Ever since Honda announced their new electric SUV, the Prologue, people have been recalling the old Honda Prelude and noting that Honda, amongst all automakers, seems to have an odd affinity for names that reference things that happen before things. So, with this in mind, I thought it might be fun to come up with the definitive list of car names that fit this strange category. I guess if Honda decides to use any of these, they can just, you know, send us a check?
I guess going on two names – the smallest possible plural number – may be a bit thin, but I’m serious when I say a surprising number of people have noted this to me. Normal people, even!
It’s also worth noting that in the Grand Honda Scheme of things, these names aren’t even really all that odd. Honda isn’t afraid of strange names, especially for cars not destined for the North American market. They have a car named Today, for example. And there’s more, and remember, these are all real: 
LaGreat? That’s what they called the Odyssey in Japanese markets. Life Dunk? That’s? Who the hell names a car “that’s?” Not even “that is!” I mean, I love it, but damn, that’s bonkers, Honda.
Anyway, the whole Prologue/Prelude thing seems to have captured the attention of even my non-car-obsessed friends and loved ones, so I do feel like it’s important we help Honda explore this, if only to get it out of their system.
I think a big reason for this is just that fact that names about things that happen before the real thing happens are just, well, weird. They feel like they’re underselling the car, because they all imply the car itself is not the main event; it’s just the lead-in to the good stuff. And why the hell would you name a car for that?
But, if that’s what Honda wants, that’s what Honda gets, so here we go, Honda: more options for you!
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Honda Preface
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Honda Preamble
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Honda Pre-ejaculate
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Honda Presage
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Honda Foreword
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Honda Epigraph
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Honda Front Matter
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Honda Antechamber
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Honda Vestibule
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Honda Lead-in
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Honda Anacrusis
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Honda Opener
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Honda Overture
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Honda Teaser
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Honda Cold Open
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Honda Proem
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Honda Prolegomenon
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Honda Exordium
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Honda Build Up
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Honda Preperatory
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Honda Warmup
That’s a pretty good list, right? Honda, if you really, really decide to lean into this, look at all these options!
They really need to come out with a sports car called the Honda Illiad. It will be the lead-in car to the Odyssey that you’ll keep for 10+ years.
Honda Pretext: the best reason to buy a new car
Honda Prefilled: no more price gouging at the rental counter
Honda Prednisone: roid rage, not road rage
Honda President: you can’t drive it anymore after 8 years of ownership
Honda Predecessor: the Prelude’s successor
Honda Prestidigitation: makes breakdowns disappear
Honda Precolombian: the full-sized truck you need to mow down the locals and till their land
Honda Prenup: large enough to sleep in after your divorce
Honda Prion: you’d have to be a mad cow not to want one
Honda Prenatal: a hot 2-seater you’ll trade in for an Odyssey far too soon
Honda Preorder: shipping in 2028
Honda Prelate: the new Popemobile
OK that’s enough of that
I lied
Honda Proxywar, for the Vietnamese market
Honda Prodrome, with photochromic glass and extra anti-vibration foam for migraine sufferers
Honda Prosumer, overpriced and underpowered
Honda Protein, the Japanese muscle car
Honda Propane, 100% gas powered
Honda Progesterone, with a feminine shape and pastel colors
Honda Prolapse, with a power lift gate to push your stuff out of the trunk
Honda Protoplasm, because who you gonna call?
Honda Protractor, the Japanese angular response to the Cybertruck
The Propane is big enough to carry a grill, a glove box to lock your purse against thieves, and a special compartment to refill your pocket sand.
I want a Honda Prolegomenon because can you imagine the fun conversations I would have when people ask me what I drive?
Prolegomenon: a car made for proles just like you.
🙁
“Honda Foreplay”.
It’s right up there with the Dodge Swinger!
Perhaps the Honda Pre-ejaculate is a more exciting version of the Foreplay?
Preamble and Overture are absolute banger of a car nome tbh.
I seriously love the Overture name. It’s kind of music themed too!
The Honda Preexisting Condition didn’t sell well because nobody could get insurance for it.
If only they had waited for the Affordable Care Act. What might have been. Sigh.
Preventing big businesses from inflicting pain, suffering, death, and/or bankruptcy is unamerican
PrepAratory tyvm
I’d buy a Honda Prevaricate
Couldn’t we just pick any man’s name?
Honda Kevin?
I prefer the Honda Steve
Every one of those will come first.
The Honda Prorate. 5 year warranty and if it breaks in the first year you get 80% of your purchase price back, 60% if it breaks in the second year and so forth.
Honda went after Boomer men with the Prostate but it didn’t sell because it leaked and stopped working.
I could totally see Honda using Preamble and Overture.
Now I’m kind of surprised they haven’t already.
Presage and Overture make sense, I’d like those names
Given the Ridgeline is part of the majority of Honda’s current offerings that are built in the US, they could beef it up and offer a Honda National Anthem. Play ball!
The high performance Honda Purgatory. Where you go next depends on how you drive it.
*Preparatory
Premature Pickup Truck would be easy, but Post Coitus Minivan or crossover would be more apt. Or, in my neighbourhood, anything Acura could probably be re-branded Premenstrual.
I’m not sure how I got onto this ugly theme. Maybe some sort of bad premonition.
If they manage to get self-driving working really well, they could unveil the Aperitif, with the Pre-Game trim for the rowdier and less discerning consumers.
The Beverly trim is only sold in Italy (and for some reason, Disney World). Nobody likes it.
Pre-cum,cold start,be-ginning,pre-wash,foreword,forewarning,preemptive,, Fuck, I’m all out..
On a scale from Snoop to Richard Pryor, how intoxicated were you when you wrote that
I thought of the Foreskin, but didn’t post it… but it does lead the charge of that which is about to follow.
The Honda Prepuce :tm: a car for gentiles only
Since the Embryo has been claimed (surprisingly without a lawsuit involved), I suggest the Honda I’m Not Walking to the Drugstore in the Rain minivan, which will remind you daily why you can’t live anywhere with shopping within walking distance for the next couple of decades.
Come on… clearly the Honda Prius (from Latin)
The Honda Priapic, it never stops working for you.
I feel like the Honda Epilogue would be more fitting, considering we’re seemingly at the end of development for traditional personal automobiles. Vehicles (like almost everything these days) are extensions of digital networked technology now, and will further evolve in that direction. Reminder that an epilogue just means “scenes after the end of the story”, not “the story has definitively ended and you can never add onto it ever again.”
Make the last ICE car the Coda
Wasn’t there already some tiny EV based on a Chinese sedan called the Coda that was sold in the U.S. like a decade ago?
Sure was. Aging Wheels on YouTube has a bunch of videos about his Coda fleet.
Cars will take a different place in our lives. The Epilogue could be augmented with the Honda Epilady®, with sticky vinyl seats standard and no pre-cooling option so driver and passengers could step out of the car looking and feeling their smoothest and most pre-pubescent (Hey! That’s another one!) best.
That’s Life! The Honda That’s used the Honda Life’s platform and engine.
Honda Preparation H…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFkIZ-Zf32Y
I feel that name sounds good… on the hole…
Honda Foreplay
Honda Appetizer
Came to say foreplay. Saw someone else did. Left satisfied
And if they ever “upgrade” the Ridgeline into a brodozer, they can name it the Honda Amuse Douche.
The Honda Foreplay spent way too long in development. While half the team was pleased with the attention being paid, the other half left to work on the Honda Premature, leaving the first half unsatisfied with the end result.
The Presage was a Nissan minivan built from 1998 to 2009 in 2 generations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Presage
Changed my wife’s Honda Fit badges to Honda Jazz a few weeks ago. I’ve always known they were called that elsewhere, but it wasn’t until we were in Europe recently and I made her privy. Saying “Honda Jazz” involves a mandatory jazz hand routine, just fyi.
With the Jazz and the Prelude they have some music themed names in the line-up. All the more reason for a Honda Overture!
PS: I know someone who plays the saxophone, and he drives a Jazz.
When you drive a Jazz, it’s not about the roads you drive, it’s the roads you don’t drive.