Keep the '2k or get an older one.

My kid's getting his learners permit in January. I've been looking at "beaters" for him. I'm leaning toward a 2000 Crown Vic police interceptor which are available for $3-5K. Comfortable, safe and reliable. If he wrecks it, he should walk away. No one will steal it either.

I can't imagine a beater to be beyond your means. Domestic beaters are far cheaper then Civics and toyotas. Cheap to fix, easy to maintain, cheap to insure.

It's not a honda but, in a couple years when it dies, you can just abandon it or sell it to some other redneck.

 

ok this is the deal...im about to buy an s2k and i live in jersey. figure that the east coast gets about 2 weeks of snow every year or so...a little more or a little less lets say. the first 2 days the snow will be cleared off the ground. in those 2 days, just make sure that u have snow tires and you drive carefully. as for the room...u gotta ask yourself if u constantly drive with people or is it mostly you and someone else. im my situation i either drive by myself or with the company of my girlfriend, so it works.

another thing...ive always been into the honda scene, being that my first and only car was an integra. we all know that the honda scene in particular, with the exception of some cars other than civics or integras, is very risky. given that the s2000 is generally a less stolen car than most other hondas, i would not worry about keeping it at a downtown parking lot. the only real thing that ricers want from the s2 is the seats and steering wheel. nothing else would serve them any purpose. the cars they target the most are integras and civics ( hence why my integra got stolen out of my college campus in pure dailight with cops around). with the b series motors dying out a bit, the new k series motors especially the rsx-type s one is becoming a very popular swap for young kids to do on their civics (hence the fact that the type s insurance is wayyy higher than the s2) i was paying $2000 a year for my integra. i just got my insurance quote for the s2k and it came out to $550 every six months which turns out to be $1100 every year. thats a very big different given that one car is just an integra and the other is a rwd 240hp convertible sports car.

i would reconsider the fact of going back to the type s. in the long run i think that the s2k will be of better use to you. if not try to invest in a "normal" and "not so stolen" car such as any toyota or nissan. but knowing that i come from a spot where car theft is skyrocketing, take it from me that u wouldnt want to be driving a type s. i know a lot of thieves that live in my city and i can tell you right now that they will target a type s EVERY TIME instead of an s2k. just think about that...just my.02 cents

 

I would say keep the S. It's not like you really need the extra space in the back. You would also end up losing money with the trade (remember, your next car will get taxed too).

For mods, just drive the car the way it is! Mods for other cars ain't cheap either. And you probably need to work on a few items to get the DC5 up to what you want that you could get out of the S.

Anyway, I always feel that if you respect a RWD car with snow tires (i.e. drive carefully), it wouldn't be much different from a FWD car in the snow. In the past (when I was still on the West Coast) I haven't really had an instance where I could not drive my parents' and brother's RWD cars when I was able to drive my Prelude out. RWD or FWD ... they either both make it, or both don't ...

As a personal opinion, after owning RWD, I never looked back ...

As for the theft issue? Just make sure you have insurance for theft.

 

id say keep the S and buy a beater or sell the S and buy an older one like an 01-03 since u can find good deals and still get financing since its within 5 years. Yea New Haven i can see wat u mean with safety and general city driving its only a matter of time till some ass gives u a ding

 

just giving my .02

what do you think is the higher priority...? a house..? or the sports car..? that's the way I would look at it.

you seem to be pretty young to talk about a house when your 23/24..

owning a sports car at your "presumed age" must hit your financials pretty good..

weigh it out.. driving a low insurable car to save for a nice living environment, or... driving a machine that can increase your ins. premiums in an instant.. ?

I always look at purchases, in how it used my time.. how much time in a car vs. a house... and then the investment side.. a car depreciates and a house appreciates.. (normally)

until I reached the age of 26, I never owned a car that I could not insure for liabilty ins. only.. just the way I did it. (but don't that fool you, I owned 360hp and 440 torque muscle cars ... and I paid less the $1k for them back then) and I still do it the same way... house first.. car second.. and my 2nd car now is a S2K.. (and it's just my toy)

it really just depends on what YOUR priorities are..

 

yea in my work area (new haven) hondas and acuras are the msot stolen cars, there was an add about it in the newspaper. i mean the lots are secured but there not that secured, as someone can jsut walk right to the car and nothing will happen

 

yea thats another good point as well, once you get a house you can always still get a sports car later on once your settled in..

see whats wierd is most people on this forum have to be at least in the mid to late 20's and those people already own hosues on such and probably own 2 cars, and there insurance is ALOT cheaper than a 19 year old's insurance, so there point of view of the situation may be different b/c there already on there own and such

 

i know id be loosing around 3-4g if i trade it in, also i would get a tax credit from the s2k onto the new car that i would be getting


actually the dc5 repsonds to mods pretty good, simple i/h/e and kpro give the dc5 pretty good amount of power compared to stock

yea i always drive carefully in the snow, but i will have to be extra careful since its gonna be snowing soon here, i have snow tires so will see

what i really should have done was kept the automatic rsx and waited through the winter like i had planned and really though about what i wanted to do for a car, becasue the rsx would have been paid off by the spring, so i could have just kept it, and got a used s2k..

 

Call your insurance co. and ask for a quote using a beater as your primary car and the S2000 for leisure purposes. My insurance works out cheaper this way, and I'm basically in the same age bracket. $4,400 a year is insane, do you have a bad driving record?

 

Well ... definitely do whatever makes you happy and comfortable. At the end the day, you are the one who's spending the most time with the car. If you feel the S is a burden financially, or that the car draws too much attention in your area that it's keeping you awake at night ... then maybe RSX isn't bad of an idea -- afterall, the RSX is a nice car as well.

I must agree with you about the "carefree" nature of the RSX ... it would catch less attention, etc. Sometimes owning a nicer car is actually more of an inconvenience than convenience (at least in Manhattan). I don't feel as comfortable parking my car in a shady neighbourhood, where as my friends who drive more low profile cars (like Golf, Accord, Cooper base model, etc) would have a much easier time ...

Anyway, good luck!