Two days ago I traded in my 1997 Mazda Miata and bought a 2001 S2000. It's sebring silver with a red and black interior. I love this car!

First things first. I'm learning how to drive it. Now before you have your hands in disgust... I am being very careful. My Miata was an automatic...my first car. So here I am spending two hours in some remote residential area I found learning the stick in a S2000 that only has 3k miles on it. I know you are shivering, but believe me, I'm being very careful.

I love roadsters and have always thought the S2000 was the king of the crop, but never thought I would be able to own one. On Wednesday I intended to visit a local Toyota dealer to look at the MR2 Spyder. Like I said before, I really like roadsters/spiders and was looking for something new. My Miata had given me four years of faithful service and I didn't like the post 97 body styling of that make. I found out on the net in the morning that Rusty Wallis Honda had a used S2000 on the lot with low mileage and excellent condition (it was a lease car before).

I went in to check it out with a friend and things just seemed to fall my way. I got a price I was very happy with (below the cars.com target price of negotiation...I've been doing a lot of research for the past few months building up to the new car buying process...) and they gave me a good price for my Miata (it's fully loaded, leather, but they valued it higher than I thought they would) just slightly under the Blue Book value (once all the negotiation was done) and the percentage I got was good as well (considering what I've been offered before...but I had a pretty long debate with this guy...he was good. I imagine he folds a lot of people up and puts them in his pocket every day.) So when it came down to how much I was paying I was surprised and very happy. I bought the car.

This car is amazing. Everything about it screams car building perfection.

Now I know everyone is cringing. "He's learning the stick on his new S2000...ack!" but like I said before I'm being very, very careful

Okay, so the crux of my post. Does anyone have advice for new S2000 users? My time in between code compiles at work has been research. Reading as much as I can about the car, maintenance, history, etc. Does anyone have a good set of links? Google usually turns up hastily constructed fan pages that aren't really what I'm looking for. I want more authoritative information.

Also, I live in Dallas, so that puts me in the North Texas region. How do I join the Norht Texas club so I can post on their forum?

Finally, when I enter my VIN into the ownership system on this site it says that is invalid. However, I know that it isn't (lest ye cringe again, I have the car fax sitting on my desk...clean as clean). Am I doing something wrong?

 

Ah, the FAQs here utterly rock. Suppose I should have RTFM before posting

 

If it's a 2001, then it's not Sebring silver, but Silverstone. Sebring silver came out in 2002.

 

If you are new at driving stick, don't forget that you can use the emergency brake on hills and avoid burning up the clutch. Good luck.

 

I've been able to use the hand break trick. Very helpful when I'm on a hill holding up traffic. I have a friend who is a Supra owner and he has been training me in the basics (and telling me about the occaisional advanced topic).

Thanks for the information on the color. Most of my searching and reading turned up information on the 2002 model.

 

Is it possible that the system rejects my VIN because the previous owner has a registration here with that same VIN?

 

Welcome to the board, and congratulations on your new car!

Besides reading the FAQs (as you've already done), if I had to pick one piece of advice as the most important I'd say to take the time to read your manual from cover to cover. First, it's a good read as manuals go. Second, this is not an ordinary car and there's some surprising information in there (like never mounting the spare on the rear).

Other than that:

- Check your oil EVERY time you get gas. The dipstick is tricky; work with it until you figure out how to read it properly.

- Replace your tires as soon as they reach the wear bars (usually every 10K miles for the rears, longer for fronts).

- Don't corner hard on cold tires, or in very cold weather. Driving in damp, cold weather on concrete is the worst.

- If it's raining hard enough for there to be standing water, SLOW DOWN. Drive it like a Civic until the road dries up.

- Do not ever drive with the top up unless it's below freezing or raining. (Driving with top down, windows up, and heater on is amazingly comfortable.)

Good luck!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GreenMarine
[B]
Okay, so the crux of my post.

 

I have no intention of modding the car from stock until I know more about it, but thanks for the offer

 

My best advice for new stick drivers is to learn the sound/RPM realationship. You should eventually never need to look away from the road to shift up or down. Don't be afraid, manual cars are easier to drive and maintain that automatics!