Junkyard Find: 1987 Acura Legend Sedan

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Honda was the first of the Japanese car companies to create a separate luxury brand to sell abroad, beating Nissan and Toyota by several years. When the first Acuras appeared here in late 1986, there were two models: a dressed-up, hot-rodded Civic and an innovative midsize luxury machine co-developed with Austin Rover. Here's an early example of the latter car, found in a Colorado self-service car graveyard.

There's some Accord hardware in the 1986-1990 Legend, but its closest relative is the Sterling 825/ 827.

The Sterling got a gentlemanly leather-and-wood English interior and a trip computer that could calculate fuel supply in liters, gallons, and Imperial gallons, but it also got electrical components from the Prince of Darkness and erratic built quality. Sales cratered quickly. Meanwhile, Americans soon learned that Acuras held together even better than the bulletproof Hondas they'd been lining up to buy ( not always with success) for years.

The Legend was the first production car Honda ever sold with a V6 engine (the Accord wouldn't get one until the 1995 model year), and this car is covered with badges bragging about the engine configuration.

Did you know that there's a V6 in this car? Just making sure you did! Toyota responded promptly by stuffing V6s in US-market Camrys, starting the following year. Mazda also introduced the V6-powered (and rear-wheel-drive) 929 for 1988; the original plan was for the 929 to be sold under a brand-new Amati brand, but that never materialized.

This DOHC V6 displaced 2.5 liters and made 151 horsepower.

The Legend was available with a five-speed manual transmission for every year of its 1986-1994 American sales run, but this one has the optional four-speed automatic. Toyota stopped putting three-pedal rigs in the Lexus ES after 1993.

CD players were still exotic and extremely costly in 1987, so cassette decks in luxury cars reached their peak of complexity. The digital seven-band equalizer is very much of its time. This elaborate radio was standard equipment in the '87 Legend, which makes sense given the high quality of popular music that year.

Just 111,370 miles on the odometer.

The Legend could be had as a sedan or coupe in 1987. This is a Luxury Sedan, the very top trim level for the 1987 Legend, and its sticker price was $22,973 with the automatic (that's about $61,185 in 2022 dollars). Its Sterling 825SL sibling cost less, at $21,032 ($56,105 now).

This commercial is for the 1988 Legend and its 2.7-liter V6, but you get the idea.

Striking fear into the Germans. The official full name of the Legend was, briefly, Legend Touring Sedan. That got shortened quickly.

In its homeland, it was the Honda Legend. Emperor Akihito's personal car, a few years later, was a Honda Integra.

[Images by the author]

Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by  subscribing to our newsletter.

Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

More by Murilee Martin

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 27 comments
  • Renee Rivera Renee Rivera on Jan 18, 2024

    I don’t understand why Edmonds and Kelley Blue Book give it such a low value, but then Edmonds is advertising them for three or four times the amount?? as well as classiccars.com. It’s a contradiction that I don’t know how to explain.

    • Kw11 Kw11 on Feb 08, 2024

      Edmunds and KBB use ACV/Actual Cash Value which is a scam insurance companies use to total out pre OBDII cars after claims are made on them over anything. They believe anything that old is worthless, which is a blatant lie. It's just an agenda to get pre OBDII cars off the road. If you haven't sold it yet and if you even see this comment, put it in an Acura Legend group on Facebook.



  • Espinosa Jose Espinosa Jose on Feb 25, 2024

    I have an Acura legend 2 doors coupe v6 1987 5 speed....the bad part is that is not one mechanic around my area to fixing does...and I don't have to much idea how to fixed

  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
  • Tassos Jong-iL Communist America Rises!
  • Merc190 A CB7 Accord with the 5 cylinder
  • MRF 95 T-Bird Daihatsu Copen- A fun Kei sized roadster. Equipped with a 660cc three, a five speed manual and a retractable roof it’s all you need. Subaru Levorg wagon-because not everyone needs a lifted Outback.
  • Merc190 I test drive one of these back in the day with an automatic, just to drive an Alfa, with a Busso no less. Didn't care for the dash design, would be a fun adventure to find some scrapped Lancia Themas or Saab 900's and do some swapping to make car even sweeter. But definitely lose the ground effects.
Next