Welcome to Thursday Trivia where we offer up a historical automotive trivia question and you try and solve it before seeing the answer after the jump. It’s like a history test, with cars!
This week’s question: What notable achievement did the Acura Legend realize upon its U.S. debut?
If you think you know the answer, make the jump and see how accurate you are.
When Honda introduced their upper-scale brand, Acura in the U.S. in 1986 they required all of the new dealer locations to not only not share space with the lesser Honda brand, but that they be miles away to further demonstrate the difference. Acura was Japan’s first attempt at a luxury brand here in the U.S., and in fact was the first American-market expansion brand from any of  Japan’s top-three automotive exporters.
Acura filled its shiny new dealerships with two models, the entry-level Integra, and pretentiously named Legend. That executive class car was part of a joint venture between Honda and Britain’s Rover Group, and it debuted here with a notable attribute.
From Ate Up With Motor (emphasis added):

The Legend’s starting price with manual transmission and destination charge was $2 shy of the $20,000 mark, making the Legend the most expensive Japanese car ever offered in the U.S.. As was Honda’s U.S. practice, there were no factory options; even Legends with automatic transmission were listed as separate models.

Keep in mind that back then an Accord, or America’s best selling car at the time, the Ford Taurus, would each top out at around thirteen grand, a little more than half the Legend’s asking. What was 1986’s second most expensive Japanese car in the U.S.? That would have been the Mazda RX7 Turbo.
Image: Wikipedia