high insurance costs and America's dizzying love affair with sport-utility vehicles

has taken the starch out of sporty car sales, and a number of manufacturers are

re-examining their product priorities relative to this once-healthy segment.

Honda is one such manufacturer, and the Honda Prelude is the car that's imperiled as a

result.

Originally introduced in 1979, the Prelude has gone through five evolutions, the most

recent--and dramatic--coming along in 1991 for the 1992 model year.

The latest redesign transformed the Prelude from a pleasant, but rather tepid, compact

that was easily outperformed by Honda's smaller CRX-Si, to one of the stars of its

class.

The Prelude's handling set new standards for front-drive cars in its price/size

category, and when the 190-hp VTEC version came along for 1993, it offered performance

that rivalled the Nissan 300ZX.

To see how the latest Prelude was holding up versus competing makes that have

undergone more recent makeovers--the Eagle Talon/Mitsubishi Eclipse twins, for

example--we checked out a '96 Prelude Si, which falls in the middle of the model range.