others might say that less weight makes a better street car too... where most of these special versions spend their time, and the people that drive them believe that they have a more pure sports car, regardless of make.

 

everything?

must be why mazda has sold >700,000

 

Yes everything.

The Miata is mass produced while the S2000 is limited so naturally there are 700,000 Miata's out there versus about 50,000 S2000's.

 

That's probably true. The Miata has been on sale for what? 16 years? S2K = 6.

 

how noble of honda to not make enough s2ks for everyone that wants one

 

I'm going to venture a prediction that the Miata will be on sale a lot longer too. In a recent Road and Track, they stated that the lackluster selling s2000 might face cancellation in 2006 or 2007 with no successor in the pipeline. Mazda just revamped their model guaranteeing them at least 3 or 4 more years on the market. Sure the s2000 is a better performing car, but it isn't... nor is it likely to be a bigger sales success.

 

Honda never expected the s2000 to be a high volume seller. They intended it to be a low volume, specialty car for the select few enthusiasts. I don't know how many they send to U.S. right now, but for the first couple of years they only sent 6000 a year. The dealers were putting on high markups and they were still selling out of them... Hence why they could mark them up.

With the 350Z being built in such high numbers the dealers have to charge invoice for the most part now, but they are still selling the ones they get.

Rumors have been around since the first year they came out that they were going to discontinue the car due to low sales, market pressures blah blah. What all the magazines keep forgetting is that Honda never intended to make or sell 50000 of them a year. By that reasoning they should stop selling the NSX, it certainly doesn't sell in high volumes either. They didn't revamp the NSX for what? 10 years, 15 years? And they keep selling them.

If it isn't broke, don't fix it.

The s2000 will be around awhile.

 

The Miata was designed to be like the British sportscars of the '60's...fun, nimble, light and cheap. What they added into the mix was reliability. The S2000 was designed to be unique and show off engineering prowess. 240hp out of a 2 liter? Insane. Incredible handling, looks, etc, at a great price. Different cars for different purposes. I miss my Miata, but I could never go back to it.

 

Wrong.

The S2000 does it better in every major measurable performance category.

It doesn't need to sell hundreds of thousands to be a sales success. This is a low volume, limited production car unlike the mass produced Miata. Dealers have sold and will sell every S2000 produced. In these terms, the S2000 is a sales home run.

As far as cancellation goes, there have been rumors since MY2000 although I do expect Honda to kill the S2000 within two or three more model years not because of a lack of sales but because Honda originally intended a limited product lifespan.