I keep seeing mention that Honda has the largest profit on the S2K, but see no mention of what this is based on, or mention of sources of information. As an engineer I can tell you all about non-recurring engineering costs. These are costs to design and qualify the vehicle exclusive of production costs. I would expect the S2K to be sold at a large margin to recover this cost. My friends in Japan tell me the only reason Honda is considering more then a two year run is to recoup these costs. Any thoughts out there?

 

The AHM dealers are doing fine with a $4000 profit. Honda is probably NOT meeting costs on manufacturing the car; but, the halo effect must be worth something to them.

 

Yeah, the amount of "free" advertsing from the intro of the S2000 covered in EVERY major auto media was well worth the amount they take a hit on for each of these cars. if they sell for over 2 years, they will likely recoup some more costs, but I cannot see there being a major economies of scale advantage as these cars are still technically hand built, coming out of Tochigi.

 

I have heard that from people on various message boards. Before the S2000 came out the rumor was that Honda barely made any money on the S2000 since it was an anniversary gift. I believe the latter. Take a look at a top of the line Accord V6 with everything on it, around the same MSRP as the S2000. The S2000 is in an extremely low quantity and made by hand in Hondas finest plant (thereby taking production away from the NSX). As we all know, it is in general much more expensive to produce lower quantity of items then large. Every part on the S2000 is produced in small quantities (say 20,000 fenders on an S2000 vs 500,000 on an Accord).

Just look at its competitors, they charge $10K to $30K for the same performance and what a few magazines have said not even as good quality of build.

 

The invoice on an 01' stook is $29,172(with destination), the sticker is $32,740(with destination). That's a $3,568 profit for the dealer(minus the holdback, which changes depending on the previous years sales for that particular dealer). According to the Honda rep for my local dealership, that profit is about double the loss on each of the S2ks built. A major contributing factor is, as said before, the plant of manufacture, which is the Takanezawa plant in Tochigi Japan. It is also rumored that the chief engineer on the stook(Shigeru Uehara, who is also responsible for the NSX)did all his work for free! How is that for getting behind your product?

 

Y2KS2K: This has been killing me for some time. What exactly does #1553 "Retired" mean? Have you put it on blocks for posterity (I hope) or was it a crash and burn victim?

Sorry....Just had to ask

 

I only paid about $24K for my '99 EX V-6. Unless they've really gone up and you added a spoiler, special wheels, etc., I don't see how you could get to nearly $33K. You could on an Acura TL, sure, but on a Accord? I don't think so.

 

Look out for us creative bean counter MBAs.

On an activity based accounting method they make a lot based on what the S2000 costs to produce. And for those of us that do't like the carpet and stereo much have you sat in an Insight? The interior materials beyond the dash look and feel like they only cost $2.00 for the whole car,

The grey area for me is the plant overhead. They use a low volume/high cost plant. I think they only produce 3 cars there currently. NSX (around $90,000 each list), S2000 (around $32,000 list) and Insight (around $19,000 list).

Sure, they would like to pump NSX though but the current car has very little market. They are pumping out some S2000 and Insight volume. The accountants would not want to see any Insights IMO. The price is low to start and with heavy discounting you can buy a new one around here for under $16,000.

On the development costs, at least the NSX was built for a long period of time to absorb the fixed costs. Both the S2000 and Insight came with plenty of engineering costs. For the Insight the environmental friendly hybrid approach is sure to be distributed widely in the line.
As for the S2000 new technology my only make it to the Integra replacement.

 

I believe that Y2KS2K is one of the owners who was so taken with the new yellow for 2001 that they "retired" (sold) their 2000 S2000 in order to buy a 2001 yellow/black.