guy now !

e1000

I wasn't trying to detract anything from the Prelude. Most FWD cars however are heavily weight biased towards the front wheels and understeer like crazy. Dosen't mean they are slow, just saying the tendancy is there.

Capt Nemo o2

Well, I'm sorry I never got exact numbers! Next time I drive it I'll be sure to call up Car & Driver to get their timing equipment!

I was comparing a 6 speed C230K to a 4 speed auto Prelude. You are comparing a 5 speed manual Prelude to a 5 speed auto C230K. Of course your car manual Prelude is going to be faster than the auto C230K, all of us here know the C230 auto is a slug. But the Prelude auto is about the same speed as the C230 with the 6MT. Its pretty much a drivers race. I'm sure in the summer time, yes the Prelude will be faster, but thats an IC problem. But in the winter time, he was never able to get in front of me.

And just for fun, the same Prelude, but with a pretty good driver lost not only to my old Jeep Grand Cherokee, but also to an old Dodge mini van (1/8th miles, cause aerodynamics kick in big time on my 4000 lb box)!

I am speaking from personal experience, maybe you got lucky and got an engine that was perfect and made more than the rated HP. Maybe he got less. But I believe what I see with my own eyes. The Prelude is just as slow as the C230 stock to stock.

e1000 never said anything bad about FWD, he was just stating he likes RWD better than FWD. As do I. I feel the RWD cars are better balanced and alot more fun to drive (all other things being equal). I also feel safer with RWD. I like not having constant wheel slip when accelerating from a stop, especially when there is any precipitation. I also like it betten if I enter an understeer skid during spirited driving, the wheels that take me out of the turn are not the ones that are slipping. While oversteer would be the opposite of what I said, but you can learn to control oversteer, and its just plain fun!

Just becuase you are on MBworld, that doesnt mean we are not realistic. I am, I see all things equal, and admit that my C230 is slow, especially now, with cars having more power now (A Toyota Rav4 w/ a 26x HP V6). However, I personally disagree with what you say. That doesnt mean its true or false. Its just my perception that the C230 is more fun than a Prelude, as yours is the opposite. I accept that, I was just stating my opinion, thats what you do in these forums!

bwco

^ Thanks a lot for not launching a fight war with me in this MB forum. I really appreciate that.

I never ( yes I did ) said that the C230 is slow( but it is relatively slower than most cars in my case), but in my case, I'm purely saying that the 95' 5 speed manual SRV Prelude is faster than the 2005 5 speed automatic C230 Coupe (that I've driven). I've yet to drive a manaual C230 to justify the speed of a true C230.

FR is fun to drive, having said that, I DO had a 5 speed BMW 3 series, and that's the most fun car I've had. I've been driving for 10 years and went from FF Mazda > FF Honda > FR BMW > 4WD Subaru. FR is the one I'll pick for high speed cornering. 4WD is just too safe in corners if you want oversteer.

I think this could be a endless topic to argue which car is better. But I would still welcome all kinds of opinion and comments.

Capt Nemo o2

No problem, I'm not here to fight (much!). Especially when its fighting over an opinion.

Thats pretty much what I was saying the whole time.

4WD is too safe for fun, but when you know how to drive it right, you can knock off some time off your laps. You have to go against your instincts in when to brake and when to gas. I decided not to go with 4WD because, when you want to drive spirited, or just plain crazy, you put alot of stress on the center diff. I already had one go bad on me, and I didnt want to deal with that with a new car, and dont want to deal with it for the longrun.

Agreed.

ultraseven

well, went from a 00 base manual Lude to an 04 C32. The acceleration is a world of difference, pretty eye opening at first.

Sorry to break it to you guys, but the C230K isn't faster than the little 2.2L coupled with a manual. Torque will be missed, however, as you will need to drop the clutch at about 3K to get a solid launch.

Driving 230Ks as a loaner, they feel faster due to the inital torque, but fades away fast. The lude is definitely a better handling car, regardless of its FWD bias.

mick1

I don't know which car would be faster but I know your maintenance cost will go up BIG time if you switch from a Prelude to a C230. For instance, Service A, which is basically an oil change service, costs about $200 ~ $250 depending on the dealers.

C-Dub

I had an acura integra (similar to the prelude) and it is not in the same league as the c230. 1st- front wheel drive is lame for the driving enthusiast, period. 2nd- ride quality cannot compare to MB. 3rd- manual transmission is a 6-speed. More expensive, but you gotta pay to play.

c230 o5

what the hell is a Prelude??

Outland

A high line Civic.

swilly

hey guys thanks for the feed back -- i know i should test drive the c230k just wanted to get some feed back and i know they aren't in the league just wanted to get some heads up on people that have converted over

Cappa26

I drove both cars, but I would def. take the Benz. Two very different cars.

Outland

I was rather taken by the 92, or was it 93 Prelude...was new that year, the car had a nice shape to it, more style than Honda's usually have. Anyway, when I took it for a test drive, I didn't like it so much anymore. Very small inside, I remember asking the salesman if there was some way to get the seat back more...my knees where less than an inch from the dashboard! And it wasn't any better up top. That roof line that looked so nice outside, left very little noggin room. And it had this my fathers oldsmobile interior...big wide rectangle for a speedo. The engine was typical honda, couldn't hear it running at idle, but at high rpm the vibes were right thru the floor boards. I remember that once underway, you had to rev it a lot, to get some decent accellation, and the handling wasn't anything to write home about. Maybe the last generation(before they got nuked, in what 01?) was a different animal.

BTW, the times Ive seen for a prelude SH are nearly identical to a MY02 C230.


Acura RSX Type-S 6.7 15.2 92.7
Honda Prelude SH 7.2 15.6 90.1
Mercedes C230 7.1 15.3 92.0

Capt Nemo o2

Thats exactly how I felt. For its day, the Prelude was a nice looking Honda (well at least the last two generations). But it looked like there would be more room, I guess the seats were just not designed right. I was however really surprised when I saw a Prelude with a sticker on the back that said "Electronic Controlled 4WS." The first time I saw it, I thought, no, cant be, probably some ricer sticking on stupid stickers. But then I saw another one a few months later and looked into it. Yes, certian years you could get a Prelude with 4 wheel steering. I honestly was very surprised.