Any other really interesting S2000 purchase stories out there?
07-09-2002, 06:16 AM
#1
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When I purchased my S2000, I really had no intention of buying a convertible, 2-seater sports car. I will fully admit that I just LOVE cars, always have. I am a subscriber to all of the major car rags and always had my head under the hood of a car.
Everyone has their personal favorite cars, perhaps even a top 10 list (as I do). The Honda S2000 was most certainly on my top 10 list (number 2
), but I really didn't ever see myself buying one due to the fact that it is really quite impractical in some areas, but nonetheless a very beautiful car.
Now over the years, I have bounced between muscle cars, sporty cars, "beaters" and yes even pickup trucks. My very first car was a 1974 Camaro that my father gave me when I was in high school (sounds so cliche doesn't it, but it's true). I loved that car because it was fast and it looked good (too bad Chevrolet ruined the Camaro, IMHO). I switched back and forth between cars and trucks for the next few years and when I bought my S2000, I had a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 Sport. This was my second Dodge truck (my first was a 1997 that was more or less exactly like the 1999 in every aspect except the year). Both trucks were special ordered from the factory with leather and 5-speed manual transmissions (I have always been partial to manual transmissions).
Well, I was returning from the Dodge dealership where I was getting warranty repair work done on my Dodge truck (big shocker, after all it was a Dodge) when I was passing a nearby Chevy/Volvo dealership and happened to spot my number one favorite car on their used car lot. It was a red 2000 Corvette with a 6-speed. As it turns out, they wanted nearly $40k for the darn thing and it had 25000 miles on it. After some discussions with the salesman and a test drive, I determined that it just was too much money for me to spend at the time and the car just didn't spark enough raw emotion in me to impulse-buy it. As I was preparing to walk away, the used car manager pulled a 2001 Silverstone S2000 on to the car lot from the garage where they had just completed prepping it to be sold. I can still remember looking at the car and admiring how utterly beautiful it was. Naturally I asked the salesman why he didn't tell me about it earlier and he said that it had just been traded in 2 days prior. He mentioned that the person who purchased the car was a doctor who bought it for his wife, she didn't like it so he traded it in on a new Volvo. Well, it only took one test drive for me to fall in love with it. I totally put every reason not to buy the car aside and bought it. The car had only 300 miles on it when I signed my life away to finance it. I honestly had no intention to buy a car that day. It was on that day, by some twist of fate of me being in the right place at the right time, that the S2000 sold itself to me .
I traded in my Dodge truck at a Chevy dealership for a Honda S2000 that was traded in for a Volvo
My hat goes off to Honda for capturing the true passion that grabs automobile lovers worldwide with the design of the S2000. This was my first convertible and I think there is something to be said about getting your first convertible. It truly was an exhilarating experience, much like the very first time I was handed the keys of that 1974 Camaro from my father.
Life is good.......................
Everyone has their personal favorite cars, perhaps even a top 10 list (as I do). The Honda S2000 was most certainly on my top 10 list (number 2
), but I really didn't ever see myself buying one due to the fact that it is really quite impractical in some areas, but nonetheless a very beautiful car.Now over the years, I have bounced between muscle cars, sporty cars, "beaters" and yes even pickup trucks. My very first car was a 1974 Camaro that my father gave me when I was in high school (sounds so cliche doesn't it, but it's true). I loved that car because it was fast and it looked good (too bad Chevrolet ruined the Camaro, IMHO). I switched back and forth between cars and trucks for the next few years and when I bought my S2000, I had a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 Sport. This was my second Dodge truck (my first was a 1997 that was more or less exactly like the 1999 in every aspect except the year). Both trucks were special ordered from the factory with leather and 5-speed manual transmissions (I have always been partial to manual transmissions).
Well, I was returning from the Dodge dealership where I was getting warranty repair work done on my Dodge truck (big shocker, after all it was a Dodge) when I was passing a nearby Chevy/Volvo dealership and happened to spot my number one favorite car on their used car lot. It was a red 2000 Corvette with a 6-speed. As it turns out, they wanted nearly $40k for the darn thing and it had 25000 miles on it. After some discussions with the salesman and a test drive, I determined that it just was too much money for me to spend at the time and the car just didn't spark enough raw emotion in me to impulse-buy it. As I was preparing to walk away, the used car manager pulled a 2001 Silverstone S2000 on to the car lot from the garage where they had just completed prepping it to be sold. I can still remember looking at the car and admiring how utterly beautiful it was. Naturally I asked the salesman why he didn't tell me about it earlier and he said that it had just been traded in 2 days prior. He mentioned that the person who purchased the car was a doctor who bought it for his wife, she didn't like it so he traded it in on a new Volvo. Well, it only took one test drive for me to fall in love with it. I totally put every reason not to buy the car aside and bought it. The car had only 300 miles on it when I signed my life away to finance it. I honestly had no intention to buy a car that day. It was on that day, by some twist of fate of me being in the right place at the right time, that the S2000 sold itself to me
. I traded in my Dodge truck at a Chevy dealership for a Honda S2000 that was traded in for a Volvo
My hat goes off to Honda for capturing the true passion that grabs automobile lovers worldwide with the design of the S2000. This was my first convertible and I think there is something to be said about getting your first convertible. It truly was an exhilarating experience, much like the very first time I was handed the keys of that 1974 Camaro from my father.
Life is good.......................
07-09-2002, 06:35 AM
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Well... I can blame (or thank) 'jedwards' for being the reason I bought my car.
Year 2000: I worked for an online car buying site, Greenlight.com, so I was always aware of the hot cars on the market... well, our pricing manager pulled up in a brand new (Silverstone or Sebring, I am not sure) S2000. We all gooed and gawed over it, since at this time it was the first year of production... I have always owned Honda's, so I was natually drawn to it. I have driven a prelude (yellow) and three different model year accords... so anyway, I admired this car from afar for quite some time... thinking that this car is not practical, there are less expensive cars out there that I can drive, etc... so admiring was all that I did... until...
Present Year: I used to live in a old downtown area in Pleasanton, CA. The southbound traffic to the Silicon Valley used to cross through my area every morning. I would have to wait which seemed like an eternity to turn onto this one street. While waiting, just about every morning, this S2000 would drive by each day, top down no matter what. It was March and the days were starting to warm up a bit... and I thought to myself, that would be a fun car... I can afford that now, no problem, but naw.... not practical.
I was driving back to work from lunch and I saw this red S2000 pull out from the local Honda dealership, and I thought to myself... someone is playing tricks on me, there is another S2000... at this time it seemed like they were a scarce commodity. I thought to myself, just test drive one and get it out of your system.
I called the local Honda deslership and asked for the salesman that I bought my last 2 cars from, and asked it there was any used S2000's on the lot that I could test drive... just to satisfy the urge. He said he had a red one and a yellow one.... instant reminisce of my high school days with my yellow prelude... he said I could drive the yellow one.
Instantly I found myself calling my credit union and my insurance company to see if I could get preapproved for a loan and to check rates... why was I doing this if I was only going to test drive? All the guys at work were betting that I was going to buy it, what a lay-down I was. (Car salesman term for SUCKER!)
Test drove and drove out of there with a 2001 Honda S2000 with 4700 mi on it... what a beauty! If jedwards did not drive by my house every morning, I would still be driving my 1999 Honda Accord V6. NO REGRETS!
Year 2000: I worked for an online car buying site, Greenlight.com, so I was always aware of the hot cars on the market... well, our pricing manager pulled up in a brand new (Silverstone or Sebring, I am not sure) S2000. We all gooed and gawed over it, since at this time it was the first year of production... I have always owned Honda's, so I was natually drawn to it. I have driven a prelude (yellow) and three different model year accords... so anyway, I admired this car from afar for quite some time... thinking that this car is not practical, there are less expensive cars out there that I can drive, etc... so admiring was all that I did... until...
Present Year: I used to live in a old downtown area in Pleasanton, CA. The southbound traffic to the Silicon Valley used to cross through my area every morning. I would have to wait which seemed like an eternity to turn onto this one street. While waiting, just about every morning, this S2000 would drive by each day, top down no matter what. It was March and the days were starting to warm up a bit... and I thought to myself, that would be a fun car... I can afford that now, no problem, but naw.... not practical.
I was driving back to work from lunch and I saw this red S2000 pull out from the local Honda dealership, and I thought to myself... someone is playing tricks on me, there is another S2000... at this time it seemed like they were a scarce commodity. I thought to myself, just test drive one and get it out of your system.
I called the local Honda deslership and asked for the salesman that I bought my last 2 cars from, and asked it there was any used S2000's on the lot that I could test drive... just to satisfy the urge. He said he had a red one and a yellow one.... instant reminisce of my high school days with my yellow prelude... he said I could drive the yellow one.
Instantly I found myself calling my credit union and my insurance company to see if I could get preapproved for a loan and to check rates... why was I doing this if I was only going to test drive? All the guys at work were betting that I was going to buy it, what a lay-down I was. (Car salesman term for SUCKER!)
Test drove and drove out of there with a 2001 Honda S2000 with 4700 mi on it... what a beauty! If jedwards did not drive by my house every morning, I would still be driving my 1999 Honda Accord V6. NO REGRETS!
07-09-2002, 01:57 PM
#4
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I was pretty sure I wanted an S2000. There were other cars on the list (Z3, TT, Boxter) but they were down the list from the S2000. I went by the local Honda dealership. They wanted $8K over sticker and no test drive allowed.
I laughed and left.
I spent some time looking around and testing Boxsters and TTs but wasn't *really* hooked. I was on a conference call and decided to play with "Carpoint". I put in what I really wanted and got 3 replies. 2 salesmen said, oversticker and no test drive which was NOT what I wanted.
Finally I got a reply from AutoWest in the East bay. He *said* he had one I could drive and *said* he had three on the lot (one a demo) and *said* he would negotiate the price. He was good to his word.
I drove the car and fell in LOVE!
We talked and talked.... I got the car under sticker... the one I wanted (silverstone/red) and drove it off the showroom floor. I had really just gone to testdrive the S2000. I now owned one. My wife and kids were a little surpised. Happy too.
That was a year ago and I am still in love with it and yes, as Eimea says, I drive with the top down (almost) *every* day all year around. (miss waving to you Aimee
)
What a car!
I laughed and left.
I spent some time looking around and testing Boxsters and TTs but wasn't *really* hooked. I was on a conference call and decided to play with "Carpoint". I put in what I really wanted and got 3 replies. 2 salesmen said, oversticker and no test drive which was NOT what I wanted.
Finally I got a reply from AutoWest in the East bay. He *said* he had one I could drive and *said* he had three on the lot (one a demo) and *said* he would negotiate the price. He was good to his word.
I drove the car and fell in LOVE!
We talked and talked.... I got the car under sticker... the one I wanted (silverstone/red) and drove it off the showroom floor. I had really just gone to testdrive the S2000. I now owned one. My wife and kids were a little surpised. Happy too.
That was a year ago and I am still in love with it and yes, as Eimea says, I drive with the top down (almost) *every* day all year around. (miss waving to you Aimee
)What a car!
07-09-2002, 03:10 PM
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I went to Dublin Honda; made an offer on a silver/black s2k that they (Dublin) were not going to get for another month the salesman said. After doing all the form filling out, we get to the offer sheet and I say nothing more than MSRP. The salesman leaves with the offer. (my mistake at this point was I shouldn't have gone in at all if I knew they weren't going to budge on the premium over MSRP)
A different guy comes out claiming he is a manager of some sort. He tells me the best he can do is 3k over MSRP. I say "zero k" over MSRP - nothing more. He then says 1k over MSRP and he can get the car the next day (hmm I thought, what happened to not getting this car for another month?????) I say "zero k" once again, but tell him that I'll buy a hard top for it right then and there. He replies right away with 500 over MSRP and you buy the the hard top. So then I respond with 500 over MSRP and no hard top. He thinks about it, then he literally jumps out of his seat, and says "forget this" and walks away.
I thought to myself, isn't the customer supposed to be the one who walks away from this deal making process?????
So the next weekend, I find myself at concord honda, buying a suzuka blue with 10 miles on it; front underbody spoiler, rear spoiler, black chrome badges, honda alarm, cd changer, car cover, and a handful of free oil change vouchers for 1k over MSRP. End of story.
A different guy comes out claiming he is a manager of some sort. He tells me the best he can do is 3k over MSRP. I say "zero k" over MSRP - nothing more. He then says 1k over MSRP and he can get the car the next day (hmm I thought, what happened to not getting this car for another month?????) I say "zero k" once again, but tell him that I'll buy a hard top for it right then and there. He replies right away with 500 over MSRP and you buy the the hard top. So then I respond with 500 over MSRP and no hard top. He thinks about it, then he literally jumps out of his seat, and says "forget this" and walks away.
I thought to myself, isn't the customer supposed to be the one who walks away from this deal making process?????
So the next weekend, I find myself at concord honda, buying a suzuka blue with 10 miles on it; front underbody spoiler, rear spoiler, black chrome badges, honda alarm, cd changer, car cover, and a handful of free oil change vouchers for 1k over MSRP. End of story.
07-09-2002, 03:45 PM
#6
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blue2k2s2k... Dublin Honda were the jokers who wanted $8k over with no test drive. Aimee had a good experience there... me.. I thought they were a bunch of jokers. 
07-09-2002, 07:23 PM
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I had just started to save for my S and I saw one on ebay. I sent the owner an email, as a joke, and asked if he would consider trading his S for my 01 civic lx. To my suprise he wanted my car and I ended up giving him a few bucks and drove it home that night, 2 years ahead of schedule. I had enough left over to buy a hard top, spoilers, and a couple sets of tires. Yea Ha!
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07-09-2002, 08:51 PM
#8
I've been interested in the S2000 since the SSM. When it first came out, all the dealers around here were asking for MSRP + 5K and up. I didn't even get a chance to test drive one. One day in April of 2001, my boss (who is into cars, and owns a Z06) told me that if I am interested, the dealer where he just got a Honda Odyssey has a few S2000s on the lot. He got his Odyssey at MSRP so he thought that I should be able to get MSRP or better on the S2000. I went there the next day really just to test drive the car. I was totally hooked. The next day, I ask my fiancee to check out the car with me. She loved it too and urge me to get it. Due to the fact that it was April 14, I was able to negotiated a price under MSRP. Eventhough it was an impulse buy, I have no regrets. 12K miles later I still have the grind
Edit: Come to think of it, the story is not too interesting after all. I like XViper's story much better
Edit: Come to think of it, the story is not too interesting after all. I like XViper's story much better
07-09-2002, 09:39 PM
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Bought mine on the Internet. Went to Honda site...checked up on dealers...sent them all emails...told them what I wanted and that I'd pay MSRP...two responded...emailed both to verify I'd buy only under circumstances I'd already stated...reply was favorable...went to the closest dealer...saw the car on showroom floor...bought it...the first time I drove an S was driving mine home.
07-09-2002, 09:47 PM
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Don't know if it's interestin' or not, but I hold the distinction of being the one guy who paid the most for his S; a newbie naive not-knowing-about-S2ki-wet-behind-the-ears-convertible-buying $41,000 out da door. Yea, I had to have it that bad.