Honda Legend 3.5 i-VTEC EX review
by David Finlay (15 April 2008)
A word of explanation before we get started properly. Regular readers with good memories will recall that we have already published a road test on the Legend. The reason for revisiting it now is because that first test was written on the basis of having driven the car for part of an afternoon. What you're about to read are impressions gained after living with the car for a week.
Now that that week is over, my main feeling about the Legend is that it is, in spite of its considerable size, a quite astonishingly capable sports saloon. I'm lucky enough to live in a part of the country festooned with wonderful roads, and on the occasions when conditions, sightlines and so on permitted I found that this enormous car could be whisked round corners with about the same gusto as you might be inspired to apply in a hot hatch - or perhaps even more, since the long wheelbase gives it a level of stability which no hot hatch can beat.
There are several reasons for this but perhaps the most obvious is the Super Handling All-Wheel Drive 4x4 package which means that no matter how free and easy you are with the 3.5-litre V6 engine's 291bhp, no individual tyre ever has much power to cope with. It's also clear that the Legend's suspension has been set up by people who knew exactly what they were doing.
If the Legend were being marketed entirely as a performance car, this would all be fine, but in fact Honda also intends it to be thought of as a luxury cruiser. In my previous road test I suggested that this apparent contradiction had actually worked out very well, and I still think that; but I had some reservations then and I have more now.
In some ways the Legend does feel very luxurious. The steering is superb, the seats are comfortable, it's very well-equipped, and it's certainly quiet. Until you really start pushing it, that big, smooth V6 is almost inaudible, and you can't help agreeing with the engineer who once said, "When God created the engine, it was a six-cylinder."
But if you really want a luxury car you're probably looking in the wrong place. The Legend has a basically very smooth ride which is comprehensively spoiled by its low-profile tyres which create an annoying amount of bump and fuss in gentle motoring (though you don't mind or notice this when you're in the sort of hard-driving situations for which they were clearly intended).
There are occasional inelegancies in the design details, too. The wipers park themselves in a rather clumsy position well above the base of the windscreen when you switch them off, and Honda's attempt to create a curve from each end of the dashboard to the door trims has been spoiled by production carelessness which means that the panels don't line up properly. (That's unless the test car had been rolled at some point and hastily reshelled, which seems unlikely.) And, as previously noted, the seatbelt height adjusters are disappointingly cheap-looking in a car which might cost you more than £39,000.
That figure applies if you've chosen a Legend with the Advanced Driver Assist System, a combination of adaptive cruise control and Lane Keeping Assist. For this you pay £2750, though there's a small return for this in that ADAS requires the use of electric steering assistance, which needs less power to operate than the standard hydraulic system and therefore gives the Legend better fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions on the combined test.
I enjoyed my time with the Legend. It's one of the best-looking large Japanese cars I've ever seen, and in terms of the shock value provided by its unexpectedly brilliant handling it ranks as one of my all-time favourites, in the same company as the original BMW M5, the Peugeot 205 XSi and the late-90s Subaru Impreza Sport.
I suspect, however, that most people who would consider buying it will be less interested in its handling than in its capabilties as a luxury car, and in that respect it's not quite there - a near miss, admittedly, but enough of a miss all the same to send many potential owners off to look at rival products.
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