I posted a few days back how I had a "confusing" test drive in an 05 Suzuka S2K:

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=310324

Well, I took a couple more test drives, and had an awesome experience in a Silverstone car this morning. Even with AC on, it felt a lot livlier than the Suzuka model I test drove the first time. I can only conclude that something was "off" with that car.

Anyway, I really fell in love with the Silverstone car this morning, and brought it home tonight. Honda is again offering the excellent lease deal on the S2K (0.00073 money factor ~ 1.75% interest) and it was the first time leasing made more sense than buying to me. Got the car for $273 a month, and if I want to buy at lease end (or sell it) I will come out even or ahead of financing/purchasing.

The paperwork/delivery experience was epic. Massive severe thunderstorms were ravaging the area around the dealership, and they lost power a couple times (had to re-start the computer paperwork twice after losing everything). The parking lot flooded, and for a while it was looking like I'd be driving my Outback home and getting the S2K on Monday. Nothing like just purchasing a convertible with ultra low ground clearance in the midst of epic monsoon-like rains to make you question your sanity! Fortunately, I waited around about 45 minutes for the weather to clear up and the roads to drain. Driving home, ditches were swollen and roaring like whitewater, so I made a beeline for my garage with the S2K and will venture back out for a real first drive tomorrow. I could just picture myself hydroplaning the new S2K into a ditch tonight....

Anyway, the car is a real treat to drive, and the Silverstone looks awesome. Thanks to everybody that gave feedback in the other thread -- I am glad I stuck it out and took another test drive.

Craig

 

Congrats, Craig! Take it easy while it's still wet!

 

good color choice!

 

Hey, congrats.

I might have been a bit offensive in the other thread. Stay away from me when I'm posting at work.

Hope you love the car.

 

Nice lease deal. i really worked the dealer over as well. i basically pit two dealers against each other until i got the numbers and the perks i wanted.

How much did you put down if you don't mind me asking?

i got the silverstone with the red seats. never been happier with any purchase. (i don't even have the clutch delay that a lot of people complain with the AP2. My clutch bites hard into redline every time. =)

 

Well, perhaps you don't FEEL the cluth delay, but your car should be equipped with one since it's an AP2. It feels even nicer when you get rid of it

 

I put down $2500 as a deposit, and there was another $1700 in fees/taxes (acq fee, first month, sec deposit, and state tax -- VA does tax up front, for about $900). I made up a spreadsheet for the lease (understanding the math helped me a lot) and used that to verify Honda's numbers and also correlate against a hypothetical loan.

I negotiated the car for invoice ($30335). I could have driven 120 miles to another dealer to get the car for $29700, but decided to stick with the local guys. They were really easy to deal with and I felt OK about paying invoice, which was as low as they were willing to go after a couple hours of back and forth. If the lease rate was higher, I probably would have gone after the extra $600....

Craig

 

Ah, so the S2K has a force-limiting valve on the clutch? My 03 WRX had one too, and it felt odd at first, but I learned how to avoid the engagement lag (plus that was not teh smoothes shifting car, so speed shifts were out of the question anyway). My understanding is that they added it to the WRX in order to keep punks from dumping the clutch and shredding the glass transmission. This is especially bad on AWD where traction is high and the gears are usually the weak link in the powertrain.

I would expect the S2K to break the rear tires loose before shredding the gears, but there must have been some history of transmission probs if Honda added the valve, eh?

Craig

 

No sweat. I have turned into a bit of an AH on the Subaru forums when newbies come along; it's frustrating sometimes (nobody searches archives, everybody seems to reinvent the wheel or rehash old stuff). So I know the feeling!

Craig

 

BTW, the dealer had that Suzuka car in the showroom yesterday with the hood open and the airbox cover off (probably to show off the conical air filter, which everybody seems to think is the best thing since sliced bread ). It would not surprise me if they did that before my test drive and then did not put the box back together right, so that could have had an effect. I don't know much about the S2K intake yet, but if the box was acting as any sort of resonator (which would tune standing pressure waves in the intake) then screwing with it could easily take the edge off the engine. I guess those of you who have modified the intake would know for sure.

On many Subaru boxer engines, people remove the intake resonator because it makes the engine sound cool and they think they are eliminating restrictions in the intake. But dynos show a HP/tq hit from this!

Craig