All the driven wheels in the world can't make up for the Legend’s lardy kerb weight, or its shortage of low-range torque, when accelerating from a standstill. It adopts a rather unhurried step-off on its way to 60mph in 7.3sec. That's bang on Honda's claim, but still slower than almost all of its rivals.
You have to work the Legend’s V6 hard to extract the best from it. As long as you're prepared to do that, it’ll get to 100mph in a more respectable 18.1sec. That’s more than a second quicker than an Audi A6 3.2 quattro, but still a couple of tenths behind a Lexus GS300.
The Legend's performance seems less questionable on the road, though.
Provided you can tolerate its slightly anodyne electrically assisted
steering, keep the crankshaft spinning above 3500rpm, and you don't expect miracles of its willing but ultimately undisciplined chassis, you can derive a great deal of pleasure from the Legend as a sports saloon.
Honda’s trick drivetrain gives the Legend confidence-inspiring
high-speed stability, both in a straight line and in a corner. If you’re in the mood for entertainment, you can simply commit this car to a swooping corner and marvel as it sends the lion’s share of the power exactly where required: to the outside rear wheel. This dials out even the merest sniff of mid-corner understeer, but without kicking the car into an unwanted slide.
The best place to enjoy that surprising cornering ability is on a flat road free of the kind of crests and troughs that unsettle its relatively soft chassis. Smaller intrusions are handled without too much impact on your comfort or enjoyment, but over larger ones the Legend's vertical body control falls noticeably short, allowing an unsettling degree of body float.