Hi I'm buying a S2000 within the next week or so, I am having trouble deciding if I should buy a used 2000 w/9k miles locally or a brand new 2002 from Illinois. I will save about $4000 dollars on the use one plus having to wait for the new one shipped to California, from Illinois, what is a better choice? Is the new rear glass window worth the difference? Does the 2000 have a lot of first production year problems? Also on the used one the shift knob's engraved gears are not straight kinda look like the shift knob was over tighten, the owner told me it came like that. Is that true? Any advice, suggestion would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

 

if your going to finance the car... Buy a new one. If, your paying cash up front, i would save myself $4000.00

 

Go for the 2002, the extra $4k is worth having a piece of mind with a new car. You never know how the previous owner drove it plus the 00 models have some known gremlins such as the 1-2 grind, clutch chatter, etc. All of which are supposed to be fixed on the 02.

I know that after owning a couple used cars, I will NEVER get another used car unless it's a family member I know who takes care of the car.

Just my .02

 

I would buy the new one. The previous owner is not real attentive to the details or something. Yes, the knob may have come that way, no big deal! To fix the knob is a less than one-minute job with one wrench or even a pair of pliers ( ). The locking nut under the knob needs to be loosened, the knob backed off so it is straight and then the locking nut retightened to the bottom of the knob. It may have taken me longer to type this than it would have taken me to fix it. The 2002 model has lots of changes that make it a better car. There are many threads that detail all the changes if you do some searching. Congrats on what ever you do, this is one fantastic car!

 

you will definitely get a better % rate on new car compared to a used car..
but make sure if you do buy the a new 02 to pay no more than MSRP..
$4000 dollars less for either an 00-01 doesnt sound that bad neither but you have to make sure it has pretty low miles. i would say 4k-6k miles should be decent as long as it hasnt been into an accident.

 

Rieger328Ci,
When I was at Carmichael Honda over the holidays, I saw 4 new S2000's there! 3 silver/black and 1 blue/blue. They were asking $5k over, but maybe if it's still there, they'll let it go for MSRP. I doubt, but worth a try! I think it'll be hard to find MSRP for new in California still!

 

If you've considered leasing, check out my post:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...&threadid=42506

 

Oh yeah I got to test drive it on Sunday and I've been thinking about the S2000 every single second since then. AH I CANT WAIT!

 

Get the new one. S2Ks hold their value too well and for the extra few $$, you'll get a glass rear window if nothing else, and there's the peace of mind that you know the previous owner didn't thrash it..... because there was no previous owner.