[QUOTE]Originally posted by ganthet
[B]sniff.....Gchambers, thanks for the support

 

Ganthet,

It's me, earlier post, Miles Davis, drive home, slow lane?????? Trust me, you will VTEC and you will enjoy it.

 

Woo hoo! That's three for the "Gan Fan Club" Maybe I'll have T-shirts made up. After my test drive, I've been anxious to get the car. God I hope my house closing proceeds quickly!


I decided to replace the tires on my Civic and just keep it for those occasions where a 2-seater isn't going to work for me. I'm not so worried about transporting people (the girls are date as usually thin enough that I can fit two in the passenger seat ) but if I ever need to bring something like a 21 inch monitor home from work, I don't think the S2k is gonna work real well

 

Good luck and enjoy all those top down days that await you. You will enjoy this car, I'm sure, no matter how leisurely you drive it. Once you spend some time on this site, you'll probably see the "whiners" that harp on the main things mentioned in these replys. I just hate to see those another LOSER join in, so I'm up-front with people that ask whether they should get this car.

Sounds like you're mainly getting it due to the looks and the manufacturer. And you are clearly making the right choice, IMHO, over the Z4 and the others you mentioned earlier.

Have fun!

 

Cool, Chandler. I appreciate the candor. Yes, I'm getting this car nearly entirely because of its looks and the Honda brand. I think the car is sexy as hell and I feel comfortable with Honda's reputation and my past experience with them. Even the way Honda USA took care of me when I *did* have a problem was great. I bought my Civic from a crummy dealer and had to take it back 3 times in the first 6 months for A/C problems. After the 2nd return, Honda USA sent me to another dealer who was much nicer to me about repairing my car. In total, I had the car back in there 7 times for various A/C parts over the course of the first 4 years of the car (they ended up replacing every component and the condenser was replaced twice!).

Even when I had exceeded the mileage on the warranty, Honda USA still authorized my last A/C repair, because this was such an on-going problem. That last act by Honda USA is what convinced me to stay with the brand. I felt that was exceptional of them to continue to perform these very expensive A/C repairs on a car that was more than tens of thousands of miles over the warranty limit. (Ok, I think it was the *right* thing to do, given my on-going problem, but getting a company to do the right thing these days is rare )

So, aside from my A/C problems, which I attribute to my car simply being a lemon in that area, I've had little trouble with my 2 Hondas and have gotten unreal mileage from the clutch (112k on the CRX and 196k on my Civic

(btw, in case you are wondering why I didnt get a new car under the Lemon Law, I was told it didnt apply because technically, it wasn't the same problem each time. They treated each component of the A/C that failed as a separate problem. Had the same A/C part failed three times, I could have invoked the lemon law )

As much as I wanted to buy a German car for sentimental reasons, I think I'm a Honda lifer

 

Just buy the car and enjoy it. Enjoy it anyway you like. Just enjoy it.

Yes you should keep the civic for those bad weather days you don't feel like driving the S, and for when the 21" monitor comes home.

 

I have owned the following motorized vehicles in the following order:

Two Honda motorcycles

VW Squareback (65 HP and 4 speed manual)

BMW 2002tii (full mechanical fuel injection, 150 HP, 4 speed manual, and exciting/scary semi-trailing-arm independent rear suspension--design was last used on the Z3).

Volvo 244 (107 HP and 4 speed manual + electric overdrive--went 260,000 miles and another 100,000 for the gal I sold it to with no engine work and one clutch change, but Volvo doesn't build 'em like that any longer).

Honda Accord hatchback (85 hp w/4-speed manual--first and last car I ever owned without a sunroof or convertible top).

Honda Civic EX VTEC (127 HP and 4-speed automatic)

Honda Accord EX-L Sedan (148 HP 4-cyl. with 4-speed automatic)

'03 S2000 (supplemented with my wife's '03 CR-V EX with 4-speed automatic when we need to carry more stuff and/or people or if the streets are flooded)

I don't know if this makes me an ordinary driver or not, but I'll bet I am by the standards of this forum. The vehicles I miss are the motorcycles and the tii. None of the Hondas ever let me down and every other car had to be towed at least twice. However, none of the other Hondas remained much fun after a year or two. Here are my impressions of the S2000:

- It's completely intoxicating with the top down. Unless it's raining, the top is down. (But I do live in Southern California.)

- The cockpit holds my chubby body very comfortably.

- The body is quite stiff for a roadster, although I will almost certainly get an x-brace to stiffen it even more. The cowl shake of most roadsters really puts me off.

- The brakes are completely amazing.

- It handles more like a go-kart than anything I have driven before. Therefore, I can have lots of fun at low speeds.

- It's 50:50 weight distribution makes the rear-wheel issue fairly unimportant unless there is ice or show out there.

- The car is virtually neutral in its handling up to the limit. After that, things get a bit dicey, since there is no heavy engine "out there" to use to redirect the car. This is a important issue.

- I want to get out for some lessons on how to control it after I have passed the limit, because I have never before had a mid-engine vehicle and I know that I need to improve my skills just in case.

- The car is noisy above 60 MPH. That is the nature of roadsters. I can hear the radio at 80 MPH but I lose the low and high notes unless I really turn it up. If you are buying this car mainly to listen to the radio, you and it are not a good match. I suspect that the Z4 and the Boxter are quieter. Think of what their drivers are missing!

- The power is there when I want it, which will be there for passing RV's on California Route 1, occasionally just feeling that push back in the seat, and--on occasion--surprising drivers of far more expensive cars. (I don't mean street racing. I mean just outperforming.)

- If you floor the pedal at 6,000 RPM while turning a corner, you should expect a surprise--maybe an unpleasant one. VTEC mode is the car equivalent of warp drive.

- After you take a test drive, have someone tell you if your face is locked in a smile. If it isn't, you should buy something else. There are lots of good sports cars out there for good prices--more today than any time I can remember.

 

heh heh... Crabby, you missed my post a ways back. I took the drive and I'm buying the car for sure! As far as the road noise and radio goes, I'm not buying the car to listen to the radio, but I do like to have a good system in my car, so I'll get an aftermarket one most likely. I didnt find the noise offensive at highway speed (wasnt in VTEC). That may be because my current POS car has a lot of road noise. I hear a lot of tire noise constantly but I'm so used to it that I really don't think about it much. I've noticed other people being a little uncomfortable with the noise levels though, but they have nicer newer vehicles. Like I said before, if I was coming from a luxury ride or even just a nice, quiet sedan like my friend's Maxima, I'd probably notice the noise more. I guess I'm just used to having to crank the stereo to cover road noise


Now if I can just get my house sale finished......sigh....