I drove Honda's new Prelude. It may matter more to Honda than to buyers.

It's been a quarter century since Honda had a new Prelude arriving at dealerships.

So, I wouldn't blame you if you don't recognize the nameplate. I also wouldn't blame you if you do remember it and find Honda's new approach to the beloved car a little surprising.

Unlike the Prelude of yesteryear, the new one is certainly not cheap. My Boost Blue tester has a sticker price of $43,650, including destination. Optional summer tires pushed the suggested price to $44,850.

After 400 miles, I started to think the Prelude makes more sense for Honda than it does for any one obvious customer.

It's aiming for a niche part of the US market: It's comfortable and efficient enough for long drives, while maintaining a visual appeal that's very different from the vehicular blobs filling today's grocery store parking lot.

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Underneath its curvy coupe body sits Honda's deeply engineered two-motor hybrid system, good for 200 horsepower and an EPA-estimated 44 mpg combined. It also borrows suspension, steering, and Brembo brake hardware from the Civic Type R and luxury interior elements from its high-end luxury brand, Acura.

It's not particularly fast. That trade-off became obvious pretty quickly.

The Prelude's getup is plenty for merging onto the highway, and it actually felt sprightlier once moving at speed. But its immediate shove is nowhere near what I've felt in similarly priced performance cars — or some EVs, like the Tesla Model 3.

The car stays impressively flat through bends, the steering feels direct, and the Brembos are grabby enough to remind you that Honda raided the fun-loving Type R's parts bin.

More useful was the fuel economy. I averaged 43.5 mpg on my mostly highway drive, almost exactly matching Honda's 44-mpg combined estimate.

The second row is difficult to get into because of the sloping roofline, has virtually no headroom, and will only fit riders with calves as thick as a sheet of paper.