I feel fortunate I bought a one owner, 28K mile, '01, Spa Yellow for $12,250. Then I remember that was 10 years ago. Just hit 40K this year - was a tough hurdle to mentally break. At some point you either have to say to yourself that the car is for enjoyment or investment. If the latter you'll do better putting your $30K in the an ETF, that's reality.

 

If you're interested in a low mileage (under 21k) AP2, there are 2 cars I was inquiring on (which are still available, as of today AFAIK). I ended up going a different direction entirely, but both were solid deals that - if you held on to them even to the summer - would increase in value. Send me a PM and I can fwd you the details and contact info (I'm not affiliated with either seller).

edit:
Your friends car is priced strongly but fair. Figure in that the hard top adds anywhere between $2-4k in value, and then have a look at the GPW that just sold on BAT for desirability on that color. If that car was e.g. silver and without hardtop, it would be in the $25-28k range private sale, for that year/mileage. Likely on the higher end due to condition + single owner.

 

White with tan interior is very rare. To get all the extras is an added bonus as well. I completely understand what you're saying about the mileage. It's a bit high. I waited until I found the perfect S2000 with 17K on it. I had to make a couple of small sacrifices (rock chips) but color, condition and mileage were my priorities. If you are truly buying the car as an investment, I would say hold out for lower mileage. If you are buying the car to enjoy it and want a unicorn of an S2000, pull the trigger.

 

Do you mind sharing what you paid?

I'm returning to stock my 2006, 69k miles. Second owner since 2008.

 

Admiration to the self-discipline many of you have. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. To buy it, park it, and hop in your daily driver sedan is tough. Until I recently decided to sell the 2004, I have driven it nine miles to work everyday for seven years. Except when the top is up (seldom in Atlanta), these are an exhilarating drive. We should appreciate the fact that these cars cost little to start with, cost little to drive (insurance!), and ultimately sell close to the purchase price.

So buy the best one you see and drive it when you want. Invest in securities, Don't confuse the two.

 

When posts like this come up I typically know exactly what I want to say in response. But I've yet to fully wrap my mind around the thought of buying an S2000 as an investment (or any car for that matter). I began my search for one of these cars in 2006 and did not end up with a S2000 parked in the garage until the following year. My search took a year in part because I was very specific about what I was looking for. Ironically, I wanted a completely stock 2004 or 2005 car with under 50K miles in great condition. On top of that, I specifically wanted it in GPW over black/tan. I managed to find what I was looking for in the end. I didn't end up settling for something else in part because prices were only just starting to show signs of increasing so I could afford to be patient. But a car costing much more than $20K wasn't in the cards at the time and had prices begun to jump, my backup plan was to buy a Silverstone car. I say that because Silverstone was my 2nd favorite color for these cars and there were still quite a few of those cars with low mileage in great condition to be found at the time.

Looking back on things, knowing what I know now, had I purchased a pristine car with 64K miles instead of 24K miles I'd be just as happy today. I wasn't looking for a hard top and had I bought a car with one I would have sold it off, figuring that into the cost of the car. But then I didn't buy the car as an investment. My plan has always been to simply drive the car and enjoy it. (In my case as a second car during nice weather with the top down.) Health issues have had a big impact on that plan during much of my ownership. But I'm past those issues now and am hoping to retire soon, so I'm really looking forward to "driving the appreciation down" on my S2000 over upcoming years. Of course, just as I was cheated out of much of the experience that I was expecting to have thus far, there's no guarantee that the upcoming years are going to happen as I envision them either. My advice would be to look for a car that you can enjoy simply for the sake of driving it rather than as an investment. Put your money elsewhere for that purpose. The S2000 is more than capable of playing the role of a car that is affordable (and easy) to maintain while being a blast to drive. Find a clean, stock example with fewer than 100K miles and in another ten years down the road given your plan it will have less than 150K miles on it. Provided that you take good care of it, there will likely be plenty of people who will see it as being desirable and as having relatively low mileage. The car you friend has on offer sounds like it could fit the bill.

The price being asked for the car you mentioned isn't totally unrealistic for what it is considering that it comes with a hard top. But unless you are specifically looking for a GPW car and a hard top to boot, you can likely still find a better deal these days. On the other hand, if you don't desire the hard top, you can basically deduct somewhere around $5K or more from that asking price considering what those tops are selling for on the market today.

 

If you want an S2000, find one you like and buy it now, the prices keep going up! I'm glad I bought mine 3 years ago. I don't get this obsession with low miles, the S2K engine will last 300K if treated right, So, any S2K with under 100k miles is 'Just broken in'. This is a car that needs to be driven, it's a drivers car, great fun to drive, to look at, and admire it's simplistic beauty. I've owned, wrenched and raced so many sports cars over the past 50 years....This is the gem, the sum of them all, Shigeru Uehara put his heart into this car, you can feel it, and see it....I'd rather have an S2K in my garage than any Porsche, BMW, or Ferrari !!

 

What makes these cars magical is the experience from behind the wheel. It is unique and special enough that it eliminates most other potential competition. If you have own or owned an S2k, you have already experienced the magic. If you have not and the car speaks to you, DO NOT let color stop you from making a purchase! There are colors I prefer too, but from behind the wheel it does not matter. The driving difference between GPW and Silverstone is ZERO.

I would not even focus on mileage so much. These are not mileage sensitive cars. Focus on condition, accident history, ownership history and modification level.

 

$28k for the GPW, now

 

I'm always keeping an eye on the 310 or so that are registered in the whole of New Zealand (population similar to South Carolina, area similar to Colorado). For the past week the number for sale has held steady at zero. I've never seen more than 5 for sale at any one time, and that was in the depths of Winter. Even a hideous, butchered one with a sort of Merc SLK-style nose on it went last week for $5K more than I paid for mine 2 years ago. I've seen them spend less than 2 days on the market.

For comparison, today there are 6 R32 Skyline GTRs, 3 JZA80 Supra RZs, 1 NA1 NSX and 5 F3DS RX7s on the market, all of which are considered the next rung up from an S2000. All these counts have dropped dramatically over the past few months, while prices are only going up.