I didn't like s2000s at first (I know lol) I was a die hard Volkswagen girl, I loved my Jettas, and I had I think 3? at the time. My ex boyfriend had an 03 Sebring and one night he got a little too drunk to drive us home so I begrudgingly took the wheel. He promptly passed out. I fell in love... with the car.

I'm from Massachusetts and we were searching the entire east coast for something, but we kept getting duds and salvage titles and junk cars... Finally I found a Silverstone in New Jersey. We both took the day off work and that morning things started to get super sketchy... all of a sudden the guy couldn't find the title and the soft top was slashed... no thank you. I was heartbroken. I was miserable. He was sad for me so he just grabbed the laptop and looked quietly for a few hours and finally told me we needed tomorrow off too, and we were going to Pennsylvania. Okay. Excellent. The car was a 00 Berlina, red/ black interior... looked like it was in really good shape. I think he wanted 10k for it. High mileage. I didn't care.

Next morning, we call out of work, get gas in his orange loud ass Neon SRT4 that he also had at the time, hit the bank, pick up snacks for the road and we were on our way. I was beyond excited. Hours later we get there... car is not as pictured lol the guy selling the car had a brother with an s2000 so we suspect they swapped interiors before we got there as the seats in the car now were ripped and and destroyed really and the leather console was gone. I didn't even care. Had some pretty serious rocker rot that wasn't in the pictures. I didn't even care. Went to take it for a spin... promptly stalled it because of the ridiculous clutch. I didn't even care. Test drove went fine, no issues no crazy noises. It was mine. Come to find out in Pennsylvania you need the title notarized when you sell a car so we went on an adventure to find a notary at like 4 in the afternoon. Finally located one, got that straightened out, exchanged money in some sketchy alley in Allentown I think it was and we started back home.

The car came with this weird mix cd that I listed to the whole way home. Almost hit a dead deer that was in the middle of the high speed lane, scared the bejesus out of me. Had an accident occur right in front of me in New York City, I'm lucky to have been able to control the car and avoid that. My ex was actually shocked about that one it was such a close call. Finally pulled into our driveway around 3am. Half asleep but 100% happy.

The car was totaled almost a year later due to someone merging into me on the highway, I don't remember anything that happened or how really but I ended up hitting the concrete barrier almost head on, bent the frame, airbags deployed. Burns on my face from the airbag, the side of my head gushing blood because I slammed into the window. I was disoriented and all I wanted to do was retrieve my bumper that was on the other side of the highway. I bought it back, kept what I could and used things in my second s2000. I'll always have fond memories with that car. I miss it terribly.

 

The S had been a 'dream car' for me for many years, but I didnt think I would ever have the chance to buy one. So i stuck to my civics and accords and loved every one of them. As I got older i realized I could do a lot more financially than I ever thought possible, and the idea of the S crept back into my head. I landed a sweet job through a series of utter blind luck and much good fortune. After I got settled into my new job, I started looking at cars. New civics, new accords, same cycle.

While I was looking I began to think, if I was going to be paying for something for the next couple of years, it would have to be something that I LOVED, and that would be worth financing. So I switched my focus to S200s and began searching for anything within a days drive. As luck would have it, an S got traded into a dealership that 2 of my buddies worked at. I texted my one friend, who was the sales manager, that I wanted the S, but i didnt want to pay the 26k sticker price because it was way too inflated. Granted it was a perfect condition 04 with only 18k miles, but still, cheaper is always better in my book. Needless to say he laughed my off the phone. Oh well, I'll just keep on keeping on. This all happened in April of last year. Every month after that the S sat on their lot, unsold, and they kept marking it down every month. Finally in July I had had enough, and I was sitting at work on a friday morning[I work night shift, so friday morning is my friday night]. I got up and said f@#k it! I'm going to see what we can work out! I left work and went straight to the dealer, as they opened. The dealer had marked it down to 21k when i went in, and I was very frank with them as they were my friends, I told them I wanted it, but, for the lowest possible price. They pulled up the info and they had paid out 19.5 for the trade in, I offered them 19, and they bit. It cost the dealership 500, but the salesman, my buddy, got his commission. Drove it home in time for lunch!

The fun part was that their financial guy that finalizes all of their deals I guess was on vaca.[ I have no idea what the hell they were talking about, but I just went with it, knowing full well that it was the most sloppily handled car sale EVER] Soooo, my friend tossed me both sets of keys and said "Enjoy it for the week!" I drove it off the lot with dealer plates for a week until the deal was finalized and havent stopped smiling since! I've put 32k miles on it this past year and I've loved every single one of them!

One of the saddest things was that apparently their internet department had set up another sale for the car with someone from NY, without telling any of the sales team. So a half hour after I drove it off the lot, someone from NY showed up to buy it, and it was gone! I almost felt bad. Almost!

 

I bought mine 04 BB S2000 on 11/12/13. Seemed like a good date. Our 23 year old son had graduated from Robert Morris University and for the first time we had some discretionary income. Always owned Hondas and always wanted a convertible. Made sense to get a S2000. My son and I drove 300 miles to pick it up. Stored it for three months through bad weather. Have done majority of maintenance and this weekend my wife and I are attending Spring Fling in Hershey, PA. Had a nice drive with 70 S2000 enthusiasts in 36 cars. We ended at Antique car museum. Here is a nice group photo. Looking forward to many new memories and meeting new friends in a great car.

 

Up until last August, I was in a 1992 Toyota Pickup. She got me through college and 13,000 miles a year of daily driving. After 3 years of barely getting by as a broke college student, and putting off some much needed TLC, she was in pretty sad shape: at a minimum, she needed a new radiator, motor mounts, leafs and shocks. There were also a ton of dents and dings, and a badly peeling, totally half-assed paintjob from a PO. She had served me well, but I came to the conclusion it was time. She was a nice little beater. She had 265,000 on the clock when I sold her for $500.

The week after I sold her, the hunt for a new (or new to me) car was on. I took my then fiancé's Forester out and began the hunt. My first car was a Subaru Legacy sedan, and I was still quite fond of Subarus, so naturally a WRX was in my future. After driving 3 WRXs in various states of snowboard punk abuse, plus dealing with the sleazy local Subaru dealership when I was looking at a new one, I decided that wasn't for me.

I wanted a sports car.

I began searching for every new-ish rear wheel drive car I could think of: RX-8s, 350zs, BMWs, the odd MR2 and even took a GT86 out for a spin, but nothing really clicked. Every one of those cars had something that was just inherently wrong…: The RX-8? Rotary reliability or lack thereof. 350Z? In my opinion, it’s one of the worst looking cars of the past decade. I wouldn't care how it drove; I couldn't bring myself to be seen in something so ugly. A Beamer would be insanely expensive to fix, should anything go wrong, and given my price range, it’s going to be a used BMW, so it likely will. Old MR2s are likely abused, or overpriced for what they are, and newer MR2s are too soft to be any fun. The GT86? Underpowered, plus I’d have to eat a pretty substantial amount of depreciation right off the bat for something that isn't quite up to snuff.

Hindsight here: I just realized I didn't look at a single Miata. ... That’s probably for the best.

But one day I went into a used car dealer to take a look at a red MR2 Spyder, just to say I drove one and it was not worth entertaining the thought. I walked inside the showroom and there were two convertibles parked next to each other. One was a red MR2 Spyder, the other a 2006 NFR. I was reminded of drooling over one in high school after I had gone to a dealership to get parts for an ‘89 Civic. Owning one was always a pipe dream, something I had just written off as impossible and had completely forgotten about. The only thing that went through my head when I saw the S2000 was “This is it”.

I completely forgot about the MR2, and took the S2000 out. I took the better half out on a test drive with it later that day and she was sold. The next day the car was sold, the keys were mine, the top was down and the wind was in my hair.

 

Well, Like most.... the S2000 has been my favorite car since I was a boy in 1999 (Age 12) just at geeky kid that loved computers and cars.... of course when the S2K model came out my heart was stolen immediately but living in a 3rd world country like Dominican Republic.... it was a car I could only dream of since currency exchanges and all, it was a car I would believe I could never get...

At age 17 had my first car.... tuning it of course was interested in this type of scene.... never been a rice kid.... always been into the FUNCTION>FORM deal.... loved cars for being fast.... and there performance capabilities on driving them. So as I got older and learned more and more about cars.... knew that the S2K will always be the car of my dreams, due to that it was a driver’s car built for drivers not the look at me and my ride type of person... it was for someone that loved driving loved engine sounds, loved that mechanical feeling when you shift gears... but again economy reasons were why I could only dream about this.... have had more than 10 cars.... and 10 years later after trying to buy several s2000's in the past but something ALWAYS happened (was sold before I got the money [3rd Try], bad condition of the s2k [2nd Try], someone bought it before me on same day [1st try]) I was already giving up on my dream of having an S2000... I actually felt like GOD didn’t want me to have an S2K, for real...

I’m 27, just gave up on them... and was ready to buy another car... when I receive a call for the seller of that car telling me that he just sold THAT CAR TO SOMEONE ELSE... I was like WTF!!!! REALLYYYYYYY was so mad that this has happened to me AGAIN..... but that same day... I receive a call from this guy that lives 4 hours away from home... the other side of my country... telling me that he decided to sell his car (we had talked in the past, long time ago) and he remembered about how passionate I was about Honda S2000's and that he wanted me to have his.... I actually almost bursted into tears hearing this and saying to myself after so many years I’m actually got buy an AP1... got a flashback of the first time I test drove my 1st S2K that I wanted to buy.... the feeling I got when I drove it and facing the fact that I’m really going to have it! Immediately called my friend and drove over to his location, check everything out and do the deal..... and that’s how I have my MY03 Silverstone.

Already have a complete month with it... it’s not my DD but every time I hit that START ENGINE my heart accelerates just thinking all the emotions I’ve been thru just to have one of these cars and being able to press said button... and really thanking God for the opportunity to have a dream car like this car is for me.

Wow, that drive back home.... PRICELESS, that smile on my face when I parked it in my garage the first time, PRICELESS.... knowing all the hard work.... just to have the cash... ALL WORTH IT!!!

 

December 21, 2006 in Winston-Salem, NC. Trading a heavily modified black 2003 Mustang SVT (Cobra) for either a red 2006 or a black 2007 - $600 difference in price. I opted for the 2006. The drive home (Blacksburg, VA) was no fun as just after crossing the State line near Fancy Gap, VA it began to rain, sleet, and snow - on my NEW car!!! None the less, it handled great and has been the best car I've ever owned. Over the years, I've changed all of the mechanical parts to match the CR but passed on all of the body aero add-ons. Spoon exhaust and CAI make it a joy to dive.

 

^^^^ How you manage the loss of power ???? I came from a 2JZ 400HP IS300 to my s2k.... hate the loss of power... but handling makes it enough fun for me... altho i will boost in the future, i want 400HP again.

 

It's been a long time since I've been on this site. Well here goes....The S2000 came out in California in September of '99. I was in the market and had just put a deposit on an Audi S4. I stopped at the local Honda dealer in San Juan Capistrano and asked if they had a car yet. They said one had just come in and was out back in the service area. So I walked back and there was black one sitting there. Somehow they let me go back without a salesman;-) I sat in the car and immediately felt it fit me perfectly. It just felt right. All of the dealers in So. Cal were marking up the price by a lot. I managed to test drive one at another dealer and checked with several others looking for a Silverstone/Black. A couple of weeks later, I got a call on a Sunday from a dealer in Corona and he said they had just gotten in the exact car. He wanted me to come in and see it (about an hour away), I hedged and said I'd come in during the week. He said he could bring it out to me. That was a new idea I'd never heard. I told him I was trading in my Maxima and didn't know how we could do that. He asked me about the Maxima and came back with a trade-in (sight unseen) that was the best I'd had so far and I said ok. He showed up at my house a couple of hours later and in a short time the deal was done. It was Oct. 23, 1999. There were so few S2000's on the road at that point, it was really rare and people were constantly stopping me to ask about it. I paid well over list for it, but so did everyone else at that time in that area. I got onto the Honda-Acura forums and then when S2ki started I was, I believe the 97th one to sign up.

I still have the car. It's got 65,000 miles and is a summer garage queen. Still the best decision I've made is buying that car. It will be 15 years in October and the car still looks like it did on day one.

 

I love reading these, everyone always has an interesting way of figuring out what car is for them.

On to mine. After I graduated college in '13, I took my signing bonus for work and plopped it down as a down payment on a 2010 Camaro SS, I thought I'd want an automatic since I was moving to socal and the traffic is pretty sucky here. After less than a year of car payments and 10mpgs in Cali traffic, I decided I was done and wanted to pay cash for something. I set a budget of $10k and started searching. I was at a chevy dealer getting the Camaro's oil changed and casually mentioned to the parts guy that I was looking for a fairly beat up ap1 I that I could work on, he had heard that there was an s2k at a dodge dealer up the road. Right after the oil change was finished I swung up to check it out, turned out to be an AP2 that they wanted 14,995 for, but they weren't going to actually put it on the lot and instead were planning on sending it to auction. 3 hours later I parted with $12.5k and I walked out with the keys the my '05 AP2 with 80k miles. It was in much better shape than I wanted but I figured I'd survive. That became a very expensive oil change.

Came from: 2010 Camaro SS, headers, intake and tune with 390whp
To a: bone stock AP2

Picture from that night:

 

Rather than doing my "How I got Hooked" posting all over again, here's the link to How I got Hooked on the S2K

I wasn't aware of this thread, but glad I saw it mentioned in the latest S2KI newsletter. Lots of fun reading others' experiences.