I just made a 2300 mile drive from texas to florida and back. New orleans would be a good stop if it's not flooded from the hurricane. Pensacola isn't bad either. Check oil every fill up. Tape the side mirrors. Maybe bump up tire pressure a little bit.

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Best of luck on your trip , welcome to the club in advance The S is a grt car that will give you yrs of fun and excitement , had mine 8yrs and still can;t wait to hit the start button every time I get in it ...its special ...it reminds of that often ....enjoy and once again best of luck with your new S

 

Well what ever you do i hope it all works out and you love the car (I have no doubt). Glad to see another promising S owner in the community. Id say get a feel for the car before you start driving it hard and double check them back tires man i learned this the hard way.

If the car is anywhere near the Tampa Bay area id be more then happy to go check it out.

 

Hey here's that LA to Chicago thread:

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/865...#entry20542013

Nice write-up

 

FWIW, I used a place at www.inspectmyride.com to look at 3 S2000s I was interested in. The price was about $119 for each inspection. On the plus side they were great for cosmetic type things, ie., off color bumpers, paint depth, dents, tires, etc. They were not the best at mechanical inspection. Basically, if the car started and drove they said it passed as OK. That said, its a lot better than relying on the owner and a lot cheaper than flying out to buy and finding out the car is a dog.
And as of several years ago, FL did not have transporter plates. The only way to get even a temporary plate was to pay sales tax. What they wanted me to do was pay FL the sales tax due in the state the car would be registered, in my case MD. And then FL was supposed to see that the tax was forwarded to MD. No, NO, No.

 

Thank you everyone for your input! I really appreciate it!

As far as the tags, the owner said that I need to pay Florida Sales tax (6%) in order to get temporary tags. From there, I just need to pay the remainder of the sales tax once I get back to my home state and register the car.

I haven't heard of that before, so I'll have to call my DMV and make sure.

Loving the input everybody, keep it coming.

StutterButter - The car is in Miami so it's quite a trip for you. I thank you very much for your offer though.

JackTs2k - What did you end up doing? Did you pay Florida the sales tax and then pay the remainder to your home state?

Also do you guys recommend Blue Painters tape to protect the front end of the car on the trip?

I've read mixed reviews about the "RoadWrap" listed above.

 

I have taken 2 trips of 2000+ miles in addition to several in the 700-800 mile weekends over the past 4.5 years with my S.

Trip 1 - Homecoming2 trip - Oregon to San Fran to LA to Vegas to Reno to Oregon - 2600 miles over 6 days - most top down - it was not as bad as some might think.

Trip 2 - Relocation trip - Oregon to Alabama - 3500 miles over 7 days with the HT on. the HT makes the car much better for a long drive. I never wrapped the front of my car - a good coat of wax will help get the bugs off after the trip.

A few tips for a long trip.

1. Make sure you plan your fuel stops - I used gasbuddy and AAA.com to plan the trip - remember 13 gal of fuel go quickly. You should be able to get in the higher 20's on the open road. But some areas might be a little slim on the gas station availability. I found when planning the big drive that we had to plan a couple of fuel stops and only get 5-6 gal of gas or we would not make it back to civilization.

2. Have a can of glass cleaner and a towel . The upright slope of the windshield in the S will collect more bugs than an entomologist. I cleaned mine at each time I stopped.

3. Drinks - a small cooler with some water or other drink is a good idea. Especially if you are going to burn some miles top down. You can and will dehydrate quickly at highway speed with the topdown.

4. Sunscreen - also if you are going to drive topdown - make sure you have sunscreen. - If you have the spray type do not spray it near the car - the residue is a bitch to get off the car.

5. Make sure you have a charger for your phone. - this one is obvious but including it anyway.

 

What I did was have the car transported to me in MD, avoiding paying sales tax in FL and only paying the MD tax when I registered the car. The funny part of this was when I went to the RMV to register the car. The guy in front of me bought a car in FL, paid the sales tax and now was in MD looking for plates/title. He showed the clerk a receipt for the sales tax he paid in FL and thought that would be applied to his MD sales tax. The clerk told him that MD had no way of knowing that the sales tax $ collected in FL would show up in MD, so if he wanted plates/title, he would have to pay the sales tax again and if/when the $ collected in FL showed up in MD, he would get a refund. The guy walked away without registering the car, shaking his head and muttering to himself. I felt bad for the guy, but relying on two sets of state civil servants, from the RMV no less, to get this right defies logic. I have no idea how it turned out for him, but it could have been me. Like I said initially, this was several years ago (6 years) and FL had no transporter plates then. If you were going to drive on FL roads, FL wanted sales tax.

 

I've made this trip in my S a few years ago. Pensacola to Los Angelas and figure about 32 hours actual driving. I assume your in South Florida so you probably should figure about 44 hours based on my recolection of Miami To Pensacola. Hard driving, you shoud be able to make thia trip in 3.5 days. Easy driving- 5 days.

 

From someone who drove across the country twice last summer (Phoenix to Chicago, Detroit, New York City, then Sacramento, California, Los Angeles and back to Phoenix), I offer this advice: If you have the time and the resources, avoid the Interstate highway system as much as possible. It generally is among the most boring of roads to drive on.

If time is critical and you only have a week or less to make the trip, then by all means, use I-10. I would program my GPS to avoid Interstates next time.

I hope that you have a fun and memorable trip. Take lots of pictures and share your journey. Look up the local S groups along your way, and if you do pass through Tucson or Phoenix along I-10, be sure to hit us up here.

You might even be able to arrange brief caravans along the way, showing some S solidarity.

10 Essentials for a Road Trip