neuronbob

EDIT: I edited the title.

It's my day off today and I was cruising through the Honda Japan website today to compare the Legend's trim levels to the U.S. RL's. I came across a segment of their Legend site called "Honda User's Voice" in which people comment on their Hondas.

Babelfish mangled the English translation for this guy, but his intent is clear. He likes the Legend despite its shortcomings, which are the same things we discuss. He wishes Honda would sell more in Japan. He apparently has the only Legend in his small town. Sounds like a lot of us outside of the DC Metro, where there are a lot of RLs (from reading this board).

Here's another commentary on Legend goodness on long trips. He liked the ventilated seats. I want those too!

I'm actually thinking about posting an "Across the Pacific" commentary on that site....

For the curious, Here's the Legend trim levels and prices.

Cliff's notes:

MSRP ¥5,250,000 ($44,493) for base model.
¥262,500 ($2224) for the ACC + CMBS + e-pretensioner, which they call "Advance model" and we call "Tech Package"
¥577,500 ($4894) for the "Advance II" model, with above features + lane maintenance
¥210,000 ($1779) for the "Exclusive", which includes a power trunk opener and a couple of other features that I couldn't understand. Edit 2: Dug throught the site a little more. "Electromotive" means the power rear shade. "Motoko eye panel" refers to the wood panel. I am wondering whether that means when you don't buy this package, you get plood.

Apparently no PAX and no plood, though I'm sure that could change in the 2007 MY too in Japan.

Touge

That's a good idea, invite them over to our boards. Most Japanese might not be able to speak English, but they can read and write it (they are taught this in school).

neuronbob

Holy crap, they've got a side front camera option for the navi in Japan!

Cool! Apparently it is best used in situations where you can't see around the corner very well. It's ONLY ¥147,000 ($1245) installed.

Touge

Ouch on the price, but wow very cool feature!

Mike_TX

I'd love a REAR side camera, for when we park in between big pickups, minivans or SUV's (which is almost all the time in Texas). You have to back out slowly, pumping the brakes, hoping if someone is coming, they see you and stop. It can be nerve-racking in busy mall parking lots or at the Home Depot.

It would be golden to be able to see past your rear in both directions and be able to know if some soccermom in an Expedition is bearing down on you.
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jhr3uva90

A rear side camera would be sweet!

bkw

Besides the front side cam, they have night vision too

jhr3uva90

Yes, but their night vision is heat based and gets less effective as the outside temperature approaches 90F. That's why we don't get night vision in the USA.

CL6

They also have cool air freshner things for the center consoles!

CL6

Looking on the Honda Japan site they have better seat heaters (with coolers) than we have here:

I also like their shift boot better:



Check out this RL game:

http://www.honda.co.jp/ACCESS/automo...ame/index.html

jhr3uva90

God bless the Japanese! I wish they would bring more of those gadgets to the US.

Ernie Golfs

Can anyone tell me why the Japanese and Canadians RLs get the ventilated seats? It get a lot hotter in the US. I found the ventilated seats were impressive on the Lexus IS 350. We test drove it on a 100* day.

jhr3uva90

Then the current RL was first released, Acura had to decide what features to keep and what features to omit to keep the MSRP under $50K (US). They opted to omit the ventilated seats in the US version. Meanwhile, in Canada, there was no XM radio, which reduced the price of the Canadian version of the RL. As a result, it was more feasible financially for Acura to keep the ventilated seats on the Canadian version.

neuronbob

though we got most of them. I like the idea of putting those front side cameras on the rear, that'd be a way to differentiate the RL and as noted above, a way to help us out when backing out from between two SUV beasts.

I don't understand why Canadians get ventilated seats and we don't, either.

Edit: jhr posted the same time I did....providing a good answer to the question....

Ernie Golfs

Little things like the ventilated seats help further the luxury image for Acura, as much or more then the XM radio IMO. XM probably less efficent as far north as Canada, ventilated seats work fine here. I would have paid a little more for them. BTW, does anyone know if XM will be standard on the 07 base RL?

jhr3uva90

Gotta blame Acura in North America for that one. I think they think from a "value" perspective instead of a "luxury" perspective. Too bad, really.

Rob L

Yep, Canada is in boonyville and satellite barely works here

They kept XM out I think because it wasn't approved here at the time the RL came out.

As for the ventilated seats...hey, I agree they should be on U.S RLs but don't try and imply it is an igloo here and way hotter everywhere there. Like 70% of the country lives in southern Ontario & Quebec and we get as hot summers as many states in the U.S.

Oh and again, southern Ontario/Quebec are LESS north than a handful of U.S. states (just look at a friggin map to see where toronto lies) but I guess researching stuff outside of your country would be too much to ask.

I also love the implication that ventilated seats are ONLY good for hot weather. You know what? They are LESS useful the hotter the temp is (they aren't actively cooled and become borderline useless during extreme heat) and are the best for medium temp days. Also, ventilated seats are good for almost ANY temp because last time I checked, one's body heats up a seat the longer they sit in a chair. Ventilated seats help this.

But hey, what do I know. I live in a country where it is -500 degrees and constantly snowing despite the fact last winter we had less snow than Texas. Go figure.

jftjr

It has nothing to do with the signal reception -- XM wasn't available in Canada because the Canadian government has rules requiring a certain amount of Canadian-native content on all broadcast channels.

It took a while, but is now available in Canada, and as part of the deal they cut, XM has devoted a fair amount of bandwidth to Canadian programming... note the all-Hockey channel out of Toronto, the "XM Laugh Attack" channel which is "Canadian Humour" ("We've got Jim Carrey....and, um... Jim Carrey!") and a fair amount of Francophone programming (bleah).

So, no, it's not because the Great White North is a frozen, uncivilized tundra -- it's because it's a frozen, uncivilized tundra with a Socialist government.

Mike_TX

Wow, sounds like somebody's grumpy!

I have to disagree with you on the ventilated seats in hot weather issue, though. I just recently got rid of an Infiniti M45 with air-conditioned seats and a Lexus IS350 with ventilated seats, and both were wonderful when it got to 106-108F here this summer.

In fact, the Lexus ventilated seats worked better than the infiniti's A/C seats, mainly because the infiniti's seats didn't flow as much air volume. But the key is that the ventilated seats pick up cooled air-conditioned air to circulate through the seat cushions, and (to my surprise and delight) they made a real difference on those leather seats. I fail to see why it wouldn't get better as temperatures rose (?)

I initially regarded ventilated seats as a gimmick, but I'm a convert. It's really nice to keep your huevos chilled!
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