I think my affection for Japanese luxury coupes began when I first saw this commercial for Acura's new for 1987 Acura Legend coupe. While it seems like old hat today, this spot was revolutionary since luxury cars weren't marketed as performance cars back then. How could they, y'know? Sure, BMW's, Mercedes' and even Audi's, to a certain degree, were hawked as being more than just luxury cars, but their performance potential was never flaunted as openly as Honda attempted to peg what their new Legend coupe could do. The old farts at GM, Ford must have spit up their lobster bisque when they first saw these ads.
That gastro-intestinal distress brought on by a gussied up Honda Accord coupe? Yup. And one with a single overhead cam, 24 valve V-6 making all of 151 horsepower; our 1990 here made 177 from a slightly larger engine. Ah, such is the power of marketing. What can I say. Worked on me.
To sweeten the deal, Honda pushed these out the showroom door with a sticker that not only undercut BMW and Mercedes but also what GM and Ford sold their Eldorado and Mark VII at. To make matters even more eye brow raising was that this car really didn't do anything better than what an Accord could do. An Accord that cost upwards of seven grand less. Such was the power of Honda back then that if they said that an Acura was better we believed it.
In hindsight, seriously, who the hell did Honda think they were passing this off as a sports/performance car costing thousands more than what it was based on not to mention having the hubris to name it, "Legend"? Well, again, we have to understand just how fantastic Honda's image was in the '80's. Especially compared to what many Americans, particularly yuppies, thought of just about everything The Big Three were shilling. Especially the old fart mobiles Cadillac and Lincoln parlayed.
Honda's were like that A+ student back in school who was also quarterback and captain of the football team, got all the girls and to make matters worse, was also the greatest guy in the world whom you actually really liked. Like that all American, Honda's were impossible to not like and people willingly paid more for them and whole heartedly believed they were getting a bargain compared to what they'd pay for German makes and models. Cadillac's and Lincoln's? Please. They were like that dopey rich kid who thought they were hooked up because their family was well off. Acura changed the luxury car paradigm forever.
The first generation Acura Legend wasn't perfect and it's being alone in the Japanese luxury car lane was short lived. Both Toyota and Nissan launched luxury brands of their own within three years that for all intents and purposes usurped any ground Acura may have gained on the far more expensive makes and models from Europe. Note I didn't mention anything about the slush buckets from GM or Ford. I don't mention Chrysler because they really didn't have anything that could be construed as a luxury anything.
So, if anything, Acura gets a lot of credit for being the first Japanese luxury car brand even if Lexus and Infiniti trounced it soon after it was introduced. Remarkably, although they've arguably misstepped repeatedly since, Honda has been able to hold onto the brand and "Acura" still means something good after all these years. Although, it is a bit of a head scratcher as to why Honda never came after Lexus and Infiniti with larger, rear wheel drive, V-8 powered smoothies of their own.
Acura replaced the first generation Legend in 1991 with a substantially larger automobile that had a chassis unique to North American applications. Interestingly, Acura dropped the "Legend" nameplate in 1996 and started using a Germanesque alfa numeric naming scheme; and one that's never made sense. "Legend" has it that Acura dropped the Legend nameplate in '96, replacing it with "RL", under the auspice that it had become bigger than the entire Acura make.
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