Acura Legend Review
The Acura Legend, also known as the Honda Legend outside of North America, is a sport luxury vehicle which was sold from 1986 until production ended in 1995. Available as a sedan and a coupe, It was one of the first vehicles sold under the Acura name, and was their top model sedan until it was replaced by the Acura RL in 1996. In Japan, Honda had introduced the Legend a year earlier in 1985.
First Generation
The first models of the car were all luxury sedans until 1987 when coupes starting being sold as well. First generation Legend production ended in 1990. They were powered by a 2.5 liter V6 with 151 HP until 1987 when the engine was replaced by a new 161HP 2.7 liter. They also featured a double wishbone suspension system, a variable length intake manifold, 4 wheel disc brakes, and a system that could keep track of maintenence intervals, fluids, and fuel economy. These first generation Legends were co-developed with Rover and shared a lot of its engine, transmission, and other chassis parts with the Rover 800 series models, sold in North America under the brandname Sterling. They were sold under the Rover brand in the UK and France.
Second Generation
The second generation Legend appeared in the 1991 model year. A new, more powerful engine was used which was a 3.2 liter V6 with 200 HP. This Legend was larger, more luxurious and better looking. Some features included speed-sensitive power steering, built-in telephone, automatic climate control, heated leather seats, heated mirrors, 4 wheel ABS disc brakes, and a soft-close vacuum-operated doors. For 1991 and 1992 the Legend sedan was available in a base, L, and LS models. The coupes were L and LS. Starting in 1993, Honda made a more powerful coupe model featuring a 230 HP engine mated to a 6-speed manual transmission. This model was called the Type II and was pretty quick, acheiving a quarter mile time of only 14.3 seconds and a 0-60mph time of 6.6 seconds, with a top speed of around 163mph. In 1994 this same engine was available in the sedans and also had other upgrades such as bigger brakes, and a sport tuned suspension. The intellectual property rights of the second generation Legend was licensed to Daewoo Motors of South Korea, where a sedan model called the Daewoo Arcadia, was made from 1993 to 2000.