If you’re a child of the 1980s as I am, the Honda and Acura products offered in this era stand out as some of the best ever made. While not necessarily exceptional from a performance standpoint, they were outstanding cars in small ways that other manufacturers seemingly didn’t pay as much attention to. While the quality was first-rate, so were the switchgear, the manual gearboxes, the steering, and the sight lines from the cockpit. This 1987 Acura Legend listed here on eBay is just one example of the overbuilt models Honda Motor Co. was churning out, and it’s apparently been in the hands of one owner since new.
The Legend was Acura’s flagship model offered at a time when Japanese makes were beginning to dip a toe into becoming more luxury-oriented brands than solely delivering fuel-sipping economy cars. You could see the winds of change happening elsewhere, with the likes of Toyota and Mazda unveiling performance models like the turbocharged Celica and the rotary-powered RX-7. The Legend, however, was seemingly good at everything, as its new 161 b.h.p. V6 offered stirring performance in addition to the aforementioned build quality found throughout. The seller notes the color combo shown here is Ascot Gray Metallic over Volcanic Gray Metallic on the lower body panels.
The Legend came from the factory with a high level of equipment, but you could get one with leather seating surfaces as well as a manual gearbox. The manual transmission allowed the V6-powered Legend to reach 60 in under 8 seconds and go on to a top speed of 135 miles per hour. The interior was clean, simple, and driver-focused, just like other Honda products such as the CRX and Civic hatchback. It came well appointed with power windows and locks, a high-performance sound system, and more. It would also be available later in two-door form, and the Legend coupe remains one of the prettier cars the Honda / Acura brand has made to date.
The car shown here is in excellent condition and clearly the epitome of a survivor. With just 60K miles from new, it’s safe to say it’s been driven sparingly by its longtime original owner, who stopped driving due to old age, according to the listing. The care given to the car reminds me of my own mother’s fastidious approach to vehicle maintenance, and she, too, is a long-time Honda brand loyalist. The listing notes the owner has kept floor mats over the factory floor mats, which is something my mother would do! While this is not a collector car in the traditional sense of the word, survivors cars from any marque are worth saving, and this Legend sedan seems well worth the asking price of $8,950 or best offer.
The car that helped infuse the Lexus/Infiniti spinoffs in the U.S. and simultaneously helped sink Sterling.
Nah, Sterling sunk itself all on its own, despite being co-developed with the Legend and sharing a common platform and powertrain.
I agree. Sterling did themselves in. Their car I believe only got the drivetrain from Acura. If anything Acura’s drivetrain helped promote Sterlings car.
When I was a tech at Acura in the 90s, a coworker was working on the taillights of a Sterling. Some lights didn’t work so he took out the taillight lens to check the bulbs. Typically, on an Acura legend you would have bulbs that fit in the sockets which turned into the tail light lens to lock them in place. The Sterling 827 had a very crude box attached to the back of the tail light. If you open up that box, it looks like electronics from the 1960s or even the 1950s. Very poor design. It didn’t even have wires in that box, but more like an aluminum pegboard and parts of it had burnt out which required replacement of the whole box.
You can see that box on back of the tail light on eBay auctions.
https://ebay.us/m/3Hubjy
Philbo427 – Funny coincidence, right as I brought up the pic of that Sterling taillight backside, an announcer on the radio happened to say, “total garbage”. 🤣
That’s when Honda was on top of their game. An over engineered car, go figure. Definitely something the manufacturing lacks today. Providing it’s been in for oil changes before the motor oil went south, should provide plenty of service to the next owner.
My dad had a 1992 Legend Coupe back in the day. Black on black leather, absolute beauty. One of the best cars of the 90s IMO. He and I both want to cry whenever we talk about him selling it. The coupes can be hard to find in good condition.
Those were nice coupes! My favorite Acura’s back then were the ‘93 Legend GS Coupe with the 6 speed and ‘90 Legend LS Coupe 5 speed in black or pearl white with 5 spoke 17” rims.
I always thought these were rwd 💁♂️
I always thought it was interesting (I’m needing out) that Honda was first to the US with its premium Acura brand but, IMHO, was not consistent with product development/evolution as is the case with Lexus/Toyota. Give Honda/Acura credit for “left field” shockers like the NSX. I wonder what Acura’s “LS400” would have been. Very nice find.
The first gen Acura was in my opinion the classiest. I love this Acura and it has many years of service to give. Beautiful luxury Acura. Well worth the ask.
Why don’t automakers fall back on the basics, like this wonderful Acura? Beancounters and finance sleazebags run these companies, and they are always on the brink of folding due to poor management decisions, low-quality manufacturing, and just plain greed. And that slides down ot the dealers. Sad.
That first picture with the front and rear clipped off made me think that this as a Sterling, based on the 2 tone upper / lower.
These Legends were great cars. I knew a guy who held onto one for as long as he could, and he could have easily afforded anything he wanted.
I replaced a timing belt on one of these, what a PITA!