Been driving my S for just about 1.5 years as a daily driver (over 30K miles). Here are my thoughts.

Oversteer: It depends on whether you are talking about the car's behavior on the TRACK vs. on public street. If TRACK, I can't speak from my experience as I have never done it...yet . However, track junkies seem to confirm the oversteer tendency of the car (so does the number of megazines). On PUBLIC ROADS, I've had absolutely no issue with oversteer at all. All the S2000 crashes supposedly caused by this "oversteer" phenomenon are, in fact, IMHO, due to the DRIVER's over confidence. After all, Drivers cause crashes not he car.

Engine Problem: I don't think your friend should worry about the engine. If anything, S2000's "weak point" would be the tranny (i.e. I'm sure you are familiar with the infamous 2nd gear grind). I was fortunate enough to have no issue with this as well. Keep in mind though, on a board like this, things tend to be "magnified" a lot (not to be disrespectable to those who did have tranny issues) and overall, the tranny holds up pretty well as long as you don't go FI.

Honda's apparent reluctance to any warranty work: This is what's holding me up in deciding whether I should purchase a HondaCare extended warranty. In all honesty, I can't really say that my expericence with Honda dealers have been exactly "positive" as I like it to be. On the other hand, I can't think of any Manufacturer who won't be "up-tight," at least initially, when you are about to speak the "W" word.

Overall, I would tell your friend to take the plunge. It's an awesome car.

 

Spring spacers; the car would drive really poorly if the springs were removed.

 

Yes. You maybe able to even touch them if you have small hands without lifting it.

 

If you're a mature driver you shouldn't be hitting the median leaving a parking lot. Yeah, learn to drive is the best advice, and part of the fun. As for winter driving, I have no idea, check where I live, it snows here once every 12 years. I would guess that there are a lot more younger drivers in S2K's than there are in Boxsters, thus doing more moronic things. I've had 3 Porsches and yes they're a pain in the butt to maintain, that's why I'm switching to the S2K. BTW the '04's may have a bit better rear suspension setup, so he may want to wait and see. That's what I'm doing.

 

As mentioned ad naseum (sorry guys) over the past year and one-half, this is my 23rd sportscar. I've owned Alfas, Triumphs, RX7 Turbos, etc. Without a doubt, this is the BEST handling sportscar I've owned with the possible exception of my modified MR2 Spyder ('00). The conditions which would cause the car to go wholly out of control are probably caused by a series of events:
1. Environment (IOW, weather and the road surface)
2. Driver input
3. Another driver's input (think evasive maneuver, etc).
Be that as it may, I drive the car to 8/10th's on public roads once/twice per week and have NEVER had so much as a situation that made me nervous. My S2000 has NEVER had a loss of traction moment. However, I DON'T drive 8/10th's in the rain, I don't brake in/out of turns and frankly speaking, was weened on RWD automobiles.
To be honest, I am getting tired of reading reviews calling the car "tricky" or "loose." To get to that point, one would literally have to be pushing the car to its limits and doing so on a public road is stupid. All of these magazines routinely flog the living crap out of the car and do so on race tracks or courses designed to rate or review automobiles. You're not going to be tooling across the Pacific Coast Highway moaning about the S2000's oversteer "problems" if you're driving 8/10th's and below, which in fact, 95% of all drivers should be at anyways.
Hope this doesn't sound like a rant but people are so quick to blame the car. I don't ever recall hearing Jack (Nicklaus) blame his clubs for a poor round.

 

Not to single "baldy74" out, but here's one example of the type of thing that worries him. The original poster doesn't say he was racing or otherwise beating on the car, just pulling out of a parking lot, something that, given the S2000's torque capabilities, doesn't imply a lot of speed unless the poster was pulling out of an amusement park-sized parking lot. It just sounds like "I made a turn and then blammo"...

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...threadid=133257

 

"I was still in first gear, and I don't think I was going very fast. I think it was pretty much maybe the oily roads during/after the rain."

Can't speak for him. But, this car being my first RWD ever, I knew I had to be careful when ambient conditions are even slightly less than optimal. For instance, IF the road is "oily during/after the rain" i don't go over 4K rpm...just don't ask me how I found out
.

 

A few months ago, someone posted about how 'suddenly' his car spun while he was driving normally. The car came around, slid into a curb, and damaged the wheels and suspension. After a few questions, we learned that the road was wet, and he lost it when VTEC kicked in at full throttle IN 1ST GEAR, and on worn tires.

Draw your own conclusions....

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jeffbrig
[B]A few months ago, someone posted about how 'suddenly' his car spun while he was driving normally.

 

Hey Russ, this is OT but what modifications did your Spyder have?

ron