When it was first introduced, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Acura Legend was promoted with the tagline “Precision Crafted Performance.” Let’s see how precisely priced this well-kept example might now be.
Imagine you’re choosing teams for a pickup football game; who would you rather have on your side, legendary New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning or either of his two equally famous sons, Eli or Peyton? A similar conundrum faces the prospective buyers of last Friday’s 2018 Tesla Model S P75D. As nice as that car appeared to be, it is still a generation behind the current edition of the smaller but longer-range Model 3. And, at $39,000, it was priced in the same ballpark. Because of that, most of you commented that newer is always better, with the majority of you voting the older Model S down in a 76 percent No Dice loss.
Long before electric cars were a big deal, bragging rights for driveway one-upmanship usually meant a shiny new coupe or convertible. The diminished practicality of a two-door body style offered implied affluence simply through its frivolity.
Honda has never been about such unbridled displays of facetiousness, and so when the company debuted its upscale Acura Legend Coupe for the 1987 model year, the car was both stylish and practical. Sharing no body panels with its four-door nameplate mate, the Coupe also rides on a shorter (105-inch) wheelbase and, for its first two model years, offered a higher displacement engine than Acura made available in the saloon.
This 1988 Acura Legend Coupe still exudes style and elegance today, something likely due to its arguably conservative design. It’s also in amazingly good shape. The Olympia White paint appears to be in almost as-new condition and to be completely free of the fading and decomposition of the top coat that is so common on Hondas and Acuras of this era. All of the brightwork and, more importantly, the black trim is also intact and in solid condition. The only obvious sign of age on the exterior is evidenced by the factory alloys, which have been given gold center caps and inner vanes. Some might find that tacky, and that most would agree is not a look that has aged very well.
The cabin on this 148,500-mile Legend doesn’t suffer any such complaints. The dark gray trim and velour upholstery appear to be in excellent condition, as does the dash. While a coupe, the car offers the ability to drop all four windows for ventilation or impromptu flag waving. Those are power-operated, as are the locks and mirrors. The only disappointment here is the presence of an aftermarket stereo head unit. That likely renders the redundant dashboard controls for the original double DIN unusable.
According to the brief description in the ad, the service records on the car are fully up to date. Hopefully, that includes the timing belt on the 2.7-liter V6, as it’s an interference engine. It’s also a pretty interesting mill, being all-alloy for weight saving and a 90° design to help it fit under the Legend’s stylishly low hood. In this model, the SOHC engine makes 161 horsepower and 162 lb-ft of torque. Making the most of those numbers, this Coupe is fitted with a five-speed manual transmission, feeding the front wheels. The seller touts a recent $3,500 investment in the service on the car but doesn’t go into detail as to exactly what work that money bought. They do note that the car was recently shod with new tires and that it comes with a clean title.
What might this classic coupe reasonably bring in today’s market? The seller asks $9,200, and seeing as the ad has been up for more than three weeks, perhaps that’s proving to be a bit ambitious. Where do you land on this Legend’s valuation? Is $9,200 really too much to ask for a car of its caliber and condition? Or is that price just not the stuff of Legends?
You decide!
Sacramento, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Dan Heatherington. for the hookup!
Help me out with NPOND. Hit me up at remslie@kinja.com and send me a fixed-price tip. Remember to include your Kinja handle.