S2000 bargain or what!

[sammyz]

Trawling through the Autotrader musing on what the hell do I replace the 'M' with??? As usual get a headache trying to find an answer

Can there be a better bargain at the moment than the S2000? Good looks, great reliability, great performance (if you've driven one you know what I mean ) You can pick up a 'new' last of the line car with 100 miles on the clock for £19K or thereabouts. That's similar money to a new MX5 or MGTF!

Sad to see it go, I just wish Honda had facelifted it, and kept building it for another couple of years.

 

[MarkW]

Trawling through the Autotrader musing on what the hell do I replace the 'M' with??? As usual get a headache trying to find an answer

A regular past time of mine but never seem to find anything worthy

Can there be a better bargain at the moment than the S2000? Good looks, great reliability, great performance (if you've driven one you know what I mean ) You can pick up a 'new' last of the line car with 100 miles on the clock for £19K or thereabouts. That's similar money to a new MX5 or MGTF!

Sad to see it go, I just wish Honda had facelifted it, and kept building it for another couple of years.[/quote]

Great cars, I have 'nearly' bought one twice, but I ended up with an RX8, and a 350Z each time. I'm not a huge fan of convertibles so that wasn't a factor for me. Haven't looked at a new one, but thats not a bad price. Best gearbox of any car ive driven, but have to be careful in the wet without any driver aids. The later cars had revised suspension and some form of DSC IIRC which would help though.

Only issue for me is that they are a bit dated now (The interior to me looked dated 5 years ago), so if I was in the market for a ragtop it would probably end up being a Boxster S.

 

[IK.]

You should be able to get the S2000 cheaper than that. Saw a 6 month old one when I was looking around for £13k.

 

[sammyz]

Yep, some real bargains out there. The interior is quirky but that's part of it's charm. The last gen cars are apparently the best sorted with better handling at the limit and some form of traction control which would allow you to drive the car in an even more frenzied way without the worry of an impromptu 360 turn

A Boxster S would cost twice as much new at least so it's not a real comparison. Elise S at 25k is perhaps the nearest. 370Z 28k (it's ugly as a coupe so the soft top will be a dog!)

 

[Richie]

I had one for five and a half years and 58000 miles, from new. It was great.
The significant extra weight along with minimal extra BHP of the Boxsters and Zs doesn't win over the S.
The reason I had it so long is that I just didn't see anything else that gave the same enjoyment at the right price point.....until a Z4M Roadster became affordable to me.

 

[WLH]

I test drove one a number of year ago and was very impressed except for the size of the boot/trunk and the cost of Insurance which was a lot more that the 2003 3.Oi Z4 that I purchased.

 

[Dreamer]

I quite liked my old one. Not as much as the Z4 though as I find a big capacity engine much more useable on a daily UK road basis.

It required a LOT of discipline to drive. I had the backend snapping on me out of roundabouts even on nice dry days with warm tyres. Exciting was one way of looking at it, the other is that ending up in hospital was inevitable. If roads came with safe run-of zones i would have another in a heartbeat!
You can have a great time in one on track, but on the road a civic or the likes will eat you up just because the commitment levels you would need in an S2000 would worry you into an early grave.

 

[jjarc]

I was told Honda will be bringing out a new sports car next year. They didn't know what it will be at the dealer, but I would probably guess it will have a folding metal hard top, no storage space, and run flats to maybe compete with the Mercedes SLK. Another one bites the dust. Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised, but I don't think so.

 

[Blacklines]

They are great. He's mine - well 50% shared with a buddy.

 

[csmith319]

S2000 is a major step down from an //M.

 

[lacroupade]

I thought long and hard about one of these when I got the Zed, but was eventually put off by (i) the wedge profile, which I cannot get to like, and (ii) the fact you have to drive it at 10/10ths to get the best out of it. I have a little HRV VTEC runabout which is terrific fun, but the VTEC doesn't even kick in until 5000rpm, which makes it rather painful to drive hard.

 

[Sub]

I owned one.. awesome car! Very fun on a sunny day. People complain about the VTEC..driving ith ard etc.. its really a non issue. The car has plenty of power before vtec for daily driving, and when you do hit vtec it just comes more alive.

 

[sk93]

Took one of these out for a spin before deciding on the Z.
I can see it being massive fun on a track, but I took it out in the rain and was shocked by how twitchy it felt around wet roundabouts.. I could see it being a real problem in icy conditions :/

Plus, as others said, the interior looks a tad dated, and imo, isn't 100 miles away from the Nissan 300zx - a late 80's / early nineties car!

 

[Wondermike]

...was shocked by how twitchy it felt around wet roundabouts.. I could see it being a real problem in icy conditions :/

Yep they are expensive to insure, double my SLK and more than a Z4M. Suppose not having ESP until the last couple of model years hasn't helped, sometimes you need the help of the electronic gizmos.

 

[ksher]

I just can't live with Honda's cheap plastic interior. The handbrake is also at the wrong side (by the passenger's seat). It is slower than Z4M and costs more on insurance. What's the point?

 

[Sub]

The s2000 is really a car for a different sort of person than the z4. BTW, Isn't it faster than the 2.5i and only a couple tenths slower than the 3.0??! Saying its slower is not a great argument there. On track I fairly confident the s2000 would be a LOT faster.

Its a more driver-oriented car, more focused and serious than the z4 which can make it seem twitchy to some drivers. You can drive that car really fast but it will bite you at the edge. The z4 is more of a "lets go for a ride honey" sort of car. The s2k is a "I'm going to go tear it up" sort of car. Both are great for what they are! Cant knock either imo, their focus is just different.

About the interior.. it is simple but I dont know if I'd call it dated, with the bars in the dash flying around and the cockpit feel, its kind of cool, unique I'd say. The s2000 was one of the first cars to use a start button too btw, it was years before BMW adopted this. The interior feels high quality when youre in it, and the plastics are of higher quality than the bmw IMO. I have a broken cupholder in my z4, but never had any internal issues on the s2000. That car was SOLID inside and out. I miss it a little. My only knock is that the interior is a bit small for me, I always wished they made it a little bigger in the midsection. :wink:

Insurance may be higher because its popular with a younger crowd, whom crash more.

 

[Spud]

S2000s are group 20 in the UK. Which makes them more expensive to insure than 3.0 Z4s, which are about group 18 or so, I think.

 

[sk93]

Z4 3.0 is group 19.

S2000 looks great on a track, but as a car for the road, it just seems far to demanding imo :/