drivetofive

Odometer (Legend):  533,874

Odometer (ILX):  132,548

Odometer (NSX):  100,769

It was January 2007.  I had just finished up graduate school of Thunderbird School of Global Management and I wanted to reward myself with something special.  Posted on craigslist, I found a cream puff of a car in southern California that fit the bill perfectly:  a Sirius White Pearl 1994 Acura Legend GS sedan 6-speed.  Having owned my Legend coupe for about 4 years, I felt ready to expand the fleet a little.  Now, I’d already owned a couple of other Legends in the past but this one was special because of its ownership history & condition.

The below pictures from the online listing stole my heart.  The seller, Simon, had even installed the car’s original “Hoehn Acura” license plates for the pictures.  He informed me that his mother Lorraine, the original owner, had named the car Bodecia.  She had traveled frequently between Carlsbad, California and her cabin in Oregon and thus the car had over 200,000 miles on it at the time of listing but didn’t look even a year old.

On January 15th, I flew from Phoenix to Orange County airport and took delivery of the Legend at 207,100 miles from Simon.  He gave me every single stitch of paperwork on the car – one of the most complete records I’ve ever seen.

Notice he’d even given me a CD with the maintenance records digitized.  This guy was over the top, and I loved it.

Icing on the cake was getting ahold of the original window sticker AND a couple of pictures from when the car was brand new.

Starting odometer reading when I took delivery.

Back in Phoenix and meeting its coupe sibling for the first time.

It was at this same time that I got my first “real” job.  I was working at the US Airways main office in Tempe, Arizona on the Domestic Pricing team.  I was the guy who you either loved or hated when you got online to check airfares.

I exchanged several emails around that time with the original owner Lorraine.  She was a sweet lady.  Here’s her message dated May 14, 2007.

Tyson,

It makes me want to cry to see how beautiful Bodecia looks. Thank you for the pictures.  Here’s the story how I chose her.  I had, at that time, a white 1980 Mazda RX 7.  She had a Weber carburetor, air horns, a straight through exhaust and a D-bar and a racing clutch because I blew the original clutch.  You could hear her half a block away.  I loved that car.  Skip Gorman, Simon’s mentor, had worked on my car with all the add-ons and as Simon grew older, Simon put them on for me.

So, one day, an old Legend gave me a run for my money on the on/off ramp from 52 on to 805. I was intrigued  and followed this car till I found out what it was. I needed a sedan as my Nissan Maxima of 10 years was past its prime. So, I test drove the 1994 Legend. I loved it. Loved the 6 forward gears, I was trained to use gears to slow down not the brakes. I wanted white and they had to search for her.  Bodecia was one of 5 white models in the USA at that time. She was loaded on a semi and shipped down to Carlsbad from Los Angeles, especially for me.   So, she may be the only white pearl GS left of the 1994 GS models in USA.  This was the first car I had paid for and chose for myself after my divorce and she meant the world to me.  Simon called her OJC (old Japanese car) and that hurt and it hurt to see her at his house.  I still think I love her better than my new car which is an automatic for when I really am a little old lady.

Bodecia just has an air about her.  She was a Legend so I picked the name Bodecia who was a British legend.  She fought the Romans after her husband was killed in battle. Rallied her people  but unfortunately they lost.  You may see her on some of the old English coins, chariot, spear shield.  So, you can imagine how happy I am to see Bodecia is getting the care she deserves.  Congratulations on your Masters Degree. Quite a feat. Well done.  I would love to meet you next time you are in California. Let me know.  I am retired but babysit for my daughter in Yorba Linda and am a Senior Patrol Volunteer for the Encinitas Sheriff Department. I will definitely make time for you.  Will mail off the window sticker tomorrow.  Yes, I spell funny. I was born in Australia.

Lorraine

I owned the white Legend GS for fewer than 10 months, but in that one short span of ownership, I had so much fun with the car, some of which I’ve already shared on the blog.

• Monterey Trip – August 2007
• Photoshoot in Superior

Here are a few other pictures of memorable occasions.

February 2007 – Sirius White Pearl block party at Chuck’s house, with his 1993 LS coupe and 1993 LS sedan.

Neighbors were rolling their eyes I’m sure!

May 2007 – Legend 6-speed photoshoot near the home I was renting in Tempe, Arizona.

August 2007 – The sedan had become my daily driver while the coupe was being repaired from a couple of deer collisions.  I took advantage of an amazing sunset one evening in the parking lot of the Arizona State University football stadium in Tempe.

On October 1, I was ready to sell the car.  The coupe was coming back from the body shop, I had picked up a 3rd car (1991 Honda Prelude 4WS) that was sucking a lot of my attention away — plus I had limited parking space at my rental home.  So, with great hesitance I posted the ad for the car with 216,000 miles for $5,990 on craigslist.  My advertisement was several pages long and had at least a dozen detailed pictures.

I also included a screen shot of the maintenance records Excel file.

On October 26th, long-time friend of mine Wayne flew from Houston to take delivery of the car.  We took the opportunity to rally another Legend lover, Chuck, for dinner in central Phoenix at Hard Rock Cafe when Wayne and his friend Terrell were in town.

Group photo at the restaurant

Key handoff to Wayne

Tyson, Wayne, Chuck, in the parking garage before heading out.

Wayne and Terrell made the 1,176-mile drive home to Houston the following morning.  Not long afterward, Wayne sent me this picture of the car wearing its newly-issued Texas license plates.

For many years (nearly 8, in fact) Wayne lovingly cared for the Legend with regular maintenance.  Then tragedy struck in May 2015.  The Houston area was pummeled with rain and most of the city went underwater, including the garage where Wayne had his Legend stored.  Despite efforts to bring it back to life, the car was pronounced a total loss as the water had become too deep.  Sterling McCall Acura technicians delivered the somber news.

These are photos from the car as it sat while drying out in the service bay.

And this was the news I received from Wayne regarding the insurance company’s decision.

At 220,439 miles, this Legend was merely broken in and still had a lot of life to live.  Post your condolences for Wayne in the comments box, and let’s hope he can find another replacement car soon.  Thanks, Wayne, for letting me share your story!

EDIT:  July 2, 2015

Wayne has already found a worthy replacement for his Legend.  He is the proud owner of a 2003 Acura CL Type-S 6-Speed manual. As most of you Acura fans will know, the CL 6MT is an extremely rare find.  His is an Aegean Blue Pearl model, one of only 230 ever produced.  2003 was the only model year to offer a stick shift in the 2nd gen Acura CL.

Congratulations, Wayne!

I have just 4 quick pics from this past weekend:

The ILX enduring a desert sandstorm just moments after I’d finished washing it.

The Legend sedan getting an oil change on Saturday and parked next to a 2016 ILX.

A congrats to my friend Jimmy on picking up a Legend.  He got this 1994 GS 6-Speed with 166,048 miles on it recently.  I took a test drive.

And a shot from a Sunday drive in the NSX.  Even at 8:00 a.m. the heat was unbearable.  I need to get the A/C fixed in that car.

Oh, and that’s the 62-foot-long “America’s Largest Sundial” in Carefree, AZ that I’ve blogged about before.

Have a great week!

This entry was posted on June 29, 2015 at 7:35 am and is filed under Legend, Reader's Ride. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.