Yesterday’s 1979 Prelude review reminded me of the similar 1982 I recently shot. First generation Honda Preludes are far and few in the Northeast, but at least one is still being put to work on a daily basis. Next to where I get my haircut is a pizza and sub shop that uses this 1982 Prelude as their delivery vehicle. Like many pizza delivery vehicles, it’s a little rough around the edges, but rust is minimal for a three decade old Honda vehicle in the Northeast.
It also appears in good running condition, as every time I go for a haircut, it’s in and out of the parking lot all the time making delivery runs. I was able to get these two shots on a brief interlude, right before its owner came out to make another delivery.
The rust is minimal for a Honda full stop, mechanically these cars were always pretty good it was bodywork or lack there of that put most of them in the scrapyards.
Used to be a pizza car, 20-10 years ago, but there isn’t enough left of most of them to keep the food from falling out through the floor now.
The tail lights don’t match, I love it.
I don’t remember any Preludes this old back when I delivered, they already been claimed by the rust monster by then. Chevettes, and Corollas seemed to be the beater of choice but there was a little bit of everything. This Prelude looks to be ideal though, cheap, good on gas, tough and pretty rust free. I’d love to bomb around in it.
Sharp eye. Given the oddly placed patch of rust next to it, I suspect junkyard repair after a minor rear-end mishap.
We referred to them as Quaaludes…
We did too! But only the first generation….
Awesome, it just keeps on running. The interior looks like the perfect bordello red from floor to ceiling. Or maybe it’s pepperoni. Great find, the sunroof and windows are open and I’ll bet the keys are under the seat…
Close to 40 years old and just now a pizza delivery beater. I’ll bet it’s first owner owned it for most of it’s life and took really good care of it, probably had low miles for a long time.
Nice old beater – I don’t remember the last time I saw a Prelude of this vintage here in Ontario. I’d be proud to have a pizza delivered by this car and I’d give the driver an extra tip just because.
Can’t remember the last time I saw one of these.
Girlfriend had one, 20-mumble years ago. Rustbucket, ran on prayer. Drove it to Kings Island once. Learned I hate roller coasters. Was the beginning of the end.
Perhaps the Prelude owner was on Quaaludes when s/he parked the car?
It can’t be good for business if carry-out customers can’t find a parking spot.
Remarkable to see one of these still in service. Back when I lived in North Carolina (2011-12 to be exact) there was a pizza delivery driver in Durham who used an early 80’s Mazda GLC wagon. I thought that was interesting…this is both older and rarer!
If you ignore the Passat creeping into the frame at right, looks kind of like you’ve turned back the clock to around 2000, when these cars were not uncommon to see as roached beaters.
They’re neat little cars! My neighbor bought a new one in ’81, she was a school teacher and would drive it a good hundred miles each way during weekdays. Some time in 1984 she swapped it out for a minivan.
They weren’t very popular on the roads where I lived in mid-state NY in the 80’s either.
I had a Prelude like this, mine was a blue 81 model. With “ivory” interior and 5-speed. I got mine in 90 or 91, and it was significantly rustier than the one posted above… The front bumper literally fell off it, along with both front fenders flapping in the breeze due to most of the mounting points having dissolved years before… It ran fine though. It did burn lots of oil, but apparently a valve job would have cured that (there was a shop near me that specialized in Hondas of that era, “Civic Minded”). It was a fun little car, especially after what a slow, unreliable turd my Escort had been (blew lots of head gaskets and warped the head) I haven’t seen any Preludes in years, let alone one this old. I think they only came in Silver, Blue and a sort of magenta-ish shade. They all had the giant sunroof, which on mine never leaked and still worked just fine. With both windows and the roof open, it was very nice to ride in in warm weather. I was a poor college kid at the time I had mine, so I couldn’t keep up with the constant breakage (every part of the cooling system failed one at a time, the aforementioned rust, lots of the switches broke (I only had high-beam lights for the last few months because the switch broke) It ALWAYS started, even with being parked outside in below zero weather, unlike lots of my freind’s cars (I jump started lots of people’s cars, maybe why I had so many electrical issues with mine?) Overall I really liked it, but when the alternator died and a window got broken from someone trying to steal it, I let it go tp the scrapyard.