Honda’s range of cars in Malaysia has never ventured beyond 2.4 litres, except on two occasions. In 2008, Honda Malaysia offered a 3.5-litre V6 version of the 8th generation Accord which was imported as a CBU (completely built-up) model as its volumes were not expected to be big enough to justify local assembly.
Earlier than that, however, Kah Motor (then the distributor) had the 2nd generation Legend in the Honda range and it was assembled locally at the Oriental Assemblers plant in Johor in the second half of the 1990s. The flagship model had a 3-litre V6 engine (3206 cc to be exact), popular in the US market but less so in Malaysia where its large displacement made annual roadtax high.
![Honda Legend [1996]](https://www.motaauto.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/IMG_20250318_0004.jpg)
It’s not quite clear why Honda attempted to introduce the model in Malaysia, and even assembling it to try to have a lower retail price. Still, it had a pricetag of around RM202,000 and back then, a Japanese car costing over RM200,000 was not easy to sell, even if it was the most luxurious Honda available. The German brands still dominated the market above that price level.
Anyway, Kah Motor did its best and persuaded many of the suppliers of parts to the assembly plant to buy a Legend. The model was assembled for a couple of years and then quietly discontinued.
This generation of the Legend was also offered to Daewoo for manufacture and sale in Korea under its brand and called the Arcadia.