Since I started writing this series 18 months ago, I’ve been keeping a junkyard lookout for an example of one of Honda’s two most groundbreaking U.S.-market cars: a first-generation (1973–79) Civic or first-generation (1977–81) Accord. Those two have become very rare, thanks to their susceptibility to the bite of the Rust Monster, but I’ve managed to find and photograph another discarded Honda (in a Colorado graveyard) with nearly as much game-changing historical significance: one of the very first Acuras ever built.
Honda was the first of the major Japanese carmakers to create a separate luxury brand for overseas—particularly North American—sales. The Acura brand was a sales hit in the United States, causing sleepless nights for executives at German luxury-car manufacturers and inspiring Nissan and Toyota to create their Infiniti and Lexus brands for the 1990 model year (Mazda planned to launch a luxury brand called Amati here for the 1994 model year, but the bursting of the Japanese asset price bubble in 1992 ended that dream).
From 1986 through 1990, the only Acura models available were the Civic-based Integra and the Legend luxury car (which was sedan-only until the coupe was added for 1987). The NSX sports car and Vigor luxury sedan hit American streets as 1991 and 1992 models, respectively.
The first American Acura dealerships opened their doors in March of 1986, the month before this car rolled off the Sayama assembly line in Saitama Prefecture. Note the VIN sequence number beginning in 005, which tells us that we’re looking at one of the first 6000 Legends. Acura ended up selling 52,869 Legends and Integras for that short first model year.
The Legend was the product of a collaboration between the Honda Motor Company and the Austin-Rover Group, then a subsidiary of British Leyland. Honda and British Leyland had already worked together to create the Civic-based Acclaim for the UK market, the final car to wear Triumph badging.
The British sibling of the Legend was the Rover 800, which ended up being exported to the United States as the 1987–91 Sterling 825/827.
The Legend was the first production Honda to get a V6 engine (Honda’s Formula One cars got V6 power starting in 1983). This one is a SOHC unit displacing 2.5 liters and rated at 151 horsepower.
Honda didn’t begin installing V6s in U.S.-market Accords until the 1995 model year, when the 2.7-liter version of the first-generation Legend’s engine finally became an option.
The only option available in the 1986 Acura Legend was the automatic transmission, which added $625 to the $22,973 list price (that’s $1833 and $67,382 in 2025 dollars). Yes, some Legend buyers took the base five-speed manual.
Naturally, air conditioning and this digitally tuned AM/FM/cassette radio were standard equipment.
The interior is very dirty but doesn’t appear to have been especially shredded prior to arrival here.
A junkyard shopper had purchased the instrument cluster before I arrived, but a VIN search online brought up several auction-results-scraping sites that showed this car’s final mileage to have been just under 175,000 miles. The highest-mile Honda I’ve ever documented in a car graveyard was a 1988 Accord with 626,476 miles on the odometer … and its final parking space was in the same yard as (and within a few rows of) this Legend’s.
The Legend didn’t really compete head-to-head against the Lexus LS 400 and Infiniti Q45, once those two rivals arrived as 1990 models, since it was quite a bit smaller than those two cars and had front-wheel-drive. The peak year for U.S. Legend sales was 1991, with a gradual decline thereafter; the Acura RL replaced it for the 1995 model year.
“This is the performance sedan that’s making European automakers uncomfortable… but with such amenities as a leather-trimmed interior and sophisticated stereo system, there’s no reason you should feel that way.”
I prefer the more frantic home-market TV commercials for Japanese cars of the 1980s, with their shrieking tires and roaring engines, to be honest.
Engineering in a finer form.
A buddy and his wife had one of these when we worked at Lockheed back in the late ’80s/early ’90s. Don’t know what year his was, but it replaced a Chevy Monza. It was a pretty nice car for the time, at least compared to my Datsun 200SX hatchback.
The 2nd gen Legends were much better looking vehicles. I haven’t seen one since prior to 2010, at least. Still daily driving a ’92 Vigor, only because it’s a manual trans. The car just won’t give up. 225,000 miles on it.
These were good cars. It’s fun to look at how simple cars were in the entry luxury area. I would like for a return to that.
There’s not much upside to a 150 hp unibody car with structural damage. Rest in peace.
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