For the holidays I'm on vacation visiting family in Ohio, so a few days ago I took a quick trip to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to check out an S2K found online. It's a stock silver '06 with a black interior and top and about 56K miles. It's being sold by an independent dealer that mainly sells high-end, exotic cars and the dealer has had the car for at least four months. The CarFax shows no accidents but it does have six reported owners, most of which appear to be dealers.

While in Ft. Wayne I had a chance to drive the car twice ... first on a short city and highway drive with a salesman and then to lunch and a longer test drive solo. The interior is generally in good shape, but the drivers side seatback bolster is pretty worn and the bolsters in both seat bottoms seem to be kind of flatted out. Otherwise the drivers seat feels good and the interior could probably just use a good cleaning. Another interior oddity is there's some trim around the glass in the inside rearview mirror that seems to be degrading/coming out. And there's a bit of play in the passenger side top latch when raising and lowering the top but the top seems to operate normally and the latch seems to work fine.

During both test drives the car felt strong and drove really well; the car generally feels very good. The only thing I'm concerned about is that on the highway during the first test drive I noticed a faint burning oil smell that lingered 'til we got back to the dealership. But when I took the car out a second time I didn't notice the oil smell and even when I drove the car hard I didn't notice any sign of smoke. FWIW the car probably had an oil change a month ago and has barely moved since that time.

That said, especially since I'll unlikely be able to do a PPI because of logistical issues with my trip does anything I've mentioned (especially the oil smell during the first drive) raise any red flags? The dealer has already expressed a willingness to do repairs on the seats and seems motivated to make a deal. I'd very much appreciate any thoughts anyone might have. If I decide to pull the trigger I likely will next week and will have the car shipped home after the first of the year.

Thanks!

 

get a carfax and autocheck report. With that many owners, you will have more piece of mind from as much info as you can get on the car.

I'm not a mechanic, so can't chime in on the oil smell. Although, the oil change theory sounds good...

 

For the interior part it is very common for the seats to wear out there and the leg bolsters to flatten so nothing out of the ordinary. These engines are usually very reliable, I would try and crawl under the ground and see if you can notice any oil leaks. If the car drove good and everything seemed in check you should be alright.

 

I just bought my first S in October after months of looking. I eliminated a lot of cars because the VINs on their body panels did not match. Even in some cases where the Carfax was clean, I found mismatched VINs which means they had an accident repaired at a shop that doesn't report to Carfax.

My approach was:

1. Engine. Default thought is that Honda makes great engines. But I am no mechanic so I took serious cars to a Honda mechanic and had them check it. $120 well spent.
2. Mods. I wanted no mods. Pretty easy to check this looking underneath and in the engine bay.
3. Matching panels. The S2000 has 10 panels with VINs. If they all matched, I felt pretty good. (front lip, under hood, both front quarter panels - all accessible with the hood up; 2 in each door (jamb and door); rear bumper and trunk - both accessible with trunk open). Pretty easy test and tells you a lot.
4. General appearance - seat wear, paint chips, general visible stuff.
5. Test drive.

I am a few months in and am definitely happy so far.

 

I have been watching that car also in Ft Wayne ( since I Have one nearly identical and thinking about selling it). The only thing that caught my eye is the side marker lights looked clear which is a mod, I think. I always worry about cars that were modified then returned to stock and not done quite right. Check to make sure VIN #s match. The high number of owners worries me. Most of us keep our cars a while because they are so awesome

 

I get a "cooking oil" smell, like when someone makes popcorn the old fashioned way, when I work out the vtec.

BTW '06,35K, burns no oil and has no obvious leaks

 

Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts; I really appreciate it.

Since I first looked at it the other week I haven't made it back to check out the car again but have been communicating with my sales guy via text. If I decide to buy the car we've agreed to the price and the dealer has agreed to buff out the scratches and recondition the driver's seat for that price. The only other expense apart from taxes, etc., would be covered shipping back to South Dakota, which using a company they use a lot would be around $1,100.

At this point I guess I'm on the fence with the car, especially barring a PPI and checking the VINs on the different panels. From what I've seen online the dealer seems to have a good reputation but I'm still kind of nervous about buying a car outside of my general area and that, given the time of year, I really can't drive the car home safely because of unpredictable weather and road conditions. That and I'm still nervous about the burning oil smell and a few other minor things, especially since none of the other several S2Ks I've driven have given off that smell. Actually no other car I've ever driven, including high-mileage cars that have been in stroage, has given off that smell.

On the flip side the car drives well and the price seems reasonable compared with even those I've looked at in my general area the past few months. From the sound of it the dealer's had the car for at least four months. They originally were asking around $22K and now they've reduced the price to $18,400. Is the fact the dealer's had the car for so long a cause for concern? The sales manager told me they'd really like to move the car before "winter really sets in."

From what I can see and in discussing the car with friends who own S2Ks the car appears to be stock apart from the clear side marker lights and the standard air filter has been replaced with a cone filter inside the stock airbox. Besides what I've already mentioned the only other thing I noticed about the car was the brake fluid in the reservoir looked pretty dark; braking performance seemed fine, though. At the time I drove the car I didn't think to check any of the other fluids. I should have.

 

This is my car. Well, a twin sister anyway. I'm just under 50K miles at present having put on 11,000 miles the past two summers since I got her in July 2014.



Barring something unforeseen the price is competitive and on the low side of prices last summer in the region where $22k was a frequent selling price for a car of this age and mileage.

The clear side lights are not original for MY06 but are OEM and a common fitting as they look better. Yep, they're on my car. ("JDM, baby!") Don't worry the orange lights are safely stored. As is the OEM air intake which is a cone shaped filter and inside the square air box.

You've received guidance on the VIN stickers. All ten of them is important to value and being accident free. A non-mentioned area I'd be concerned about is the roof. MY06 cars are infamous for a tear above and behind the right seat shoulder. Mine has some wear there but no tear.



Keep in mind that all these cars are discards so don't worry about the number of "owners." Yep, someone discarded them for one reason or another.

I'm sure you can trailer the car home for less than $1100 if you have a tow vehicle. Drive to Fort Wayne and pickup the reserved Uhaul trailer, tow the car home and drop the trailer.

-- Chuck