2002 S2000 Honda of Joliet IL Purchase and Road trip to San Diego
09-28-2002, 12:10 PM
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2002 S2000 Honda of Joliet IL Purchase and Road trip to San Diego
In this post, I'll described my purchase of a new '02 S2000. To see my entire collection of images, please goto this link
http://www.ericrtaylor.com/s2000/trip.html
You will find a **BUNCH** of images for your viewing enjoyment. Most have the s2000 in them, but not all.
Note: There are more than 1 Meg of photos here. If you are on a dialup, you are gonna have to be patient.
Honda of Joliet Dealer Experience
The trip began when my friend and I flew to Chicago's Midway airport on Friday the 13th from our home base of San Diego. Only a week or so before i emailed a bunch of dealers with quote requests and got back a variety of responses. I then read on this board about Honda of Joliet. I called Kim, the Internet Sales Manager, and was quoted a fantastic deal over the phone! She is knowledgeable about the car and sensitive to the concerns and special requirements of S2000 buyers. The whole experience buying from Joliet Honda was a pleasure. Kim shot me an email with the out-the-door price right after we talked on the phone and everything has been 100% up-and-up ever since.
Her husband, Lou, is the General Sales Manager and showed a real enthusiasm for serving the customer in an honest and straight forward manner. Kim picked us up at the airport and when i got to the dealership, i watched my car being inspected, signed the paper work and was done! We arrived at the dealership at around 2pm and was done by about 5:30pm. No deceptive or high pressure attempts to get me to buy options or treatments i didn't want. I financed the car through Honda Finance without difficulty.
I asked them not to perform the car pre-delivery prep/inspections until I arrived to observe. I also asked that they not detail the car. They complied without a second question. Lou was like a hawk in making sure these requests were followed by the dealer personnel. I was impressed. I whole heartedly recommend Honda of Joliet for your S2000 buying needs, wherever you may live. They really know how to handle out-of-state buyers.
The Trip
After we finished up with the dealer, we started our trip. We planned it to take five days, but it ended up taking only four.
Our itinerary called for us to visit friends and family in West Lafayette, IN, Terre Haute, IN and then head west back to our home base of San Diego. We decided to take a southerly route of least distance once we left Indiana. We drove through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
I did all of the driving. My friend thought he'd be cool and watch Chinese movies on a desktop replacement resting on his lap. Hah! After experiencing the ugly side of a desktop replacement in terms of weight and heat generation, the laptop went in the trunk. We packed relatively light: two smallish duffel bags and a laptop soft-case. We also had to fit this stuff around the soft top's tonneau and some extra oil. All told, it was a real squeeze, but it did tell us we could do this kind of trip if we wanted to in the future. We saw only one other s2000, Silverstone i think, heading the opposite way on the interstate in Oklahoma City. Sadly for him, his top was down and he was headed for a real downpour that we had just driven through. He was driving pretty fast, so maybe the water just flowed around the cabin!
After our visiting, we left Sunday the 14th of September at 8am. We arrived in Amarillo, TX at about 1am and stayed at the Hampton Inn. That was a 17 hour day - not too bad since we stopped at several places along the way. We left at 9am that morning (Monday) and arrived in San Diego at 2am Tuesday morning, for another 17 hour day. Total trip mileage was over 2,200 miles.
I was very careful about properly breaking the car in. I didn't pass 5,500 until after 900 miles. I didn't pass VTEC 6,500 rpm until after 1,000 miles. And I didn't do a run up to full redline of 9,000 rpm until after 2,200 miles. I also didn't use cruise control until after 1,000, since in the old days of Honda you needed to vary the engine rpm during breakin to avoid developing some rough spots in the rev range. I don't think this is really necessary anymore but better safe than sorry. Interestingly, the car used little or no oil. Gas mileage was around 28 m.p.g., and we usually refueled between 250 miles and 280 miles with around 2 gallons of tank reserve left. Since then, my last tank computed to 24 m.p.g. in very mixed driving here in San Diego.
We stopped at some attractions along the way and had a nice casual dinner both nights. We went to a decent Chinese restaurant (Taste of China) in a cool little redeveloped
downtown area in Oklahoma City (see picture) the first night and a nice Thai restaurant (Thailana) in Phoenix the next night. See the photo descriptions for more details on what we did and where we went.
PS: I just registered the car here in CA. No trouble. I got a smog inspection for $58, and at the DMV, paid an extra out-of-state fee of $11 for opening a file for the car. The total for tax and registration was $2617.00. Tax for my area is 7.75%. Just what i was expecting. So this added up to a $2k plus savings and was a great excuse to get out of CA for awhile and visit and have fun.
I love my new S2000!
In this post, I'll described my purchase of a new '02 S2000. To see my entire collection of images, please goto this link
http://www.ericrtaylor.com/s2000/trip.html
You will find a **BUNCH** of images for your viewing enjoyment. Most have the s2000 in them, but not all.
Note: There are more than 1 Meg of photos here. If you are on a dialup, you are gonna have to be patient.
Honda of Joliet Dealer Experience
The trip began when my friend and I flew to Chicago's Midway airport on Friday the 13th from our home base of San Diego. Only a week or so before i emailed a bunch of dealers with quote requests and got back a variety of responses. I then read on this board about Honda of Joliet. I called Kim, the Internet Sales Manager, and was quoted a fantastic deal over the phone! She is knowledgeable about the car and sensitive to the concerns and special requirements of S2000 buyers. The whole experience buying from Joliet Honda was a pleasure. Kim shot me an email with the out-the-door price right after we talked on the phone and everything has been 100% up-and-up ever since.
Her husband, Lou, is the General Sales Manager and showed a real enthusiasm for serving the customer in an honest and straight forward manner. Kim picked us up at the airport and when i got to the dealership, i watched my car being inspected, signed the paper work and was done! We arrived at the dealership at around 2pm and was done by about 5:30pm. No deceptive or high pressure attempts to get me to buy options or treatments i didn't want. I financed the car through Honda Finance without difficulty.
I asked them not to perform the car pre-delivery prep/inspections until I arrived to observe. I also asked that they not detail the car. They complied without a second question. Lou was like a hawk in making sure these requests were followed by the dealer personnel. I was impressed. I whole heartedly recommend Honda of Joliet for your S2000 buying needs, wherever you may live. They really know how to handle out-of-state buyers.
The Trip
After we finished up with the dealer, we started our trip. We planned it to take five days, but it ended up taking only four.
Our itinerary called for us to visit friends and family in West Lafayette, IN, Terre Haute, IN and then head west back to our home base of San Diego. We decided to take a southerly route of least distance once we left Indiana. We drove through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
I did all of the driving. My friend thought he'd be cool and watch Chinese movies on a desktop replacement resting on his lap. Hah! After experiencing the ugly side of a desktop replacement in terms of weight and heat generation, the laptop went in the trunk. We packed relatively light: two smallish duffel bags and a laptop soft-case. We also had to fit this stuff around the soft top's tonneau and some extra oil. All told, it was a real squeeze, but it did tell us we could do this kind of trip if we wanted to in the future. We saw only one other s2000, Silverstone i think, heading the opposite way on the interstate in Oklahoma City. Sadly for him, his top was down and he was headed for a real downpour that we had just driven through. He was driving pretty fast, so maybe the water just flowed around the cabin!
After our visiting, we left Sunday the 14th of September at 8am. We arrived in Amarillo, TX at about 1am and stayed at the Hampton Inn. That was a 17 hour day - not too bad since we stopped at several places along the way. We left at 9am that morning (Monday) and arrived in San Diego at 2am Tuesday morning, for another 17 hour day. Total trip mileage was over 2,200 miles.
I was very careful about properly breaking the car in. I didn't pass 5,500 until after 900 miles. I didn't pass VTEC 6,500 rpm until after 1,000 miles. And I didn't do a run up to full redline of 9,000 rpm until after 2,200 miles. I also didn't use cruise control until after 1,000, since in the old days of Honda you needed to vary the engine rpm during breakin to avoid developing some rough spots in the rev range. I don't think this is really necessary anymore but better safe than sorry. Interestingly, the car used little or no oil. Gas mileage was around 28 m.p.g., and we usually refueled between 250 miles and 280 miles with around 2 gallons of tank reserve left. Since then, my last tank computed to 24 m.p.g. in very mixed driving here in San Diego.
We stopped at some attractions along the way and had a nice casual dinner both nights. We went to a decent Chinese restaurant (Taste of China) in a cool little redeveloped
downtown area in Oklahoma City (see picture) the first night and a nice Thai restaurant (Thailana) in Phoenix the next night. See the photo descriptions for more details on what we did and where we went.
PS: I just registered the car here in CA. No trouble. I got a smog inspection for $58, and at the DMV, paid an extra out-of-state fee of $11 for opening a file for the car. The total for tax and registration was $2617.00. Tax for my area is 7.75%. Just what i was expecting. So this added up to a $2k plus savings and was a great excuse to get out of CA for awhile and visit and have fun.
I love my new S2000!
12-03-2002, 08:29 PM
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A Quick update.
I have about 5400 miles on it now.
It now has 4 coats of wax and is in perfect condition. I'm very happy with it and love the color. I want to upgrade the speakers sometime but the rest of the car works great for me. The convertable top is awesome. It uses very little oil. I dig the quick reflexes of the suspension and overall swiftness of the car.
I can't wait until the next generation s2000. Something that will smack down the z350 would be perfect. Until then, i'm a very happy SoCal s2000 owner!
I have about 5400 miles on it now.
It now has 4 coats of wax and is in perfect condition. I'm very happy with it and love the color. I want to upgrade the speakers sometime but the rest of the car works great for me. The convertable top is awesome. It uses very little oil. I dig the quick reflexes of the suspension and overall swiftness of the car.
I can't wait until the next generation s2000. Something that will smack down the z350 would be perfect. Until then, i'm a very happy SoCal s2000 owner!
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12-04-2002, 11:41 AM
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I love how you can "unwrap" your brand new car. I'm assuming you requested it "factory wrapped." (It brings back super memories of the day mine was delivered
Congrats on your new car! Its a Beauty!
Congrats on your new car! Its a Beauty!
12-07-2002, 03:05 PM
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nice journey and nice write ups. did you pay for ...
registration fee (about 320)?
doc fee( about 50)?
tire fee(about $5)?
lucky for you only 7.75% tax. in los angeles county it's 8.25%.
registration fee (about 320)?
doc fee( about 50)?
tire fee(about $5)?
lucky for you only 7.75% tax. in los angeles county it's 8.25%.
12-12-2002, 03:00 PM
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I got about all of the Zaino stuff. They have a bunch of products. I got both of their waxes....i think #1 and #2 or something, one is a kind of pre-treat wax. After using that, you use the Full wax. Once you have done that, you can use a spray on wipe off Flash Gloss treatment for the final 3D gloss look.
All this effort sure makes washing the car a breeze, as everything just sort of sprays off or needs little encouragement from a sponge.
I paid the Registration fee, of course, but i don't remember the doc fee or tire fee. There were some fees i paid in Joliet, but i was most concerned about the problems i might have in CA. Those concerns were unfounded.
All this effort sure makes washing the car a breeze, as everything just sort of sprays off or needs little encouragement from a sponge.
I paid the Registration fee, of course, but i don't remember the doc fee or tire fee. There were some fees i paid in Joliet, but i was most concerned about the problems i might have in CA. Those concerns were unfounded.