I own an 2000 Honda Prelude...

Unlike other reviewers, I will not spell out all of the Prelude's features--you can find that information out on your own. What I will tell you is how my experience has been owning this car for the past couple of years.

HANDLING AND COMFORT:
First of all, the car handles wonderfully and is hoot to drive. The understeer is quite apparant when you go into corners too hard, but it's progressive and predictable. The seats are comfortable, but there's a lack of lateral support for hard-driving (i.e. expect to slip around in your seat).

ENGINE:
The VTEC engine is great. It seems like a docile 2.2L V4 engine--until you reach ~5500rpm. Then the engine switches over to the high performance cams and really comes alive. It's quite a rush to feel the car surge once it reaches that point. I must note that the acceleration is not the best in its class, but it's adequate. You could get a much better accelerating car for $25K--if that's the only thing important to you.

TRANSMISSION:
I own a 5spd manual and it shifts smoothly and easily enough; however, I do find that the gearing on 5th gear is too short. Like most people on the highway these days, I cruise at around 80mph, but that is above 4000 rpm in 5th gear! So suffice to say, my mileage is not great because of this.

EXTRAS AND INTERIOR:
As far as extras go, the Prelude is pretty scant. Your interior gets everything that normally comes with the cheaper economy class Civic. It's functional though, and you usually buy this car for other reasons than the interior anyways (I did). My biggest gripe about the interior would be the Sun-roof. Not only is it tiny (it looks big from the outside, but it only opens a fraction of that), but there is no discrete tilt button. That is, you push and hold a button which puts the roof into motion--it tilts and slides back. You let the button go when it's in a position that you like. Simple enough, right? Wrong. It's so hard to get the sun-roof to tilt without accidentially opening it; you have to time it just right. My girlfriend's $18K VW Golf has a better interior and sunroof than the Prelude.

The back seats and trunk are ridiculously small and useless, but I guess you have to ask yourself if you really care about that?

MISC:
While the Prelude may seem overpriced for what you get, there are a lot of things Honda put into this car that are not apparant by just looking at it. The biggest example is the stock suspension, which is top notch. You get large tires and decent sized aluminum wheels that any self-respecting sports-car should have. The steering is extremely precise and the clutch grabs harder than in most cars. The body is very solid and the axles used in this car are thicker than the accords or civics--which also contribute to the great handling.

The Preludes are being discontinued this year, but I hope this will help anyone who is looking to buy a used one.