Found what looks to be clean 2006 Silverstone Metallic, unfortunately I am over 800mi away from the vehicle so I'm unable to see it in person. If you see anything of concern beyond the red sprayed OEM brake calipers please advise.

https://www.indywholesaledirect.com/...s2000/65548188
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/invent...ting=272516963

 

Looks good...but have to inspect in person to be sure..

 

That is not possible due to my distance away from the vehicle. Delivery of the vehicle to my home is $400 which is cheaper then me flying & driving it back home, would prefer to save the 800 + highway miles for the one way trip home.

 

Boiling down my short answer....its got badly painted calipers and its been kinda sorta winter driven.

That bothers ME. But not everyone.


Read on for a more painfully detailed explanation....

OR stop reading because the above is really the jist of it.

I'd rather just drive it home, as opposed to having it shipped.

Fly out + 800 miles is an easy round trip done in 1 day (for me)....BUT I understand that times are strange and everyone is different.

If you trust the person to give you good info, I guess having it shipped may work fine for you. But I would want to go and look it over in person. Unless the dealer has a 100% satisfaction guarantee? And I'd wanna drive my new car home, because its fun.


You gotta get pretty clever and you need to assume risk on this, like any used car.

You asked for comments on the pics, so here are my thousand words.

The owner seems a little negligent or impatient. Or the car wasn't really a high priority.

Pictures tell me that this person wanted to take their caliper color to the highest level...but couldn't be bothered to remove or mask them.

What kind of mindset allows this?

The calipers were painted and there's massive overspray. It seems minor, but did this person do everything else with the same amount of disdain?

Unfortunately, its deemed rude to ask, "are you this casually negligent about everything in your life?". And you can't ask anyway, because this car is being sold thru a dealer.

my questions to the owner would hint toward my concerns on that topic, though. Like, I'd just ask what other mods/maintenance have been done and ASSUME to some extent that they may have been done carelessly.

Like, if this person did their own oil changes, it may be worth asking, "did you use a torque wrench on the drain plug?"

"Nah, I just tightened by hand" would alert me that the drain plug has *possibly* been over/under torqued carelessly. So I'd decide, "is the price of this car good enough to deal with POTENTIAL oil pan stripped threads?"

^these are just examples, obviously.

The pics just show a mildly rusted underbody that may have seen 1 or 2 salty winters. Or this person may just be impatient (red calipers with overspray help me justify this generalization), and he/she drove the car on "nice" days during winter, when there was still salt on the road.

IMO, careful/patient people who really value the car would:
-Make the choice of not painting the calipers unless painting them correctly, or paying for them to be properly done was on the table.
-Wait for the salt to be gone before driving it in winter.

I understand that lots of people DD their S2000's in winter. This isn't the case here. Its all half-assed. Half ass storage. Half ass painting.

I'm probably being too critical because:
-I'm not a very nice person.

But...you asked for thoughts on the pics, eh?

 

As soon as I saw the overspray, what B described is exactly what I thought. What is else did the PO do a half @$$ job on (obviously the shifter/shift knob)?

 

The car seems market priced, defects and all, and this is 'high season" for roadsters in the Midwest so it will probably sell. I think I see a hint of a torn roof over the passenger's shoulder. If the car has all 10 VIN tags I'd put it on the consideration list if I lived in Indianapolis, but I'm not that much of a gambler to buy sight-unseen (like the Mighty Car Mods guys do all the time).

The address is a warehouse, not a car dealer. Aerial photos are available on Google Earth.

Pass.

-- Chuck

 

Just got off the phone & requested pics of the top as well getting the car inspected by a 3rd party.

 

Are those Goodyear Assurance tripletreads on the front?
I think that just reiterates the point made above, not the owner history I would want if I was paying that much.

 

Waiting on pics of the tires as well, looks to be at the least two different

 

The front tires don't look to be the factory size either. But pictures can be deceiving. Maybe the dealer replaced them.

I bought my 18K mile S2000 from a dealer. They had replaced the rear tires with some Pirelli all-seasons. So I bought the car and did a 45 second long burnout. Turns out those tires have INCREDIBLE treadwear. The car was still a mint 18K mile S2000. But...the dealer was using those cheapo replacements as a selling point - no fault of the car itself. I still have it, 14 years later.


So what makes this "the one"?

Like...what's your ideal S2000?

Would make for better opinions/viewpoints if we knew your criteria.