Mister Clean

Congratulations with the purchase! I was actually looking at that particular S2000 at Bridgewater Acura three weeks ago, but ended up with the other 6K mile AP2 they had in stock as I preferred the color better.

Maybe the tech just genuinely forgot to screw the cap back on, or didn't screw it on tight enough?

Anyway, I recall reading your post in the "Is this worth it?" thread. Do you mind sharing the final price you settled on for that S2000? I was in the same situation when buying my car, they were only going to negotiate in the hundreds, not thousands.

Hope you're enjoying your S2000 as much as I am!

solitarycheese

I did a 60 mile drive with no oil cap once. I lost about a quart of oil, and the hood heat shield and area around the oil fill hole was covered in oil. My UOA showed no problems with contaminants from driving without it. Now I put the oil cap on the hood latch when topping it off, impossible to forget about it there Plus I have a stained hood shield and cracked windshield cowl to remind me

Spagolli94

Uhghg. So you are the one who bought the car I wanted!!!! Hahah. I saw the Silverstone one on their website, but it was already sold and they just hadn't taken the ad down yet. Actually, I was torn between the two b/c the one I bought didn't have a front license plate bracket installed, so no holes in the front bumper. In PA, we don't need front tags, so I would've had to remove the bracket and fill the holes with bumper plugs.

All of my typical negotiating tools failed and I was only able to talk them down a couple hundred bucks to $24,750. Did you happen to notice the price they had on the sticker. It was $29,900!!! The $24,900 price was their online listing price. Were they hoping somebody was going to walk into the dealership without looking online first??? Anyway, my failed negotiation went like this:

Me: Look at all these other S2000s for sale in the teens and low 20's.
Them: They all have 30, 50, even 70k miles on them.
Me: Good point

Me: But look at the book values for an S2000 with 6k miles, they are $2-3k less than yours
Them: Some book values are based on actual sales of cars. For an Accord, where there are thousands of sales to use for reference, book values can be more accurate. Finding an S2000 with only 6k miles on it doesn't give enough data for an accurate price are there are zero other cars to compare it to.

Me: But you've had this car for 5 months now. I'll give you $22k and you can sell it today.
Them: We'd rather wait another 6 months if we have to. We know these cars are rare, especially with only 6k miles. We know that if we hang onto the car until spring, we can get top dollar.

At this point, I realized they weren't going to budge, so I had a choice to make. I threw the book values out the window and searched AutoTrader one more time. This time, I searched for S2000s all over the country, but with under 30k miles. And to my surprise, they all had asking prices in the high $20s. I had already driven 2 hours up from Philly to look at the car. I knew I would have to wait a long time to find another one with such low miles, if ever. And for all I know, that seller could even be asking MORE. And I didn't feel like driving all over the place and possibly settling for a car with over 50k miles, only to save a couple thousand dollars. My time is worth more than that.

So at the end of the day, did I overpay? Maybe. But I really didn't think they were going to budge. Why would they? Finding an S2k that's practically brand new is like finding a needle in a hay stack. So maybe they were right. Maybe if they waited long enough, they would find a buyer willing to pay full price. And all that matters is that I'm happy with the car I got. If I over paid buy $2k, that's fine. My monthly divorce support payments are more than that, so it's really just a drop in the bucket.

To be honest, I haven't had much of a chance to drive the car yet. I brought it home Monday evening and it started to rain, so I wasn't even able to push it. And it hasn't stopped raining since!!! Uhghghg

Spagolli94

I'm 90% sure this is what happened. I'm thinking the tech didn't screw the cap on at all - just left it sitting on top of the engine. I'm glad to hear this isn't a big issue after all, and is actually quite common. I was freaking out at first but feel much better now.

Spagolli94

This is the part that I can't figure out. I drove the car for 10-15 minutes without the oil cap. Then I inspected the engine after we arrived back at the dealership. There was zero mess. How is it possible to drive without the oil cap and not have oil splashing everywhere? I checked the oil last night and it's full. Weird.

Mister Clean

Don't feel bad! They would not move much on the price for mine either. I got them down to $24,800 from $25,500 with some bluntly aggressive negotiation. The managers tried to give me an attitude, so I gave it right back to them. They agreed to discount the price if I financed through them, and I knew walking in that my discount would come via that, so I took their bait. They offered a 6.9% APR even with a 843 credit score, so while signing the papers I told them I would pay off the loan or re-fi via a credit union before the second payment came along. The manager cringed a little, knowing that we weren't as ignorant as they made us out to be

At the end of the day, both sides got what they wanted and I drove home in a real clean AP2. It was a tough choice between the one you bought and the one I got, though! I needed the front plate mount since NY requires it, so that wasn't too much of a factor for me. My dad and myself preferred the darker grey, which was our main motivation. How many miles were on your odometer when you drove off? Mine was about 6899 or so.

Car Analogy

I think what Acura dealer meant is the taking apart the dash was a crock. That all along the noise was just the oil cap bouncing around on the top of the trans, which is where they usually go when they fall off. And they usually make an annoying noise that sounds like its under dash.

I think the Honda dealer stoopitly took dash apart looking for noise, and when that didn't work they googled it and found out (probably from us) about the oil cap. They reached up under where Billman says to look, found it and solved the issue for almost zero cost. Except for all the time they wasted messing with the dash. So they made up the part about a loose plate so they could charge for their wasted time.

I am convinced your problem was oil cap the whole time. If you bought the car with the noise, and just posted here asking about it, you would have gotten the answer quickly. Meanwhile the dealer ended up charging a mint, and still probably came here for the answer.

Lesson I hope you learn, STAY AWAY, far away, from the dealer. They don't know these cars, and when they try what works on every other Honda, they often do major damage to these cars (which they will then deny and blame you for).

There is a sticky thread for new owners. Read it. A lot of it won't apply to your near new car, but a lot will (like torquing the axle nuts).

Langelo DeMysterioso

Congrats guys. It's hard but not entirely impossible to find a low mileage S2k. I picked up my '09 with less than 3,000 miles 2 years ago after my '05 was totaled. Congrats on the '05 purchase as I tried desperately to find another '05 with low miles. I found the '05 to be my favorite it still has a throttle cable and those crazy seat cutouts.

InTheZone

if someone is limp wristed enough to not be able to tighten down an oil cap then they don't need to be working on cars...ever...

it takes no effort to tighten a cap and I've never worked at a shop, but I have never seen an oil cap fall of due to vibrations.

I'd be worried about any bugs that have found their way down in there, but most likely there isn't anything wrong internally. And speaking of oil caps, I'm thinking about finding an aftermarket one for mine, maybe a piston design or just a black metal cap...

Spagolli94

Don't feel bad! They would not move much on the price for mine either. I got them down to $24,800 from $25,500 with some bluntly aggressive negotiation. The managers tried to give me an attitude, so I gave it right back to them. They agreed to discount the price if I financed through them, and I knew walking in that my discount would come via that, so I took their bait. They offered a 6.9% APR even with a 843 credit score, so while signing the papers I told them I would pay off the loan or re-fi via a credit union before the second payment came along. The manager cringed a little, knowing that we weren't as ignorant as they made us out to be

At the end of the day, both sides got what they wanted and I drove home in a real clean AP2. It was a tough choice between the one you bought and the one I got, though! I needed the front plate mount since NY requires it, so that wasn't too much of a factor for me. My dad and myself preferred the darker grey, which was our main motivation. How many miles were on your odometer when you drove off? Mine was about 6899 or so.
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Mine had 6,847 miles and we wound up paying within $50 of each other? Are we living parallel lives or something? That's crazy!!

You had to do a lot more negotiating than I because your starting point was higher. They had already dropped the price of mine to 24,900, so I didn't have much room to go. The fact that we both got deals within $50 for practically identical cars tells me that really was their "bottom line" and I would've wasted my time if I pushed for more. And yes, I got some attitude as well. They made me agree to a deal before I drove the car. They let me drive their red S2000 because it had more miles to confirm I like the S2000. Then once I agree to a price, I was able to test drive the actual car with the deal being contingent upon the car running perfectly. When I heard the rattle, I told them they had to fix it before the deal was final and they agreed. The fixed the rattle and I gave it another test drive to confirm, then drove off in my new S2000.

Not sure about you, but I felt like I was over-paying until I searched AutoTrader for S2000s with under 30k miles. Turns out, many low mileage cars are listed for close to $30k so now I don't feel so bad. Sure, many people get better deals but not many people find cars with only 6k miles on them!!

What are your plans for the car? My preliminary plan is for a weekend toy / garage queen. I plan on keeping it bone stock because it will retain the most value that way. Who knows, if I keep the miles low, it might even turn into an appreciating asset years down the road. Option B would be to get into mods and take it to the track.