Drove past a used car lot with an S2000 parked in front. Since it was a 2002, I thought I'd check it out. Love my Miata, but 100 more horses is a good idea. Salesman and I went for a test drive. Went a few miles down the interstate and his roof latch popped open. He relatched it. Then the one on my side popped open. Both sides popped and relatched a few times. Each time we could hear wind blowing in the cabin. We ended up driving down the road with our hands holding the latches shut. Pretty funny.

Previous owner must have known about it.

The car had 20,000+ miles, so I wasn't interested in it anyway. The car was what I imagined (this was my first S2000) drive. I still love my Miata, but I am sure tempted to get one of these. I think I'll get a new one if I do.

 

Whatever those latches were doing...that's not particularly normal by any stretch of the imagination. I've got 36K miles on mine & they've never popped open.

Glad you seemed to enjoy the car otherwise.

- Dave

 

My first (and only) test drive was very short, about 2 miles and 5 minutes long. I drove a '02 with 4500 miles on it, so it should have been all nice and broken in. Everytime I got the revs up around 4000-5000, he would say, "OK, grab the next gear now" LOL I guess he didn;t want me to over-rev it! LOL

Then when I got up to *gasp* 65 mph in a 55, he went crazy and told me to slow down because he would be the one getting the ticket! Yeah...right!

Then the kicker - they said they would deal with me and let me have the one I just test drove for MRSP - $32,400 LOL

 

I test drove an M Coupe in 1999 before I got the S2000, and I knew that there was only going to be one decent straight during the drive so when I got stuck behind some granny in a minivan right at the beginning of the straight (on a two lane road) I pulled out and passed it when it was safe. Guess what? The salesman _freaked out_. I mean he lost it completely. Red-faced, he threatened to "take the keys away from me if I attempted to do that again"! Good god man, do I look like I'm 13 years old? Who died and made this ass my daddy? Needless to say I didn't consider the salesman, the dealership or even BMW in general in a positive light for quite some time.

I bought the S2000 weeks later and have never looked back, seeing as how I got a nice, healthy chance to push the S2K in a test drive prior to the purchase.

I now have 40,000 miles on her and my latches have never popped open. Are you sure they were being closed properly? I always have to close the left first then the right when putting the top up, but this is reversed when I open it. It just refuses to work any other way for me.

 

My first test drive was last December in a tech park. I was told to take it easy till I got past the last finished building ( which turned into a lot of twisties that was perfect to really let loose). When I came back I was all glossy eyed but lost so had to take it easy.
Lo and behold a county mounty had his radar on me but I wasn't speeding. Didn't buy that one but had the bug bad. Finally got mine in August.
P.S. I've never had any kind of problem with my latches

 

I'm pretty sure we were closing the latches the right way. Since I've never been in one before and was trying to learn while driving 70 mph, maybe not. But they looked quite similar in function to the Miata. As I closed the latch, a hook secured itself to the top of the A pillar. I think I did it right. The Miata has a couple of adjusment screws which would permit the same problem if relaxed too much. Maybe these are the same and just needed a screwdriver. Wonder how long the previous owner tolerated this? Made me wonder what else was wrong.

My impressions during the drive were---

--Love the gearbox. Never thought I'd find anything as sweet as the Miata, but this was right there.

--I could get real used to winding the motor up past 6000rpm.

--When I did get into VTEC, it didn't seem like I was abusing the motor. It felt like it wanted to do it all day. You get the impression that if you maintain the car well, it will go on forever. I like that.

--I never got a good feel for how well it handled. No twisties on the drive. But shifting lanes quickly and just the steering feel gives you the impression that handling is excellent.

--I could drive it all day and be real happy.

--If I get one, it will be new. I am real picky about car maintenance, and I unless I know what kind of life the car has had since new, I'm not interested.