Honda Legend review: the flagship Honda never replaced, now a used-market gamble
3.4/5motorssouq Editorial Team
The Legend is a fascinating used buy for someone who understands exactly what they are taking on: SH-AWD, adaptive cruise, and Collision Mitigation Braking were remarkable engineering for a 2006 sedan, and the driving experience — a genuinely quick, planted, all-weather V6 grand tourer — still holds up. What does not hold up easily is ownership cost once any of that complex electronics or the AWD hardware needs attention outside a shrinking specialist network, so this is a car for a buyer with a trusted independent Honda specialist already lined up, not a first used-luxury purchase.
Pros
- SH-AWD delivers genuinely composed handling for a large luxury sedan
- 3.5L VTEC V6 is smooth and gives real pace at nearly 1,800 kg
- Collision Mitigation Braking and adaptive cruise were remarkable for a 2006 car
- Cheap to buy relative to the technology and performance on offer
Cons
- Dealer parts support for this niche model has largely dried up in Bahrain
- Ageing driver-assist electronics are costly to diagnose and repair when they fail
- Small independent-specialist network across the Gulf
- Resale is thin — this is a hold-for-love, not a hold-for-value car
The KB1/KB2 Legend was Honda's answer to the question of what a flagship sedan could be without an Acura badge to lean on, and the engineering team clearly used the opportunity. Super Handling All-Wheel Drive actively vectors torque between the rear wheels mid-corner rather than simply splitting it front to rear, giving the Legend a poise through fast sweepers that most all-wheel-drive sedans of its era could not match. The 3.5-litre VTEC V6 is smooth, revs cleanly to its power peak, and gives the car genuine pace for a near-1,800 kg luxury sedan.
Ahead of its time, for better and worse
Collision Mitigation Braking and adaptive cruise control were genuinely novel fitments on a 2006 production car, years before they became segment-standard. That same ambition is the ownership risk today: this is early-generation driver-assist hardware and software, now nearly two decades old, on a car built in far smaller numbers than any comparable Lexus or Mercedes of the period. When a radar module or a SH-AWD component needs replacing, the parts hunt is real.
What ownership actually looks like in Bahrain
Honda's Bahrain dealer network no longer stocks Legend-specific parts as a matter of course, and the car's low sales volume in period means fewer donor vehicles exist regionally than for a contemporary Accord or Camry. A handful of independent workshops with genuine Legend experience exist in the Gulf, and finding one before you buy, not after something breaks, is the difference between a rewarding ownership experience and an expensive one. Fuel consumption around 12 L/100 km in mixed driving is honest for the performance on offer, and resale values reflect the car's niche status — expect to buy cheap and sell for not much less, provided the electronics have been kept healthy.