Bargain Barge - 1999 Honda Legend 3.5 V6
Discussion
OK so I posted some of this in the bargain barge thread, but I was looking for some help / advice with a couple of things, so I thought I would make a thread for my new wheels here.
As a bit of background I've just bought my first home and I'm also getting married in less than 2 months, so with lots of saving to do cars have had to take a back seat, so I'd been driving around in a horrible little Fiat Punto for the last 11 months. It was my in my family from new though, so at least I knew it's history. Anyway the head gasket went on that but the mechanic who had serviced it for the last 10 years said he'd take it and gave me £250 for it, which I thought was an absolute result for an 02 plate Punto with 97,000 miles! So I unexpectedly needed a new car and was thinking max £500, so with the £250 in my pocket, max £750.
I'd been regularly stalking the classifieds and was going to go an see a VW Bora V5 at the beginning of last week, but there was too much of a story with that one (basically the seller was Irish and a fan of caravans if you catch my drift) and it seemed suspiciously cheap. So having decided to give it a miss feeling a bit flat on the train home from work I put in 3.0 and above on autotrader, max budget £1,000 (no £750 option) and had a look what came up, which was mostly lots of knackered old Jags with no MOT's but suddenly I saw a lovely dark green Honda Legend, less than 13 miles away from me for £895 from a small dealers.
I phoned first thing the next morning, and the dealer was a nice old boy who was upfront about a rear light being broken from a bit of a knock, but that otherwise it was a one owner car and in good order. Apparently a guy from Manchester had already agreed to come down at the weekend, so I knew I needed to move fast and went to see it that evening (with my very reluctant Dad as I needed a lift). I did a HPI check on the way which confirmed it really was one owner from new with no alerts / thefts etc. It was pissing down with rain, cold and miserable but it drove fine and I loved it. It was up for £895 and I wanted to knock more money off for the lights - both needed replacing, one urgently as water was coming in to the boot but the savvy old guy knew it was the cheapest Legend in the country so the best I could get was £850. We shook hands on that and he gave me no less than 4 keys! a red one still in it's packet, a valet key and two keys with remote fobs, one of which had clearly never been used. Also included was the original sales invoice for £32,000 in 1999, which was settled in full with cash!
So here are the pictures from the ad note the rear lights, the left with a crack / mould in the middle and the right totally buggered! Otherwise though the bodywork was in good condition and there was no rust anywhere.
As a bit of background I've just bought my first home and I'm also getting married in less than 2 months, so with lots of saving to do cars have had to take a back seat, so I'd been driving around in a horrible little Fiat Punto for the last 11 months. It was my in my family from new though, so at least I knew it's history. Anyway the head gasket went on that but the mechanic who had serviced it for the last 10 years said he'd take it and gave me £250 for it, which I thought was an absolute result for an 02 plate Punto with 97,000 miles! So I unexpectedly needed a new car and was thinking max £500, so with the £250 in my pocket, max £750.
I'd been regularly stalking the classifieds and was going to go an see a VW Bora V5 at the beginning of last week, but there was too much of a story with that one (basically the seller was Irish and a fan of caravans if you catch my drift) and it seemed suspiciously cheap. So having decided to give it a miss feeling a bit flat on the train home from work I put in 3.0 and above on autotrader, max budget £1,000 (no £750 option) and had a look what came up, which was mostly lots of knackered old Jags with no MOT's but suddenly I saw a lovely dark green Honda Legend, less than 13 miles away from me for £895 from a small dealers.
I phoned first thing the next morning, and the dealer was a nice old boy who was upfront about a rear light being broken from a bit of a knock, but that otherwise it was a one owner car and in good order. Apparently a guy from Manchester had already agreed to come down at the weekend, so I knew I needed to move fast and went to see it that evening (with my very reluctant Dad as I needed a lift). I did a HPI check on the way which confirmed it really was one owner from new with no alerts / thefts etc. It was pissing down with rain, cold and miserable but it drove fine and I loved it. It was up for £895 and I wanted to knock more money off for the lights - both needed replacing, one urgently as water was coming in to the boot but the savvy old guy knew it was the cheapest Legend in the country so the best I could get was £850. We shook hands on that and he gave me no less than 4 keys! a red one still in it's packet, a valet key and two keys with remote fobs, one of which had clearly never been used. Also included was the original sales invoice for £32,000 in 1999, which was settled in full with cash!
So here are the pictures from the ad note the rear lights, the left with a crack / mould in the middle and the right totally buggered! Otherwise though the bodywork was in good condition and there was no rust anywhere.
Edited by rossi1001 on Sunday 6th December 23:16
There is an easy way to describe the handling - American! It's has pretty soft suspension and you definitely don't want to be taking a roundabout or sharp turn in it too fast, but the fun is in hitting the pedal in a straight line once you're out of the corner, that's what it excels at. Cruising is so relaxed. It's a joy to drive after a horrible Punto which always gave me backache, this thing is more comfortably than my sofa at home!
Mileage is 94,000 and MPG is pretty poor - I haven't worked it out yet (no trip computer!) but I reckon high teens at the most around town. It's running slightly rich though, so I'm hoping a good full service might help with that a bit. The engine makes a lovely noise though and it does really shift - especially when you're already moving so like 30-70mph for example.
In terms of period (1999) gadgets, in working order are....
heated seats,
electric memory seats,
heated electrically adjustable mirrors,
automatic climate control (and the fan is insane - top speed is like a hurricane inside your car!),
rear screen demister,
radio & CD changer (in the boot and it sounds great too!),
steering wheel audio controls,
cruise control,
powered adjusting steering wheel (which moves up and out of way when you turn the engine off - coooool)
cup holder spring out thing,
Both sets of remote central locking key fobs, including boot opener (the dealer said it didn't work but he didn't realise you have to hold it for a couple of seconds),
electric sunshine roof,
even the vanity mirror lights work, so overall pretty good!
It's not perfect though and not working is the rear passenger side window (doesn't close without some manual assistance, so won't be opening that again!) and a couple of buttons don't light up (Steering wheel ones, 2 of the 4 window switches on drivers door, and the Hazard light button), but that's being incredibly picky. EDIT I'm not sure the steering wheel buttons actually do light up? Can anyone confirm this (so audio controls on the left and cruise buttons on the right).
Slightly more worrying was a loud screeching noise from the rear wheel one time last week, but it stopped as soon as I touched the brake pedal so guess it's a caliper sticking or wedged with a stone in it or something. The other thing that's bothering me is when you give it some welly, the auto box gives a bit of a crunch between 1st and 2nd, but in normal driving it doesn't do it, so I take it easy for now from a standstill. It's not a charging round town sort of car anyway to be fair.
I'm putting it in for a full service tomorrow though with a mechanic I trust so I'll get him to look at these bits.
I'm absolutely over the moon with it, and gave it a good external clean at the weekend. With some help from my dad and £90 spent at the scrappy I got some new lights and we managed to fix these. The right one was tough though as the knock the car had, had actually moved the mountings slightly meaning it was sticking out. A hammer soon fixed that though and thankfully it's now watertight and dry. The boot has a big tray on the right hand side and when we lifted that out we found a good three inches of water in the metal tray underneath!!! Thankfully no rust though and it won't fill up again now. It means the light must have been broken like that for a very long time though.
Oh and couple more pictures after fixing the lights - better ones will follow once i've done some more polishing / properly cleaned the interior. Oh and if anyone has any tips for where I can find some very specific interior bulbs please let me know! I found the link below which is hugely helpful in terms of installation, but the part numbers quoted have been useless with suppliers I've tried so far. I need to replace the bulbs in the gear selector on the centre console, the 'hi' 'lo' buttons on the heated seats (the seat logo themselves lights up but it's 3 separate bulbs - mad!) and the lights on the drivers window buttons are dead apart from the rear two window buttons. Can't find anything online for that. Most other lights are good though as shown!
http://www.acuraworld.com/forums/f40/how-replace-b...
Mileage is 94,000 and MPG is pretty poor - I haven't worked it out yet (no trip computer!) but I reckon high teens at the most around town. It's running slightly rich though, so I'm hoping a good full service might help with that a bit. The engine makes a lovely noise though and it does really shift - especially when you're already moving so like 30-70mph for example.
In terms of period (1999) gadgets, in working order are....
heated seats,
electric memory seats,
heated electrically adjustable mirrors,
automatic climate control (and the fan is insane - top speed is like a hurricane inside your car!),
rear screen demister,
radio & CD changer (in the boot and it sounds great too!),
steering wheel audio controls,
cruise control,
powered adjusting steering wheel (which moves up and out of way when you turn the engine off - coooool)
cup holder spring out thing,
Both sets of remote central locking key fobs, including boot opener (the dealer said it didn't work but he didn't realise you have to hold it for a couple of seconds),
electric sunshine roof,
even the vanity mirror lights work, so overall pretty good!
It's not perfect though and not working is the rear passenger side window (doesn't close without some manual assistance, so won't be opening that again!) and a couple of buttons don't light up (Steering wheel ones, 2 of the 4 window switches on drivers door, and the Hazard light button), but that's being incredibly picky. EDIT I'm not sure the steering wheel buttons actually do light up? Can anyone confirm this (so audio controls on the left and cruise buttons on the right).
Slightly more worrying was a loud screeching noise from the rear wheel one time last week, but it stopped as soon as I touched the brake pedal so guess it's a caliper sticking or wedged with a stone in it or something. The other thing that's bothering me is when you give it some welly, the auto box gives a bit of a crunch between 1st and 2nd, but in normal driving it doesn't do it, so I take it easy for now from a standstill. It's not a charging round town sort of car anyway to be fair.
I'm putting it in for a full service tomorrow though with a mechanic I trust so I'll get him to look at these bits.
I'm absolutely over the moon with it, and gave it a good external clean at the weekend. With some help from my dad and £90 spent at the scrappy I got some new lights and we managed to fix these. The right one was tough though as the knock the car had, had actually moved the mountings slightly meaning it was sticking out. A hammer soon fixed that though and thankfully it's now watertight and dry. The boot has a big tray on the right hand side and when we lifted that out we found a good three inches of water in the metal tray underneath!!! Thankfully no rust though and it won't fill up again now. It means the light must have been broken like that for a very long time though.
Oh and couple more pictures after fixing the lights - better ones will follow once i've done some more polishing / properly cleaned the interior. Oh and if anyone has any tips for where I can find some very specific interior bulbs please let me know! I found the link below which is hugely helpful in terms of installation, but the part numbers quoted have been useless with suppliers I've tried so far. I need to replace the bulbs in the gear selector on the centre console, the 'hi' 'lo' buttons on the heated seats (the seat logo themselves lights up but it's 3 separate bulbs - mad!) and the lights on the drivers window buttons are dead apart from the rear two window buttons. Can't find anything online for that. Most other lights are good though as shown!
http://www.acuraworld.com/forums/f40/how-replace-b...
Edited by rossi1001 on Sunday 6th December 23:41
Edited by rossi1001 on Sunday 6th December 23:43
liner33 said:
I believe the Legend shares many parts with the Rover 800 but the rear end does have a Mercedes look about it
Yes the original model (1985-1990) was a joint venture with rover but later versions were not and this is the third generation model (rover carried on alone with the original apparently). Credit to wiki! Have a feeling that those bulbs are quite expensive from a Honda dealer, Rover used the same.
It is a wire - ended bulb, with the wires 'wrapped around' the holder, and covered with a rubber filter to give the correct colour.
I had a Rover and ended up dismantling the holder and installing a new bulb like this one http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/12v-096w-wire-ended-fila...
wrapping the wires back around the holder.
It is a wire - ended bulb, with the wires 'wrapped around' the holder, and covered with a rubber filter to give the correct colour.
I had a Rover and ended up dismantling the holder and installing a new bulb like this one http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/12v-096w-wire-ended-fila...
wrapping the wires back around the holder.
Thank you for the tips and the maplin link with the bulbs. Might have to give that a try but I will try Honda as well.
Just called my dad (he's taking me to the mechanics house to pick it up tonight) and apparently the mechanic said it's a good car and I've done well. No rust anywhere even underneath
. Needs new rear discs and pads but other than that nothing else. Gearbox fluid was good apparently so I guess just need to put up with the slight grinding or remember to only give it the beans once in 2nd!
Just called my dad (he's taking me to the mechanics house to pick it up tonight) and apparently the mechanic said it's a good car and I've done well. No rust anywhere even underneath
. Needs new rear discs and pads but other than that nothing else. Gearbox fluid was good apparently so I guess just need to put up with the slight grinding or remember to only give it the beans once in 2nd! Edited by rossi1001 on Monday 7th December 19:16
SVX said:
These are criminally under valued...
Market for large cars = SmallMarket for petrol engined saloons = Small
Market for non-premium brands = Small
Market for large petrol engined non-premium saloons = Zero.
That said...
The newer model Leg-End looks pretty good and I believe they are all 4wd, just think of it as a more bargy Impreza/Evo
Podie said:
Reminds me of the Lexus LS400 for some reason.
Seems a lot of car for the money - interested to see how you get on.
I agree it definitely looks a bit similar and I would guess it's a similar size. I've had to give up my old usual spot at the station as this thing is just too big for that little corner of the car park! Seems a lot of car for the money - interested to see how you get on.
I'll keep the thread updated and will post more pictures when I have finished valeting / polishing it up properly. Though I doubt that will be before Xmas now as I'm in the process of moving house and just don't have the weekend time spare right now sadly.
Truckosaurus said:
SVX said:
These are criminally under valued...
Market for large cars = SmallMarket for petrol engined saloons = Small
Market for non-premium brands = Small
Market for large petrol engined non-premium saloons = Zero.
That said...
The newer model Leg-End looks pretty good and I believe they are all 4wd, just think of it as a more bargy Impreza/Evo
I like the replacement Legend they ran to (I think) 2009. It's very different and much more modern than this car. I'll be looking to change again in perhaps a years time and I'm aiming to have £5-£6k to spend. I'll definitely take a look at the replacement Legend but also keen on the 2.3 Turbo petrol Mazda Cx7. Both have nice examples for that money today so that should be less in another year.
So got down to an almost empty tank at the weekend. Checked the mileage to work out the mpg as there is no trip computer.
I can see why there isn't one now as very approximately it's returned an average mpg of about 14-15!!
Half of that was before the service though so hopefully it might improve a little. I was hoping for late teens to early 20's, d'oh!
I can see why there isn't one now as very approximately it's returned an average mpg of about 14-15!!
Half of that was before the service though so hopefully it might improve a little. I was hoping for late teens to early 20's, d'oh!
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