Honda S2K Advice
 

I'm gonna be in the market for an Honda S2K and am honestly pretty uneducated about these cars but I know I love the looks and the way they drive. I've been doing some research, however I have a couple questions and I know I've seen a couple of you guys on here that have owned one so maybe you can answer.

My budget is $15k. Most of them in that price range are 100k miles if not more. I've always been told Hondas are tanks especially the older generation ones, but does that hold true with the S2K.

I've heard they also are notorious for eating oil. Besides asking for service logs etc is there a way I can tell it had properly been maintained. Anything I should be looking for in the engine bay besides the usual used car buying stuff.

Appreciate the responses, and hopefully none of y'all get offended by my ignorance haha!

the only advice I have is, for $15k you're not going to have much of a choice when it comes to S2000.
Virtually all the ones you are going to look at will be tracked or modded to some degree.

Want a clean one that is more hassle-free? Look closer to $20k as a budget.

I have plenty of friends buying and selling S2000s, at least 8 personal transactions that I know of in the last 6 months. All the "clean" ones went for close to $20k.

If you want a 2006 with 16k miles, there's one for sale for $27k in SoCal.

-alex

^+1

At $15k you can find a good car that will serve you well for a long time.

Yes it will be over 100k miles
Yes it will have been used and abused
Yes it will need parts, work, and love
It will not be in pristine condition

Be prepared to spend money to make it happy, fresh, and keep all the important parts up to snuff. While it's a Honda, you're not going to drive it like a CR-V so don't treat it like one. It competed with the Porsche Boxster at the time it came out, not the VW Cabriolet.

http://www.s2ki.com/home/

There's a wealth of knowledge out there that has a 15 year headstart on this forum, good luck.

imo at $15k you will be able to safely drive it home, maybe a couple hundred bucks and a bit of elbow grease over a few weekends or day or two at the shop to rectify any potential problems will make it a reliable DD. In order to get it to the track you'll likely need to spend another $1k-$5k in prep work depending on how much of a deal you got.

i'm offended

wont be nearly as forgiving or livable as a twin. if you have to get one, for the love of all that is holy, really learn how to drive and dont mod it too much.

things to look for:

what diff fluid has been used? (if they say honda = no go)
valve retainers on early AP1s
second gear syncros
leakage in clutch cylinders
compression ESPECIALLY in earlier cars (I swear early cars need more fuel trim on cyl 4)
split motor mounts
caliper piston seals and seized slider pins
botched fender roll jobs with caved in fenders
crappy replacement tops/ installations
carpet wear over the cabin floor cross member


if you buy an AP1, get a rear bumpsteer correction kit ASAP so you dont wrap it around a tree.

Learn to drive. study lift-throttle oversteer.

I really appreciate all the responses. I understand it isn't going to be pristine I just didn't know if I should expect a new motor after 100k. It would be my fun daily driver and daily driver to me is not a whole lot of miles. I average less than 500 miles a month lol.

Running mine up to 157k no problem related to oil or things you mentioned above. Any car If you don't take care of it will cause you problems. They're not as easy to live with as the twins because they're older and have lots of wear and tear parts that will need replacing at 100k it's pretty normal. Worst problem mine ever given me is it needed a new starter. Besides that make sure you valve adjust it and maintains it well and you'll be fine.

Mine is going up for sale soon, this might sound like a weird advice but sometimes look for one older than 100k spend less and just ask to see if all the wear and tear parts have been replaced at the 100k. Why spend 15k to fix a car that's about to need all the new stuff.

Either get one younger or older that has everything already done. Hahaha like mine.

I'm prolly gonna list mine in a week or two. Anyways feel free to ask questions but you might have better success at s2ki.

I have a 2007 AP2

Buying a 2017 Twin?

Yeah :) waiting for em to get on lot at this point. Need something bigger but still fun family etc. I drive a lot of cars and the S2K was like my fav I always wanted to own one and having one, now it's hard but I gotta let go. So far the twins are the only affordable fun car that is just about as fun to drive as the S2K.

May be more basic advice then you were looking for but ask why they are getting rid of it and watch their response very closely. If they spin some long elaborate yarn, are really vague or evasive then just smile, nod, and walk away. People that get rid collector cars for cheap sometimes are just sick of fixing them.

Article on the front page of s2ki is a post about the 200,000 mile club, here's a thread with over 3 dozen members posting.

http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/8939...000-mile-club/

@Dempz

PM me your email and I will forward it to my son.
He just bought a 2003 S2K in great mechanical condition (verified at Honda dealership) with under 100k miles and a brand new roof for around $7k but it has hail damage.

Of course at his age he is now a "S2K expert" (or at least believes so) and would love to tell you all about these cars if given the opportunity.
I'll give him your email if you like.

I personally had few chance to own s2k but I thought hey mileage is high and I am sure they will get cheaper. Boy was I wrong. At the time I was not in any position to own 2seater convertible.
If you decided to go for ap1 make sure engine is good. Seems like everyone who ownd one beat the living shit out of them, and Honda 6speed can have problems.

Now I am in better place to finally own one, I am looking for 2006 and up. Reason ?
Flash pro of course.

Back in 08 when the markets crashed I saw super clean really nice s2000 going for under 10k and I mean there were a lot of them.... Now they're double that for a good one.

Have never owned one but a lot of people will say the s2k have the best engine out of all the honda engines I guess if u don't include the nsx idk what they put in that. I know the gen 1 they said they had a lot of problems with but we're all fixed in the gen 2 style. I don't think u could ever go wrong buying a Honda. Even one beaten to death . They're just amazing engines. Just my 2cent. Also idk how big you are but they suck if you are short. I have driven one a few times and I loved the car but it absolutely sucked because it was made for tall people .