Brendan Saur He was still right though, in the sense that it wasn't the first generation which was legend-ary. That didn't happen until the second generation. (And it's been downhill for Acura ever since.)
@@Jwdude123 I've test driven a TLX A-Spec and an RLX Advance back to back, both 2018 models. The TLX was a brilliant car, it feels and drives bit like a much more luxurious 9th gen Accord, which isn't a bad thing. I'd say it's well worth the 45 grand. The RLX, to me, just didn't feel any better than the TLX. It had a bit more of a "comfortable luxury" feel (like my grandparents' old 1994 Lincoln Town Car) but there just weren't enough meaningful improvements to make it worth the extra 12 grand or so. Still a good car, but I'd advise getting a TLX. Also, I was BORN when the 2nd gen Legend was being produced, December 25, 1992. Wonder if they were making '93 Legends that day or if they got Christmas off? March 15, 2019 5:04 am
@@whattheheck1000 I'm definitely looking forward to the TLX Type-S, personally, and miss the Type-S from the old TL in the 2000s. Nevertheless, I'm honestly optimistic Acura is making a comeback as a performance luxury car brand, and it, along with the reentrance of Peugeot in the American market (and hopefully Citroën's luxury brand, DS, makes it here too) makes me REALLY excited for some cars coming out. The only other cars I've been excited about in this category have been offerings like the Genesis G70-I've tried to get excited for the new Lexus IS, but I find the fact that Toyota is just refreshing it and not doing a full redesign a bit of a downer, especially since the design is quite long in the tooth (dates back to the 2014 model year), which even predates the CURRENT TLX design.
Picture it: It's 1988, my friend just got her new Integra 5-door in plum with gray interior. She scoops me up, we pop in the group Exposé on the tape player, and listen to "Let Me Be the One" while we zoom around at night with the windows down and howl at the top of our lungs. Best times.
MrCarGuy20 I thought so too. If only we could travel back in time and tell them they had no idea what was in store just 5 years ahead. It would be hard to not spill all the details and let the cat out of the bag. But how awesome would it be to be able to ring up MotorWeek and predict exactly what the NSX would be like and surprise the hell out of them. You would be like Marty McFly in Back to the Future 2 with that sports almanac.
Look for the pilot on YT. He sounded like he was on Quaaludes - and too many. They shelved it for a couple of years, while he was on another show. When they brought it back, he was just as chipper as he still is, and it's been around since.
Mr. Céspedes they're not actually on "the verge of failure". they're going through an identity crisis right now, sure, but the sales of their MDX are still very good, and the introduction of a new NSX means that Honda is still willing to invest in their lux brand
My first car was an 89 Integra LS. Got it in 95 when I got my license. Same color as the one in the video. God, I loved that thing. The attitude at my school was still, hurr durr rice burner can't beat a Camaro. My response was, "Meet me in the curves"
earnedmystripes camaros were great in the curves as well. sheer size puts them at a disadvantage on the tightest turns but thats the case with all GTs of similar size.
we had one when I was a kid but I think it was an 89 or 90. I wonder if they updated the styling at all during this models run? It looks more dated now than I expected!
OMG that two-tone Legend sitting in the studio looks freaking AWESOME. I really miss cars like this, especially Hondas of the period as Honda was really making great-looking designs back then. The late 80's Prelude and early 90's Accord come immediately to mind, but there's so many good ones.
Sure enjoy watching the old shows. John really tells it like well, it really is with cars and I would like to see him do some more of theses on current shows!
I had a 1985 Honda Integra. It was my 3rd car. It was the 3 door model with 5speed manual gear box and a sunroof. Those cars went and handled very will for their age. I just had two problems with mine. The sunroof always leaked when it rained and heater stopped working, which sucked during winter.
Amazing what 10 years progress will do. I had a 96 Integra GSR and what a fun ride. When it was released in 1994 the DC2 model Integra GSR arguably started the "Sport Compact" craze of the 90s that eventually resulted in Fast and the Furious, etc. Nobody in 86 had any idea what was to come. Acura sorely needs a new Integra. Something hotter and a little more upscale than the Civic SI, yet still affordable. Actually that was what the original Integra was.
+Austin Frazier Im finding that out. They are just well built cars. Honda was never my thing. Iam partial to DSM, not JDM. However, I got a 90' Integra GS coupe in B-50m (Melbourne blue metallic) paint, and its been great as my first experience with JDM. Its got a cool, kinda silver looking paint with the blue interior. The car just drive on rails, your so low you really feel one with the car. I know its non-vtec, being the b18a1, but it drives so nice you don't even care its got 130hp. Would be cool to find a 92' with the b17. Those 94-01's were faster but the DA9 is a little "sexier" looking imo. Great cars.
Like he said in the video, the initial release Acuras had a feeling like upgraded Hondas. At the refresh (92?) when Honda saw the Toyota and Nissan luxury releases and knew what they were competing with they because cars of note. When they were new I got the impression Honda wanted to keep customers a little longer who were jumping up to BMW or maybe a Mercedes 190. The target market were people who had good memories of Hondas in college and were now professionals. They liked Honda, but wanted something that set them apart from their secretary.
Its so nice to see two of the best name plates that Acura ever had. Anyone ever notice that ever since Acura decided to be more like the Euro market and dumped the names and just went to letters, their cars have gotten more and more ugly and their sales have plummeted. Maybe its time to revamp the entire line and bring back cars like the Legend and Integra. Acura and Honda imo is in a downward spiral these last 10 to 15 years, I could care less what they make now a days. So sad, they were so good:(
+Acc0rd79 I was just coming to that same conclusion too, I honestly don't find their current line up that attractive much in my opinion and the three letter model names are confusing. Its very probable their sales will pick up the day they use the name plates Integra and Legend again.
Matt Whitmire for sure, the letter thing was the beginning of the downhill trend for Acura. Look at where they are now, Acura would win award after award in the 90's, why the hell change your style to be more Euro? Oh well, they make nothing but ugly cars today that never win anything.
I had a 88 2dr Legend. There was so much I loved about it and some I hated, but IMO it wasn't the car's fault. Mine was an automatic and it had 130K when I got it. I admittedly drove the piss out of it. The 2.7 motor really ran sweet, but after a while the cylinder head design put more heat to the valve guide seals than they were designed to handle over time. That resulted in a motor that smoked enough to make it a calculated tweek endeavor come emissions testing time. About the same time the transmission decided it didn't need 2nd gear anymore and last three more years before the transmission went tits-up. Either way, it was fun and I didn't pay waste anything on it. Hell when it was done, it still had the original fuel pump, water pump, and all the other accessories. I had it till 186K and I forgot; I did replace the alternator at around 150K. If I had been smart enough to find one with a manual transmission; I believe I could still have that car. Sorry for the novel.
Still see a good number of these on the road today. Hard to beat Japanese quality and workmanship. The Legend looks smaller than a current Accord! Great video MW..thank you!
I had a 1987 Acura Integra and it was a great car. I miss it sometimes. It was fun to drive and it was great on gas with. 5 speed manual transmission. Great car.
Motorweek is the only car review company that does reviews anywhere NEAR this exhaustive and in depth. It's crazy how a 31 year old car review has such a superior format to reviews today.. Most other car reviews seem more like half-assed sales pitch than an in depth review like these guys do.
"Future Acura products, including a rumored mid-engine sports car, will be more divorced from lower-rung Hondas." You got the NSX right... however, you didn't see the EL (rebadged Civic) coming.
Mine still runs hahah. As well as my CRX. Japan surely made quality its top concern across all manufacturers. My 89 CRX had its factory front rotors from and plug wires and dizzy even upon purchase. No electrical faults and so on. Same with my Legend.
these would be too old for me to contemplate but what i would do for one of the last ones ever made.not a lot sadly exist on the second hand market though.it's a cheap way into something sporty for similar money to crappy dull micro cars.
A year later in the Acura Legend, the 2.5L V6 engine would be upgraded to 2.7L producing 161 HP and 162 lb-ft. torque. The two door LS coupe was a blast to drive and had plenty of room in the back seats. I loved that car.
Here in the UK, we took the Legend, made it a bit better looking, took out all the reliable Honda bits, replaced them with British Leyland junk and got the crappy Rover 800.
I remember being very sad in 95 when they announced that they would not be selling the legend anymore so I had went down to the dealer on my birthday and spotted mine a 1995 Acura legend a pretty sleek black 5 speed with tan interior and I was oh so in love I believe it was a GS I took her for a test drive and I asked for the price it was 13,500 and some change and I was appeased I went to the bank took 3000$ out put down on the car and financed my payment was like 75$ a month because credit wasn’t so widely used in the 90s and I still have it 211,000 miles on it and running like a champ my baby
I had an '88 Integra, the same blue as the one in the video. Fun to drive, but things were pretty worn out and it leaked every fluid known to man. The fun part was the cassette. When it got to the middle of the tape, it got confused and would just go back and forth.
I had a slightly used '87 integra through college. It was good, and refined, stick with smooth reving to redline. The a/c was not nearly strong enough for all that glass. Not to mention Arizona. It was a fun car. But so much a civic with roll up windows and basics. In 1997 I bought an 1988 legend also a stick with 130,000 miles. Kept it 6 years? it needed a bit of work here and there, anywhile not the most fun to drive it did well on the highway. With 4 of us in the car I passed everyone up the mountains between Yuma and San Diego. It had sort of lousy front seats, The back seats were very comfortable. Driving to Las Vegas the speedo indicated 120. It was very good in a straight line. The review is a bit funny that Acura was a big hit, and now they really are lost or trying to regain what they once had.
The Legend became a lot more atractive in the 2nd generation, but the Integra was a hit from the first time! There was only a thin niche inbetween the market for the Honda Prelude (a 2 + 2 coupe with the +2 hardly worth mentioning) and the Honda Accord coupe (a by Japanees standards rather big 5 seater coupe) but the Integra fitted the gap remarkably well. It had a decent size back seat, offered the ride of the Prelude and had an engine that gave it performances on pair with the bigger engines found in the Prelude and the Accord. And they all 3 had pop up headlights, but somehow I always found the Integra to have the best looking front end of the 3.
Doktor Hachi Roku it was! I am from Belgium and my dad used to have a g1 integra. had a Different engine than the usa ones tough. The Civic 1.5 carburator
Well we are with 6 miljon People, not bad for such a limited amount of lebensraum ;) I have the impression you Germans like or small coast as much as we like your vast mountain woods ;-)
My dad had a '90 Integra GS-R, and that was a pretty cool car, though by then no pop-up headlights. Some similar things to be found like the folding rear seats and such. Then he traded it in for a '93 Vigor LS which him and then eventually the rest of use drove the wheels off of. Those cars were damn tough and reliable going through all those winters, trips out to the farm daily...and even at times, out to the field. Only negative was some rust on the body after about 15 years or so. I rarely see them or Legends anymore. Eric the Car Guy is the only other person I know of with one. Had about 540,000 kms on it before my brother wrote it off. He was fine and car started afterwards, but it was a loss :(
The first gen integra motor as well as the jdm ZC versions were an interesting series of engines. Essentially, they were both the predecessor to B series and the only D series engines to have dual cams. These motors and B series were designed by the same Formula 1 engineers that also participated in the NSX program, which was vaguely mentioned in the video. Make no mistake, the Acura Integra had race heritage from the first day it was released in the US, which extends thirty years later into today's Honda tuner culture.
I would like to see reviews of vintage Mazda 626, Infiniti G20t, Dodge Omni GLH Turbo, BMW M3 Sedan, Nissan Sentra SER and Merkur XR4TI. Great job Retro Motorweek, you rock!
I have wanted a first generation Integra since I saw Chow Yun-Fat flog one around the hills of Hong Kong in The Killer. The car was a white sedan and I thought it just looked too cool. I can't imagine there are many of them left though.
Yards and yards of blue velour! I remember looking at the Integras at the dealership after I started university in Fall 1988. There was a special all-white 3-door model coming in but it was already sold. The salesman told me the 5-door with sunroof wouldn't pass federal crash testing--although I had/have no way of verifying that statement. As much as I wanted one of these when they came out (which was pretty badly!), today I would rather have the Quint model with the trunk on it.
funny thought, I still prefer the sterling 827 version that had more luxury. However those bumpers seem to always scratch easy and parking light would break.
I love the Rover 800 (Sterling in the US) but they really ruined it in the States by rushing it into production and selling a whole serie of cars that should had been used for testing only. They were still a huge improvement over English cars made just a couple of years earlier (hardly any SD1 was build the way it should had been build), but Americans just had no compassion for an expensive luxury car that had pieces of its interior falling off and rain pooring in through the seeling. Things in Europa were finally settled when Honda got involved in rovers production management and the later Rover 800s offered realiability and durability of BMW standards. But for America it was too late.
I wonder what the 3/5dr split for the Integra was. It had a lot more competition as a coupe, the only 5-doors in its' segment were the VW Golf GT and Dodge Lancer/Chrysler LeBaron GTS and even when you add in four-door sedans it still wasn't a crowded field for cars that size that were above fully-loaded econoboxes but still well below a BMW 3 series or Saab 900.
I almost had a Integra but went with a Prelude. I showed interest in both. I walked away the guy called me back. I made a offer and got the car pretty cheap. The guy said the car was sitting on the lot too long anyways. 3 mos later the rack and pinion broke. Other than that it had no other problems for the 3 or so years i owned it.
The Integra's 1.6l bested the 1.8l turbo engine that Subaru was making at the time in horsepower. (The EA82T makes significantly more torque, though, but it's still pretty impressive)
I bought my first Acura in 1991. It was a red '87 Integra RS 3 door with a manual transmission. I LOVED that car!! Only had it a couple of years and someone rear ended me and knocked me into the car in front of me. The car was totaled. Replaced it with an '88 Honda Prelude Si 4WS and drove various Hondas after that until 2008 when I got my second Acura. I purchased a silver '05 TL. Followed by an '07 TL Navi, a '10 TSX V6 Tech, a '12 TL Advance, a '13 TL Advance and currently have a '16 TLX Advance. Needless to say, I love Acuras. My next one will likely be an '18 TLX A-Spec which I hope to buy towards the end of 2019 or first of 2020.
My first car was the 87 Integra 5 door manual. Then I left the Acura fold for a while, and returned to buy a TSX Wagon. No manual, but the 5 doors and luxury appointments make it feel like a grown up Integra.
I’m on my second Acura, a ‘12 TL AWD Advance. Before that I had an ‘09 TSX manual. Definitely good purchases, both of them. I’ve had a couple TLX loaners, and I don’t like them as much as I do my TL.
Reluctantly, I have to agree with you on the TLX versus the TL. I do like my TLX. There are features about it that trump my '13 TL. The fuel economy is a huge plus. It certainly looks better but if I'm being totally honest the driving dynamics are simply inferior to the TL. The TLX is my eighth Acura and I've owned it now for 3 months. I have to confess that after 3 months, I'm still thinking about and missing my '13 TL. This is the first time after purchasing a car that I've genuinely missed my former car after this much time. Usually, after a couple of weeks I've adapted and have fully embraced my new ride. Like I said, I don't hate my TLX at all. There are things about it I really like but I haven't fallen for it like I have with almost all of my former cars. I do look forward to buying an A-Spec trim in a little over a year from now. I think it addresses some of things I feel a bit lackluster about in my '16. I don't regret buying the TLX. I just miss my TL.
Fast forward. I ended up keeping my TLX longer than I thought I would. Sold it one year ago and replaced it with a ‘20 Honda Accord Touring 2.0T. Love this car. Now it’s April of ‘22 and Acura has revived the Integra, which will be for sale in June of ‘22. Looking forward to seeing what they will do with the Type S version of the new Integra. They might coax me back to the Acura fold if they do it justice. I am still very fond of Acuras.
"The Legend... While it isn't one yet."
But oh how it is now.
Brendan Saur He was still right though, in the sense that it wasn't the first generation which was legend-ary. That didn't happen until the second generation. (And it's been downhill for Acura ever since.)
Correct. The second gen Legend was an exceptional car. Wish Honda could do it again.
Acura needs to come back hard before they completely get tossed out as a family SUV brand.
@@Jwdude123 I've test driven a TLX A-Spec and an RLX Advance back to back, both 2018 models. The TLX was a brilliant car, it feels and drives bit like a much more luxurious 9th gen Accord, which isn't a bad thing. I'd say it's well worth the 45 grand.
The RLX, to me, just didn't feel any better than the TLX. It had a bit more of a "comfortable luxury" feel (like my grandparents' old 1994 Lincoln Town Car) but there just weren't enough meaningful improvements to make it worth the extra 12 grand or so. Still a good car, but I'd advise getting a TLX.
Also, I was BORN when the 2nd gen Legend was being produced, December 25, 1992. Wonder if they were making '93 Legends that day or if they got Christmas off?
March 15, 2019 5:04 am
@@whattheheck1000 I'm definitely looking forward to the TLX Type-S, personally, and miss the Type-S from the old TL in the 2000s. Nevertheless, I'm honestly optimistic Acura is making a comeback as a performance luxury car brand, and it, along with the reentrance of Peugeot in the American market (and hopefully Citroën's luxury brand, DS, makes it here too) makes me REALLY excited for some cars coming out. The only other cars I've been excited about in this category have been offerings like the Genesis G70-I've tried to get excited for the new Lexus IS, but I find the fact that Toyota is just refreshing it and not doing a full redesign a bit of a downer, especially since the design is quite long in the tooth (dates back to the 2014 model year), which even predates the CURRENT TLX design.
Picture it: It's 1988, my friend just got her new Integra 5-door in plum with gray interior. She scoops me up, we pop in the group Exposé on the tape player, and listen to "Let Me Be the One" while we zoom around at night with the windows down and howl at the top of our lungs. Best times.
It's nice hearing about the predicted MR car (NSX) toward the end.
MrCarGuy20 I thought so too. If only we could travel back in time and tell them they had no idea what was in store just 5 years ahead. It would be hard to not spill all the details and let the cat out of the bag. But how awesome would it be to be able to ring up MotorWeek and predict exactly what the NSX would be like and surprise the hell out of them. You would be like Marty McFly in Back to the Future 2 with that sports almanac.
joh n 1.21 gigawatts! 1.21 gigawatts. Great Scott!
MARTY!
Kamofy 1.21 JIGawats
FLUX CAPACITOR!@@Kamofy
I love these old motorweek reviews. Jon Davis has been around forever!
Look for the pilot on YT. He sounded like he was on Quaaludes - and too many.
They shelved it for a couple of years, while he was on another show.
When they brought it back, he was just as chipper as he still is, and it's been around since.
He and Craig Singhaus are the last of the old guard, now that Pat Goss is no
longer with us…
Who knew Acura was going to be as successful as it became. They should bring back the Legend.
Mr. Céspedes. successful? you realise they are perpetually on the verge of being cancelled right?compared to Lexus and even Infiniti it is a failure.
DrewLSsix I had no idea, but I still believe they were successful. 30 years later and thy are still on the market.
Cancelled? What is this, a tv show?
Mr. Céspedes they're not actually on "the verge of failure". they're going through an identity crisis right now, sure, but the sales of their MDX are still very good, and the introduction of a new NSX means that Honda is still willing to invest in their lux brand
Mr. Céspedes the legend never left. The RL = Refined Legend
These were the Golden years for Acura, when they only had the Legend and Integra. Two of the best cars you can buy !
I had a 1990 Legend. Haven't thought about that thing in years. I really loved it at the time.
Ah the 80s, when luxury meant having a 150hp+ V6, cruise control, adjustable seats, power windows, AC, and a sunroof.
krauser979 VELOUR!!!! :D
krauser979 Don't forget the cassette player.
itsmegp46 With equalizer!
NuclearPJF Bazinga!
So?
Today an asinine SUV which will be glitchy in a few years forcing you to change it... :)
ah...I just remembered my first car, the 2nd generation legend coupe...that baby got me so many girls in high school
My first car was an 89 Integra LS. Got it in 95 when I got my license. Same color as the one in the video. God, I loved that thing. The attitude at my school was still, hurr durr rice burner can't beat a Camaro. My response was, "Meet me in the curves"
earnedmystripes camaros were great in the curves as well. sheer size puts them at a disadvantage on the tightest turns but thats the case with all GTs of similar size.
2 years later but I still don't see a current model Integra.... They were overpriced Civics... and Civics are still overpriced themselves...
Nice one brother
We're rice burners even a thing in 95?
Acura: BRING BACK THE LEGEND!
radudeATL The Japanese Legend had much nicer styling I think (?).
Acura: GIVES US LEGEND SUV
I remember these suffered from blower motor issues and power antenna failures, I still see one now and again.
I’ve never really cared for Acura’s look/aesthetic, but I will say this...I still see some of these Legends around and they never look run-down.
Just bought a 87 legend with 236,500 miles (I'm the 3rd owner) and it still handles and drives amazing
I used to own an 1986 Acura Legend. I was a great car, and always ran and performed well.
we had one when I was a kid but I think it was an 89 or 90. I wonder if they updated the styling at all during this models run? It looks more dated now than I expected!
That Legend still looks good.
A rumored mid engine Acura? I love these retro reviews
Man i miss my Legend. 86 Acura Legend 5 speed. My first car. Got it when i was 17 back in 1999. I thought that thing was a race car😂
Shout out to the first gen Integra.
these vids can little automotive history lesson.
I love the blue interior!
I'm glad I stumbled across this; I miss my manual Laguna Gold Metallic 89 Integra LS.
OMG that two-tone Legend sitting in the studio looks freaking AWESOME. I really miss cars like this, especially Hondas of the period as Honda was really making great-looking designs back then. The late 80's Prelude and early 90's Accord come immediately to mind, but there's so many good ones.
Oh geez, that Integra looks great as well. God I miss pop-ups.
33 years later this guy is still doing motorweek
It's his baby.
Sure enjoy watching the old shows. John really tells it like well, it really is with cars and I would like to see him do some more of theses on current shows!
I had a 1985 Honda Integra. It was my 3rd car. It was the 3 door model with 5speed manual gear box and a sunroof. Those cars went and handled very will for their age. I just had two problems with mine. The sunroof always leaked when it rained and heater stopped working, which sucked during winter.
My dad had an ‘87 Integra before I was born. Had a manual transmission and he never modified it
would love to see video review of the handsome early '90s legend
bestpilot98 Yes! Those were quite the lookers.
Amazing what 10 years progress will do. I had a 96 Integra GSR and what a fun ride. When it was released in 1994 the DC2 model Integra GSR arguably started the "Sport Compact" craze of the 90s that eventually resulted in Fast and the Furious, etc. Nobody in 86 had any idea what was to come. Acura sorely needs a new Integra. Something hotter and a little more upscale than the Civic SI, yet still affordable. Actually that was what the original Integra was.
+Austin Frazier Im finding that out. They are just well built cars. Honda was never my thing. Iam partial to DSM, not JDM. However, I got a 90' Integra GS coupe in B-50m (Melbourne blue metallic) paint, and its been great as my first experience with JDM. Its got a cool, kinda silver looking paint with the blue interior. The car just drive on rails, your so low you really feel one with the car. I know its non-vtec, being the b18a1, but it drives so nice you don't even care its got 130hp. Would be cool to find a 92' with the b17. Those 94-01's were faster but the DA9 is a little "sexier" looking imo. Great cars.
Like he said in the video, the initial release Acuras had a feeling like upgraded Hondas. At the refresh (92?) when Honda saw the Toyota and Nissan luxury releases and knew what they were competing with they because cars of note.
When they were new I got the impression Honda wanted to keep customers a little longer who were jumping up to BMW or maybe a Mercedes 190.
The target market were people who had good memories of Hondas in college and were now professionals. They liked Honda, but wanted something that set them apart from their secretary.
Acura needs to bring back the Legend!
Its so nice to see two of the best name plates that Acura ever had. Anyone ever notice that ever since Acura decided to be more like the Euro market and dumped the names and just went to letters, their cars have gotten more and more ugly and their sales have plummeted. Maybe its time to revamp the entire line and bring back cars like the Legend and Integra. Acura and Honda imo is in a downward spiral these last 10 to 15 years, I could care less what they make now a days. So sad, they were so good:(
+Acc0rd79 I was just coming to that same conclusion too, I honestly don't find their current line up that attractive much in my opinion and the three letter model names are confusing. Its very probable their sales will pick up the day they use the name plates Integra and Legend again.
Yes agree
they make some of the most ugly boring car models the last decade or so....really lost their way
+Acc0rd79 they need a revamp badly!
Matt Whitmire for sure, the letter thing was the beginning of the downhill trend for Acura. Look at where they are now, Acura would win award after award in the 90's, why the hell change your style to be more Euro? Oh well, they make nothing but ugly cars today that never win anything.
I had a 88 2dr Legend. There was so much I loved about it and some I hated, but IMO it wasn't the car's fault. Mine was an automatic and it had 130K when I got it. I admittedly drove the piss out of it. The 2.7 motor really ran sweet, but after a while the cylinder head design put more heat to the valve guide seals than they were designed to handle over time. That resulted in a motor that smoked enough to make it a calculated tweek endeavor come emissions testing time. About the same time the transmission decided it didn't need 2nd gear anymore and last three more years before the transmission went tits-up. Either way, it was fun and I didn't pay waste anything on it. Hell when it was done, it still had the original fuel pump, water pump, and all the other accessories. I had it till 186K and I forgot; I did replace the alternator at around 150K. If I had been smart enough to find one with a manual transmission; I believe I could still have that car. Sorry for the novel.
I had an 89 two door 5 speed legend. That thing hauled a$$!
Still see a good number of these on the road today. Hard to beat Japanese quality and workmanship. The Legend looks smaller than a current Accord! Great video MW..thank you!
I had a 1987 Acura Integra and it was a great car. I miss it sometimes. It was fun to drive and it was great on gas with. 5 speed manual transmission. Great car.
Damn I miss the days when manuals where 2 seconds quicker than autos.
Love seeing my old Legend. Thanks! Please publish the test on the Prelude!
Engines sure were prettier in the 80s and 90's.
The plastic now makes no sense. So dumb, wasteful, ugly
Agreed. Plastic engine covers covers are so ugly!
I still own a 1988 Acura Legend in great shape.
Motorweek is the only car review company that does reviews anywhere NEAR this exhaustive and in depth. It's crazy how a 31 year old car review has such a superior format to reviews today.. Most other car reviews seem more like half-assed sales pitch than an in depth review like these guys do.
But the show isn't produced like this anymore. Not really the same level of being in-depth.
Gangster ass car back in the day.
"Future Acura products, including a rumored mid-engine sports car, will be more divorced from lower-rung Hondas."
You got the NSX right... however, you didn't see the EL (rebadged Civic) coming.
Dan McCarthy Or CSX, ILX.
the EL was created only for canada
+kuruptzZz True. It was still a rebadged Civic though.
In the tradition of the Beaumont and Meteor.
2nd gen EL one of the best cars made, more like where civic should have been headed in refinement and surprising power and quality.
I really like these retro reviews. If you happen to have any more RX7 videos that would be awesome, but I watch them all anyway so keep them coming.
I enjoy watching the throw back car reviews.
Thank you motor week!! Another great classic video, cool Acura!!
The 1986 Legend was my first car.
Troy Sanchez mines was a 86 Z28 $900
AE86, Integra, MR2, CRX....fun cars back in the day. Loved RWD Toyotas
Have you seen that Intial D movie on Netflix? Its all about the AE86 and its a story about this dude drifting it on the windy roads of japan
Had a red '87 Integra LS when I was in high school in 1998. It was really fun to drive and a nice car. This brings back good memories!
For 1989 and 1990, All Legend cars got a standard driver's airbag. At that point, the L and LS versions received standard anti-lock brakes.
Mine still runs hahah. As well as my CRX. Japan surely made quality its top concern across all manufacturers. My 89 CRX had its factory front rotors from and plug wires and dizzy even upon purchase. No electrical faults and so on. Same with my Legend.
Nice velour interior. It looks like some mafia wive's wardrobe was used to make those seats.
Everyone of those "luxury features" I had on my 1986 Honda accord lol.
Beautiful Acura Legend e Integra 1986, great and confortables cars
There's a guy near my work with an white '87 Integra. I'm very tempted to leave a note on it whenever I have space for another car
Been waiting for the first integra for ages, thanks!
these would be too old for me to contemplate but what i would do for one of the last ones ever made.not a lot sadly exist on the second hand market though.it's a cheap way into something sporty for similar money to crappy dull micro cars.
A year later in the Acura Legend, the 2.5L V6 engine would be upgraded to 2.7L producing 161 HP and 162 lb-ft. torque. The two door LS coupe was a blast to drive and had plenty of room in the back seats. I loved that car.
I thought the first generation Legend coupe was a looker. Sort of s poor man's BMW 6 series.
Kevin MacNutt Yes dude
Yeah I have an 89 coupe
love it
still going strong and pretty powerful
gets lots of stares too 😊
More like a "smart man's BMW 6 series" 😉
大変貴重な動画をアップロードしていただきありがとうございます。日本人ですが、アキュラが設立された当初の動画は初めて見ました。
Here in the UK, we took the Legend, made it a bit better looking, took out all the reliable Honda bits, replaced them with British Leyland junk and got the crappy Rover 800.
I remember being very sad in 95 when they announced that they would not be selling the legend anymore so I had went down to the dealer on my birthday and spotted mine a 1995 Acura legend a pretty sleek black 5 speed with tan interior and I was oh so in love I believe it was a GS I took her for a test drive and I asked for the price it was 13,500 and some change and I was appeased I went to the bank took 3000$ out put down on the car and financed my payment was like 75$ a month because credit wasn’t so widely used in the 90s and I still have it 211,000 miles on it and running like a champ my baby
I had an '88 Integra, the same blue as the one in the video. Fun to drive, but things were pretty worn out and it leaked every fluid known to man.
The fun part was the cassette. When it got to the middle of the tape, it got confused and would just go back and forth.
My 1988 Legend's cassette deck does (did) the same thing! Until I replaced it with a double-din eBay 7" screen stereo.
So it even leaked semen???
Had a 1987 Acura Legend. Loved it :)
I had a slightly used '87 integra through college. It was good, and refined, stick with smooth reving to redline. The a/c was not nearly strong enough for all that glass. Not to mention Arizona. It was a fun car. But so much a civic with roll up windows and basics. In 1997 I bought an 1988 legend also a stick with 130,000 miles. Kept it 6 years? it needed a bit of work here and there, anywhile not the most fun to drive it did well on the highway. With 4 of us in the car I passed everyone up the mountains between Yuma and San Diego. It had sort of lousy front seats, The back seats were very comfortable. Driving to Las Vegas the speedo indicated 120. It was very good in a straight line.
The review is a bit funny that Acura was a big hit, and now they really are lost or trying to regain what they once had.
PLEASE DO THE 1989-1994 Nissan maxima!
They have one for the '89 SE, I watched it awhile back.
If you have $17 you can just buy one yourself and you won't need to watch a review of it.
The Legend became a lot more atractive in the 2nd generation, but the Integra was a hit from the first time! There was only a thin niche inbetween the market for the Honda Prelude (a 2 + 2 coupe with the +2 hardly worth mentioning) and the Honda Accord coupe (a by Japanees standards rather big 5 seater coupe) but the Integra fitted the gap remarkably well. It had a decent size back seat, offered the ride of the Prelude and had an engine that gave it performances on pair with the bigger engines found in the Prelude and the Accord.
And they all 3 had pop up headlights, but somehow I always found the Integra to have the best looking front end of the 3.
Doktor Hachi Roku it was! I am from Belgium and my dad used to have a g1 integra. had a Different engine than the usa ones tough. The Civic 1.5 carburator
Flemisch region so I speak dutch ;)
Well we are with 6 miljon People, not bad for such a limited amount of lebensraum ;)
I have the impression you Germans like or small coast as much as we like your vast mountain woods ;-)
Can't recall any car named Vivo and i know Most 80s and 90s Cars. Maybe it was rebrand ?
My dad had a '90 Integra GS-R, and that was a pretty cool car, though by then no pop-up headlights. Some similar things to be found like the folding rear seats and such. Then he traded it in for a '93 Vigor LS which him and then eventually the rest of use drove the wheels off of. Those cars were damn tough and reliable going through all those winters, trips out to the farm daily...and even at times, out to the field. Only negative was some rust on the body after about 15 years or so. I rarely see them or Legends anymore. Eric the Car Guy is the only other person I know of with one. Had about 540,000 kms on it before my brother wrote it off. He was fine and car started afterwards, but it was a loss :(
Legend has it! It became a legend today!👋😂👍
86 silver/ brown legend was my first car and I miss it!!!
My dad had an acura integra like that one as his first car. He said he loved it and I see why.
The first gen integra motor as well as the jdm ZC versions were an interesting series of engines. Essentially, they were both the predecessor to B series and the only D series engines to have dual cams. These motors and B series were designed by the same Formula 1 engineers that also participated in the NSX program, which was vaguely mentioned in the video. Make no mistake, the Acura Integra had race heritage from the first day it was released in the US, which extends thirty years later into today's Honda tuner culture.
1989 Integra 3Dr LS was my first car.
Didn't realize how good it was, until I got rid of it.
One of my all time favorites
I would like to see reviews of vintage Mazda 626, Infiniti G20t, Dodge Omni GLH Turbo, BMW M3 Sedan, Nissan Sentra SER and Merkur XR4TI. Great job Retro Motorweek, you rock!
I Love the Acura Legend & the Acura Integra!
I miss does fancy chrome body liners. Cars these days are just plastic bubbles!😨😭
those legend have the best transmission you ever seen in your life time.. great cars i miss it..
I have wanted a first generation Integra since I saw Chow Yun-Fat flog one around the hills of Hong Kong in The Killer. The car was a white sedan and I thought it just looked too cool. I can't imagine there are many of them left though.
Acura is returning the Integra!
Integra still driving an 89 everyday like it better than my 05 RSX S
Yards and yards of blue velour!
I remember looking at the Integras at the dealership after I started university in Fall 1988. There was a special all-white 3-door model coming in but it was already sold. The salesman told me the 5-door with sunroof wouldn't pass federal crash testing--although I had/have no way of verifying that statement.
As much as I wanted one of these when they came out (which was pretty badly!), today I would rather have the Quint model with the trunk on it.
Joey Baby SO MUCH BLUE VELOUR AHHHHHHH
IIRC the 5-door/sunroof combo was on offer later in the run.
Quint model was somewhat quaint!
@@nlpnt that's what i thought, too...but after they got rid of the pop-up headlights, i lost interest
The Legend looked like an overgrown Accord.
“Rumored mid-engined sports car…” if only they knew then that the NSX was on the way.
funny thought, I still prefer the sterling 827 version that had more luxury. However those bumpers seem to always scratch easy and parking light would break.
joe ly agreed! and the 827 reminded me of an "updated sd1" =)
I love the Rover 800 (Sterling in the US) but they really ruined it in the States by rushing it into production and selling a whole serie of cars that should had been used for testing only.
They were still a huge improvement over English cars made just a couple of years earlier (hardly any SD1 was build the way it should had been build), but Americans just had no compassion for an expensive luxury car that had pieces of its interior falling off and rain pooring in through the seeling.
Things in Europa were finally settled when Honda got involved in rovers production management and the later Rover 800s offered realiability and durability of BMW standards. But for America it was too late.
Great cars!
dawn of the glory days for acura.
I wonder what the 3/5dr split for the Integra was. It had a lot more competition as a coupe, the only 5-doors in its' segment were the VW Golf GT and Dodge Lancer/Chrysler LeBaron GTS and even when you add in four-door sedans it still wasn't a crowded field for cars that size that were above fully-loaded econoboxes but still well below a BMW 3 series or Saab 900.
"A rumored mid engine sports car" oh man they only had the slightest clue what Honda was cooking up
I love this car!
I really can't believe that Honda was able to produce a successful luxury brand... with these two cars.
Nice cars and nice car names unlike today's acronym Acura models
nice post
Two cars that I wish Honda/Acura would bring back.
I almost had a Integra but went with a Prelude. I showed interest in both. I walked away the guy called me back. I made a offer and got the car pretty cheap. The guy said the car was sitting on the lot too long anyways. 3 mos later the rack and pinion broke. Other than that it had no other problems for the 3 or so years i owned it.
Great cars!!!!
The Integra's 1.6l bested the 1.8l turbo engine that Subaru was making at the time in horsepower. (The EA82T makes significantly more torque, though, but it's still pretty impressive)
I bought my first Acura in 1991. It was a red '87 Integra RS 3 door with a manual transmission. I LOVED that car!! Only had it a couple of years and someone rear ended me and knocked me into the car in front of me. The car was totaled. Replaced it with an '88 Honda Prelude Si 4WS and drove various Hondas after that until 2008 when I got my second Acura. I purchased a silver '05 TL. Followed by an '07 TL Navi, a '10 TSX V6 Tech, a '12 TL Advance, a '13 TL Advance and currently have a '16 TLX Advance. Needless to say, I love Acuras. My next one will likely be an '18 TLX A-Spec which I hope to buy towards the end of 2019 or first of 2020.
My first car was the 87 Integra 5 door manual. Then I left the Acura fold for a while, and returned to buy a TSX Wagon. No manual, but the 5 doors and luxury appointments make it feel like a grown up Integra.
I’m on my second Acura, a ‘12 TL AWD Advance. Before that I had an ‘09 TSX manual. Definitely good purchases, both of them. I’ve had a couple TLX loaners, and I don’t like them as much as I do my TL.
Reluctantly, I have to agree with you on the TLX versus the TL. I do like my TLX. There are features about it that trump my '13 TL. The fuel economy is a huge plus. It certainly looks better but if I'm being totally honest the driving dynamics are simply inferior to the TL. The TLX is my eighth Acura and I've owned it now for 3 months. I have to confess that after 3 months, I'm still thinking about and missing my '13 TL. This is the first time after purchasing a car that I've genuinely missed my former car after this much time. Usually, after a couple of weeks I've adapted and have fully embraced my new ride. Like I said, I don't hate my TLX at all. There are things about it I really like but I haven't fallen for it like I have with almost all of my former cars. I do look forward to buying an A-Spec trim in a little over a year from now. I think it addresses some of things I feel a bit lackluster about in my '16. I don't regret buying the TLX. I just miss my TL.
Fast forward. I ended up keeping my TLX longer than I thought I would. Sold it one year ago and replaced it with a ‘20 Honda Accord Touring 2.0T. Love this car. Now it’s April of ‘22 and Acura has revived the Integra, which will be for sale in June of ‘22. Looking forward to seeing what they will do with the Type S version of the new Integra. They might coax me back to the Acura fold if they do it justice. I am still very fond of Acuras.
33 years later, still around! :)
One of the best cars ever made. It was my mom's. V-Tec kicked in yo!
Had the 1989 Acura legend L and the 1991 acura legend and 1992 acura vigor and 1992 honda accord and 2003 acura tl
WOW LOL I never thought a sedan grocery getter with fliplights would exist
9 seconds was "spirited" back then haha. thats like a prius today