So I've been on a 6 month hunt looking for a low mileage, bone stock S2000 that hasn't been beaten on, riced out, driven during the winter or just otherwise neglected or treated like a daily driver.

I struck out.

Every one that I found had some some kind of issue: dumb@ss wing, JDm badges, torn leather, driven in the salt, mods, high mileage, curbed wheels, fender bender, sketchy history, etc.

Do the majority folks treat the S2K as any other car or something? I realize that there are probably people who only take them out on weekends and keep them in the garage, but these folks didn't seem to be selling them in a 250 mile radius to me (won't buy without seeing the car and I didn't want to turn buying a car into a 5-day excursion).

Anyhow, that's my vent. I kick myself for not buying that '07 red one that I almost pulled the trigger on (when new), but I had other priorities to take care of at the time.

So, I suppose I made the next logical choice and I came home with an '11 Mazda MX-5. The engine certainly isn't as sweet, but it's a nice car. It was also cheaper than a few of the 07/08 salt-beater S2K's that I went to look at (seriously people--all season tires on a RWD convertible?).

Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

 

IMO its a car thats meant to be driven. Mine see's 9k on the reg, with 132k miles, in the snow/rain/salt/sun and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

This. My old man has an 09 z06 with 1800 miles on it. You might as well buy a die cast if all you're gonna do is look at it.

 

I didn't know it was an exotic. IMO it's at the level of a 3 series; most people just drive them, with a slightly larger than normal amount of owners being particular in it's care.

You'll find that 03 325i that has been daily driven with 150K miles, and 150K worth of wear. You'll also find that 00 325i that has 48K, stacks of maintenance receipts, mint everything, and hasn't seen adverse weather conditions in it's life. I see the same thing in S2000's for sale. It also probably depends on the number of owners. I'm sure the first owner of any car is usually going to take better care of it than anyone else, barring an extreme enthusiast of said car.

 

The best I could find was a 2001 with 74K. From Hawaii it's whole life, but I stumbled on it by chance when they shipped it here to the midwest in spring. It was pure luck as I was describing to a friend that my search for a white s2k was causing me to have to fly to Colorado for one....she knows nothing about cars but knew her friends just got pregnant and needed to sell off their toy. It just happened to be a white s2k.

It has bad leather seats, but don't take that as a sign of abuse man. The factory leather just isn't that high quality, and if you leave the top down outside a lot, **** happens.

He also had the clogged rain gutters leaking into the trunk and he didn't bother or know how to fix it, so that bottom well rusted through. Luckily it is only a 120 part, and I know great welders.

So overall:

You're gonna find that most all of the older ones have issues, but finding a clean body is possible if you're patient. Due to the rust and leather I stole it from him for 8K bucks.

 

If your still in the market let me know ... I may have what your looking for.

 

keep looking. it took me 2 years to find a shell

 

When I was loooking for mine a couple months ago I was able to find quite a few in amazing shape with very few miles, but there were the hand full of riced out ones as well. For the most part all the local ones I see are fairly mint as well. I live in Oregon, this may have something to do with it, and it seems like most people here don't know what an S2000 is.

 

I was just shocked that so many people treated them as 4-season cars. And the dealers/sellers around my area priced the salt-beater exactly the same as the good weather only cars.

I'm not saying that the S2K is an exotic, but most 2-seat convertibles see slightly different driving than your typical 4 seat coupe/sedan.

It was just a bit frustrating. But again, I'm extremely picky about cars, especially used ones.

 

Im shocked u had a problem finding one. Im in ohio an there is mint ones all over. Autotrader has mint ones an theres some on craigslist aswell. I picked up a mint 01 46k

 

Your definition of mint and mine are probably a bit different.

 

Nah im a perfectionist man. the owner was 70 yrs old he owned a mint 68 vette sitting next to the s2k in his garage
garage kept never seen winter all stock. Everything is like new tires brakes minimal use on it, interior 10/10, Exterior 9.8 can see a few swirls in the trunk an some scrathes in that dumb plastic window thats it.
There out there just gotta look. Youll spend more on one but id rather spend more then get a roached out one. which is what i did

 

And for every one of those, there are 50 that are not. Honestly, I thought I'd see a much better ratio. Especially since they were last made only 3 years ago and had an almost 10 year run.

I'm not going to spend years looking though...that's just silly.

 

Look in central US where they dont get snow. Might get one with higher milage but at least it wont have salt damage. We use a lot of salt here in Canada and now my prelude is paying the high price for it as the body is falling apart

Next car will be an S2000 and I'll be getting it from the US, somewhere near a desert if possible

 

true true agree with u on that one. I guess i got lucky an it was ment to be I only looked for 2 months but i searched every where an spent hrs opon hrs searching. but it paid off

How are u liking ur whip that u purchased though?

 

I did a 250 mile radius, so that put me well into the non-salt states. With a family and full time job (and me having to look at a car before I buy it), that was as much as I could do.

Even so, I didn't expect to find so many 2-seat $30K convertibles that were used as 4-season cars. Leases must have been popular with the S2K as I found a lot that were coming off in the 3-4 year range with 36K-48K miles.

 

Were u just strictly look for like 06 an newer or something

 

It's nice. Got a smoking deal on it as they are blowing out '11's. You can definitely feel the lightness of the MX-5 (2500lbs) vs the S2K. The engine just isn't the same, but that was to be expected.

Perhaps the nice S2K's are just being gobbled up quickly, too.

 

Todd, honestly the leather thing you are going to have a tough time getting around - though it seems to me 06+ leather with the different style seems to hold up a bit better than 00-05.

It really is a hunting game, I picked mine up from an older couple that didn't drive during the winter and had like 7k miles a year driven on it. Even it had some issues (paint scuffs, leather wear, etc) but that can be fixed

 

I was looking for any model year, with the AP2 being preferred (just for the newness factor) but I would have taken a nice AP1 had I of found it.

The seats were not a deal breaker, although the ones I found with rough seats usually had other rough parts of the car as well.

Oh well, moot point now I suppose.

 

go to japan

 

Thing is though, it's very hard not to mod this car once you buy it. You just want to spend money on it. plus it's designed to be driven pretty hard (within reason), so i wouldn't be too put off with mods. I'd be more concerned about the quality of the mods and their fitment. And the quality of the owner. You can always return it to stock cheaply and easily and sell the mods

 

honda meets mustang

 

Not driving the S is like having a supermodel as a wife that you never have sex with, why save her for the next guy???

 

There is a difference between driving a car 24/7 and just enjoying it on nice days/weekends. It makes it that much more special when you aren't forced to use it as your only source of transportation.

An S2000 is a car I wanted to get and keep for a long time. I don't want to wear it out and risk wrecking it in rush hour traffic. That's what a daily beater is for. Convertibles suck for a daily anyways unless you live in a climate where the top can be down more than 50% of the time.

Plus, a nice S2K would've looked good parked next to my 22K mile original owner ITR. Who knows though...if I'd ever find the right car, I might propose a trade