Jayco Penguin vs Honda Prelude

What's the difference?

The days of very short caravans are over – almost no one would consider buying even a 14-foot caravan in today's age – but despite that, Jayco's simplest camper-trailer almost mimics the layout of a regular-sized vintage caravan.

At just 14-foot long, the Penguin encloses its bed, dinette and kitchen without any extensions, and does it quite smartly, too.

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.