vicrc

If Mazda can continue to update the Miata there is no reason for Honda to do the same, regulations BS.... A Civic Type R with 4 doors is the best they can muster, it looks like a transformer without it being completely transformed into a car. NSX out of my price range. An ND convertible will be waiting for me when I blow up my daily S.

Chuck S

Did you mean " If Mazda can continue to update the Miata, Honda could do the same."?

Other than no factory or sales, of course. Roughly 9,000 Miatas sold in the US in 2018. Add another 3,500 Fiat 124s and the total market was 12,500 cars last year (down about 3300 cars total in 2017). What portion of those 12,500 cars would Honda hope to capture that would justify production? Miata tooling and factory was paid for decades ago. Honda would need to build a new assembly line.

-- Chuck

jeffreygebhart

Honda/Acura's engineering is sound but I think that their marketing efforts have been a complete failure. Civic Type R is a great car if you can keep from looking at it. NSX sold a grand total of 170 units last year, by any measure a sales disaster. TLX/ILX try to appeal to everyone and end up appealing to few. I cannot think of a single new Honda/Acura car that I would purchase, their competition is better. Miata...new Supra...late model used Cayman...Mustang GT...those are the sports cars I would look at were I in the market. A new S2000 would be nice but I'm not holding my breath.

99MCoupe

What a bleak future it would be if Mazda stopped producing the Miata. Of all the 21st century roadsters I test drove prior to purchasing my AP1, the Miata was the one that I felt had the most going for it. Yah, you can have your Boxsters, your 911 variant cabriolets, your Z4 roadsters, the Lotus Elise, the boy-racer overstated C7, and others, including the more exotic, and pay handsomely for the privilege, but cars like the S2000 and the Miata make so much more (common) sense for those of us with modest incomes, and egos which don't need stroking. Fun factor per dollar! I hope that, financially, Honda will someday find it viable to make another car in the spirit of the S, but alas, it may not be realistic. Meanwhile, "I've got mine".

GuthNW

Honda has shown many times that they are capable of creating certain cars and motorcycles simply "because they wanted to". Not everything that they've produced has had to make total business sense or had to be a market leader. They might well still have the necessary talent on hand to pull off such a project these days. But none of this matters as it's the market itself that has changed. So why bother going to the lengths required to produce interesting cars for a population that largely is not interested in cars themselves? Even if the S2000 were somehow re-released today with it's same basic spirit intact it would be a total flop, especially with pricing adjusted for inflation. The large majority of new vehicle buyers simply aren't interested in cars like these anymore. For that matter, they're hardly even interested in cars at all. The only S that most people are interested in these days are Suv's. I've got to applaud Mazda for hanging in there with the Miata, at least for now that is.

99MCoupe

I have no way of measuring how much and in what ways "the market has changed" but obviously there are some people who still want modern sports cars and are willing and able to pay for them.

GuthNW

What exactly qualifies as a "modern sports car"?

Further food for thought...
No One Knows What "Sports Car" Actually Means Anymore

99MCoupe

Well, as someone who has more yesterdays than tomorrows, and having owned a bunch of 'em, I damn well know what a sports car is, modern or otherwise. As does anyone who drives a Miata, a Porsche Boxster, an Elise, a Z3 or Z4 roadster, or coupe, or a 'vette. What other cars am I forgetting? Modern as opposed to classic? The earliest and later Miata is a perfect example of a modern sports car. So is the S2000. An MGA or MGB is not. Neither is a TR3,4, 7, etc, nor an E Type Jag. etc. A Lotus Elan is not, an Elise is. C1 and C2 Corvettes are not, later C4's and newer are. And so on and so forth....and so on and so forth.... Let's not beat this subject to a pulp. If Honda wanted to build an even more modern sports car than the S2000, they'd know what to do. They'd also know their target audience. Whether Honda chooses to do so- quien sabe?
Full disclosure: I'd never own an SUV and never considered Camaros or Mustangs "sports cars." Neither is the Grand National. and so on ....

Putting it into other words, a modern sports car is generally reliable, comes with two seats, a heater that actually works, and maybe even air conditioning. But that's an oversimplification and not entirely consistent with what I previously said.

Have fun out there, and look down the road.

GuthNW

99MCoupe, I'm afraid that I'm very much on the same side of the yesterdays / tomorrows count as yourself. By the way, I added the link to the sports car article aimed more towards the thread overall rather than directly at you. I don't really even keep up with modern cars all that closely as so few of them hold my interest these days. I wouldn't argue that Honda would know what to do and what their audience would be if they were to choose to build another sports car. Ironically I think it's down to the fact that they do know their audience that's most likely preventing them from building another sports car. In other words, I agree that there are some people out there who do want modern sports cars, but they are few and far enough between these days that there's little point in building any more new ones from a business standpoint. I doubt that engineering would be able to make the argument to do so. I'd truly applaud Honda if they ever did build another sports car, but I also realize how unlikely it is. Just one of the many reasons to continue to enjoy the S2000 for what it is (and isn't).

99MCoupe

GuthNW,
Good morning, sir. I didn't think your link was aimed at me- it was an interesting read. So thanks for that. And yes, sadly the market for sports cars is dwindling. Neither of my daughters is interested in any of my fun cars even though they've been exposed to special cars all their lives. Most people view cars as appliances. Sometimes when I drive or even look at my S, I fantasize Honda building a limited edition, maybe 500 units of a 2020 version, and what that car might sell for. And would all 500 even sell?
Still, Porsche builds and sell Boxsters and Mazda continues to build and sell the Miata. Perhaps there's hope yet for Honda.