Audi SQ5 vs Honda Prelude

What's the difference?

The Audi Q5 now has a sportier-looking sibling, with the German brand's all-time best-selling SUV welcoming a sleeker, more aggressive solution it calls its Sportback range.

And look, spoiler alert, it looks better than the regular Q5. It's as simple as that. So if that's all you're here to find out, feel free to close the laptop, put the phone away, and move on with your day.

But you'd be doing yourself a disservice, because there are more questions to be answered here. Like will you paying in on-board comfort for this new raked roofline? Do the Sportback's sporty intentions make for a more annoying daily drive? And how much does Audi want you to pay for one?

All these questions and more answered. So stay with me.

Honda is a company that rarely looks back.

Badge aside, the resurrected Prelude series is more about being revolutionary than retro, with not even any classic-era styling cues (though a few likely Porsche ones).

In fact, Honda made it clear this was created as a hybrid sports car first, with the name settled on later. Probably by marketing.

It could just as easily have been branded Integra, which – given the shared Civic platform and liftback when previous Preludes had two doors only – might have been the case, except that name is already on an Acura and Chinese GAC version of Honda’s venerable small car.

That said, its new sports car is arguably more Prelude in spirit than even some of the past originals were anyway, and then some, and here’s why.