A Honda Legend sedan, as seen in the far east of Beijing in 2016. The good Honda was in great shape. It was painted black like almost every Legend I have ever seen, with tinted windows and with the original wheel covers.
The third-generation Honda Legend (KA9) was manufactured from 1995 until 2004 with a facelift in 2000. Our black Beijing car is a post-facelift model. Earlier, we saw a pre-facelift Legend with black license plates.
The Honda Legend had a 3.5 liter V6 engine under the hood. Output was 215 hp and 300 Nm. The engine was mated to a four-speed automatic gearbox, sending horses to the front wheels. The top speed was 215 km/h and 0-100 took 9.3 seconds.
The interior looked nice for the car’s age. It had comfortable beige leather seats, sporty round dials, and a lot of wood on the center stack. The radio-cassette player is old-school super-cool.
The third-generation Legend was not officially sold in China, but quite a few examples arrived via the gray market and other misty channels. The fourth-generation Honda Legend was officially sold here, from 2004 until 2009. But it was an import, thus expensive, and it didn’t sell well.
The Honda Legend was a great Japanese sedan with a big V6 engine. It was a good and good-looking car. Sadly, the Legend name was canceled for international markets in 2012. But in Japan, Honda continued to sell a Legend sedan until 2021.