The oldest of our cars are now getting ready to celebrate their 14th birthdays. Mine is 2002 model that I bought brand new. whatever mods I did were minor and about a year after I did them, I changed it all back to stock because I really didn't think the mods were much of an improvement. I've had no major problems and the minor problems are so minor they don't really merit any discussion. I only have 47K on my car so I think I can get another 12 years out of her with no problem, so long as I continue with the regular maintenance and regularly replace wear items like brake pads and clutch.

All this got me wondering, how long is the life expectancy of the S2000. I know driving styles and modifications will have a big impact on this, but assuming the owner keeps the car mostly stock, drives it in a sane fashion 80 or 90% of the time and "explores" its capabilities the rest of the time how long can one expect the car to last? Do you think the engine will go before the body? How long will the body shell last?

 

Mine has a quick approaching 120,000 miles and shows absolutely 0 sign of stopping. I know there's people out there with 200k+ on theres. I think it all just depends upon how well you take care of it.

 

I think to answer this question we need a lot more information. How is the car stored and kept? What type of weather conditions are in your area? Being close to an ocean/salt water is going to depreciate the life of the steel components quicker than if you lived in the mountains for example. Things made of rubber; bushings etc, are replacement items after 75k-100k miles for a car that is not tracked, but if the car is tracked this number will decrease heavily.

Bottom line, there are many factors...and they are all relative.

 

IMO, this car will last a very long time if you take care of it. The frame and all body panels are galvanneal coated and are well designed to prevent corrosion. If your car sees a lot of rough roads you could get some fatigue cracking over time, but if this was a problem you'd probably have read about it by now.

Like all other Honda engines, it's designed to last if you maintain it and don't abuse it. I have 292,000 miles on my car and haven't had any problems.

I have had to replace wheel bearings, plugs, fluids, belts, brakes and tires and adjust valves but just about everything else is original.

 

like any car, with maintenance, it will last a very long time. check out the collector car auctions to see how many cars are 50-60 plus years old. The GTX in my sig is 25 years old now.

darcy

 

+1 what he said.

I think cars are kind of like people's bodies. Take care of it, the thing will last a good long time. Beat the snot out of it, probably not so much. And then there is always that one exception where everything was done right, yet the thing blew up way too early.

 

until a severe enough driver error

 

Bill!

I hope it lasts forever because that is how long I plan on keeping mine!

 

Virtually forever, barring serious accident.

What wear issues can't be repaired? Like was mentioned, there are perfectly drivable cars out thers that are 50+ years old. Think of the classic cars that have had some performance updates, and are competing at the highest levels of amatuer performance events. Think of the '69 camaro's and such in those Optima Challenge series.

Those cars were built before the computer age, and without galvanized panels. Those cars would be rusted to pieces in 10 years and the engine was done by 100K miles. A well engineered car like an S, with galvanized panels, engines that are still going strong at 300K, it will last as long as you want it to.

What will prevent your S from being viable transport 50 years frrom now will be:

- you wreck it
- you don't maintain it, and it becomes cost prohibitive to restore it
- parts become unavailable
- fuel becomes unavailable
- technology advances with driveless modes that aren't easy to adapt to older cars

If electric cars or some other technology becomes the norm, fuel will get harder to come by, and more expensive. If when that happens, at some point gas powered cars will be fun antiques, not real transport.

But other than these scenarios, or Armagedon, there is no reason your S can't outlast you. The car I soldto get my S was a 1971 Buick GS (think Buick GTO), that had over 225K miles on it. Original engine (rebuilt once by me), still running strong, not burning oil. It looked great and handled, stopped and drove as good, or better, than new. I don't think there was a single drive I took in that car where I didn't redline it. Most drives included cornering abuse of the tires and punishment of the brakes. I drove that car hard, but I took care of it. It was my only car for about 15 years, and I owned for a total of 30 years.

The technology in an S is light years ahead of that old Detroit sled. If that old car could still be running like new at that age, there is no limit for the S.

 

I am at 161k and I DD my S.
It's an 02 that I bought with 19k on the clock.

I do NOT drive it easy.
I regularly do the maintenance on it (oil, trans, dif, filters, etc)

It's got issues, mostly cosmetic because...it's old.

Burns more oil than it used to.
Idles a little rougher than it used to.
Squeaks and rattles more than it used to.
Tears in the top.

Other than that, it's perfectly fine. I'm even on the stock clutch.

Only "major" things I've had to do are CV cup swap, then TCT a couple times, Shattered an axle joint on the passenger side, and now the driver side CV is pitting and vibrating again (cheap fix)

Just replaced the STOCK rotors (plenty of life left) and put new pads on
Just replaced a leaking Clutch Master Cylinder
Passenger headlight is starting to flicker and go out, come back, etc - new ballast in the future