Could've sold more s2000 if there was more seats, a hardtop, automatic and more luxury features.

But then it wouldn't be an s2000

 

Yes it would have sold more.

I wouldn't mind an S2000 with DCT or something of that nature. But since the S2000 was created in the 90s, we would have been offered a miserable 4 spd auto.

 

The people who are supposed to buy two seat roadsters simply don't buy them. Most of our cars were previously owned by folks who bought them -- and then didn't want them any more.

The lessons have always been here to include 50 years ago!

Pretty sure the sales of the 1958 Thunderbird were exceeded those of 1955, 1956, and 1957 combined. Yep, hard top, automatic transmission, 4 seats... This was after the Tbird outsold the Corvette by a giant factor. Ford conceded the market to GM for some reason.

-- Chuck

 

It would have sold more cars but how many more is unknown.
There are more automatics on the road and more high dollar sport cars are going to the "manual/auto" as the only option.

 

I don't think they could have fit a conventional automatic with a torque converter in the space allowed for the tranny. They would have had to make the tunnel larger, thus less room in the cabin. And auto trannies are heavier, changing the handling and dynamics of the car.

They would have had to make compromises, making it more like a Miata.

 

Honda doesnt have another front engine rwd car so just like the manual trans in our S2Ks it would have had to be developed and mfg just for the S2K. We would have seen a higher price point on all S2Ks because of this. Besides the rumor is Honda lost money on the S2K as it was. With a higher price they would have lost just as many sales as they would have picked up with the auto option. I think it was business savvy to only offer the manual. Not the other way around.

 

I thought the salesman was a bit daft, but then again, how many really love cars? It's a job and I understand that.

I see that the new Porsche 911R is getting a six speed manual because of customer demand ! I guess that bodes well for us manual die hards !!!!

 

In reality it was probably the lack of business savvy to only offer the car with a manual gearbox. Certainly for the North American market where no one knows how to drive a stick shift. Even the rental cars in Europe and Japan are sticks.

I doubt Honda intended to make a profit on these cars either although the dealers did by charging a premium over MSRP when the cars were new. Automakers have "vanity" cars and the S2000 was certainly one. New NSX is one as well. Honda really doesn't care how many they sell.

-- Chuck

 

The Mitsubishi Eclipse. It started off as a decent performance car. In each model year they progressively became more and more mainstream. More lame.

It worked. It became the best selling 'sportscar' of all time, or something like that.

Sadly, selling out sells.

Sent from my SM-G920P using IB AutoGroup

 

HA, HA, HA.

The narrow seats, small cock pit, and zero torque still would have kept a majority of buyers away more than any automatic would have helped.

darcy