New to me Legend

[boydy]

Hi folks,

 

Yesterday I purchased a 1997 Legend saloon, one owner from new and 63k genuine miles.

 

A whole 16 days of MOT left..... Does need a bit of fettling but what a machine!

 

Tom

[Trevor]

Fantastic car back in the day and hope you bring her back to her former glory

Parts can be an issue to source so any opportunity to acquire spares is definitely advisable

[boydy]

[Trevor]

Fine looking machine!

How did it get on with the MOT test?

[boydy]

Sorry, just got back on here!

 

Sailed through it's MOT with no advisories i'm pleased to say 🙂

[boydy]

Right....... A bit of history of said LEGend....

Vehicle was originally purchased new from B & H Motors, 1460 High Road, London.

First registered 8th August 1997 to the gentleman I purchased the car from on 15th October 2024, so some 27 years in the same ownership.

Colour is Eucalyptus Pearl green (colour code G-83P) with Black leather interior. Spec of these are pretty good, 4 electric windows ( 2 of them work but we will come back to that later), electric sunroof, climate control, 6 disc cd changer, heated front seats, remote central locking, plenty of airbags, traction control, cruise control etc. Which for a ’97 model car I don’t think is to bad.

It’s got service history right from its PDI on 7th August 1997, first service carried out 21st August 1998 with 4167 miles, next on the 18th September 1999 with 10149 miles, 7th August 2000 with 16588 miles to include coolant and brake fluid change, 4th August 2001 with 22296 miles, 20th July 2002 with 28028 miles to include coolant change, brake fluid change and cambelt, 4th August 2003 with 36302 miles, 21st July 2004 with 40635 miles, 19th July 2007 with 45599 miles, 23rd July 2008 with 46628 miles, 28th July 2009 with 48026 miles, 1st August 2010 with 49156 miles.

That’s when the odometer failed.. but service’s carried on annually from independent garages (invoices supplied). During 2007 the owner moved jobs/retired so the Legend wasn’t doing journeys to London for work so was used to ‘potter’ about. As mentioned, a hand written note stated the rough mileage over the years since the odometer failed. If this is correct then the car has ticked over 63k miles. Will only know the true mileage once the odometer is fixed, apparently the mileage is stored in the ‘brain’.

Last 3 years he has only used it to go from his house to church twice a week (12 miles) and the local Sainsburys once a week (5 miles)….
The original handbook is present and correct, still has the original Honda supplying dealer business card. Every MOT certificate is in the file along with lots of invoices!

Regarding the number plate, when registered it was assigned R274 VLW, which could only have stayed on the car for a short while because its 1st MOT has the plate LIL 2***, this number is on his wifes car today! In 2012, the number plate it has on today M16 BUP was assigned/registered to it. He told me the story of said plate. His grandchildren purchased the cherished plate for him as a present, the significance of the plate is M (he was born in May), 16 (was born on the 16th) and BUP because they used to call him Buppy when they were children!

I’m very tempted to put the original plate back on the car and give him back the M16 BUP on a retention certificate.

Wow, didn’t realise I could waffle on so much! Apologies and if you have read this far, thank you. Have I missed anything out on it’s history?




To be continued………
 

Edited December 6 by boydy

[Trevor]

Great news about the MOT and very interesting research on the car's history....look forward to the next installment

[boydy]

So, was collected and driven back by a member of staff. I followed thinking what have I done, why did I buy it and what am I going to do with it??!!

Back at work and in the yard and all the staff came out to take the p155. Having been sat for several months unloved, it was rather dirty with moss nicely growing in certain areas, nice! So, the one lad who laughed the most at my latest financial disaster was assigned the job of cleaning it 😊

Insured and taxed it and at 5pm I was off home (pub) for my maiden journey, it’s 2.6 miles to said home and in that short time it felt great. The seats are like armchairs and it’s whisper quiet. Although alarmingly the fuel gauge moved on that short journey, it does that often!

We are very busy at work so apart from a wash and a levels check, I decided to dump my Merc in the yard and carry on driving the new steed. First load of fuel went in and off I went, wafting around in a £500 car that I knew nothing about, what could possibly go wrong? As part of my job I travel to carry out estimates on vehicles that require restoration/repairs. Just so happened day 3 of ownership, I had to do a 50 mile round trip to a customers, obviously took the Legend…. Didn’t miss a beat, well it had a funny noise on L/H bends but hey ho!

The following weekend I treated it to the quickest of quick machine polishes, wow it a big car! Will post pics of the results honest! Now it was a little shiny green machine, I started to like this car, like a lot… Carried on driving it everyday, then realised MOT was due in 3 days… No worries, got it booked in for 31st Oct at 13.00. Thought we best have a little look to show willing, thankfully one of my guys is a true Honda fan (Lee I blame you for this purchase) and he got it on the lift for a good look round. I mentioned the ‘cha cha cha’ noise in passing so wheels came off the rear, started taking the pads out and the material fell on the floor…. That will be the noise then!

Obviously, parts for Legends are plenty full….. BUT, seeing at they share a lot of the braking parts with other Honda’s, pads were on the shelf at our motor factors (thanks Autosupplies) discs were ordered and delivered the next day, the day of the MOT… Thankfully Lee go the car on the lift, replaced rear discs and pads, road tested and parked on the front ready for it’s MOT with 45 mins to spare. My other tech Dave, took it round for the MOT and the tester couldn’t believe what good condition it was in underneath, so 40 minutes later a clean MOT was received and I could then make a plan going forward.

As I bought it with only 2 weeks mot, I wasn’t going to spend much money until I knew it was a ‘goodun’
More fuel went into the surprisingly small tank and I carried on driving it everyday. Full service kit ordered and fitted.
So far in the 4 weeks in my ownership it has covered 700 luxurious miles, it just gets better and better! Apart from the fuel, £260 of super unleaded has so far been pumped into the tank, to be fair I still have ¾ of a tank left as of today.

Right, next instalment will be the issues with it and the plan going forward 😊 Oh and what i have purchased so far........


 

[Trevor]

Sounds like it all turned out okay and any repairs are understandable maintenance tasks which any car you'd have to attend to, so nothing out of the ordinary to be concerned about at the moment then.

You got a good deal on the car by the sounds of it 🙂

Thanks for sharing the updates