S2000 as a first car
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Joined: Jan 2012
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From: West Texas
Teach her how to drive it? Yes!
Get her to Autocross it with you? Hell yes!!
Let her take it out occasionally (once the above has been done)? Maybe.
Let her use it as a daily driver? No......just no.
The s2000 is fine, until it isn't. The slightest little slip-up has put even seasoned drivers in dangerous situations.
Get her to Autocross it with you? Hell yes!!
Let her take it out occasionally (once the above has been done)? Maybe.
Let her use it as a daily driver? No......just no.
The s2000 is fine, until it isn't. The slightest little slip-up has put even seasoned drivers in dangerous situations.
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Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 39
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Just my two cents. I wouldn't personally let her drive it. It's an expensive and rare car. And especially as her primary mode of transportation?
Despite her level of responsibility, there is no substitute for experience. The s2000 is a very particular vehicle in many ways. Even I, at stock height, have to be careful were i drive it because ill scrape coming out of the wrong driveway.
Not only this, but does she know how to drive manual already? If she's only approaching driving-age then maybe you might want to consider starting her with an automatic transmission car, so that she can focus more on learning the rules of the road and not stalling at a red light (let's not even talk about hills when you're new to the 6-speed game).
I'm 19 and Id say I'm pretty fresh out of that "hey guys I have a car now, let's speed everywhere" phase and let me tell you, girls like to speed too. There are a lot of wreckless things I've done while in the possession of me parents vehicles that I'm glad they'll never know about.
I think you should invest in a beater for her. Just like every other high schooler. Id hate to see a trusting father get his Honda get jacked up by his reasonably inexperienced daughter.
Cheers
Despite her level of responsibility, there is no substitute for experience. The s2000 is a very particular vehicle in many ways. Even I, at stock height, have to be careful were i drive it because ill scrape coming out of the wrong driveway.
Not only this, but does she know how to drive manual already? If she's only approaching driving-age then maybe you might want to consider starting her with an automatic transmission car, so that she can focus more on learning the rules of the road and not stalling at a red light (let's not even talk about hills when you're new to the 6-speed game).
I'm 19 and Id say I'm pretty fresh out of that "hey guys I have a car now, let's speed everywhere" phase and let me tell you, girls like to speed too. There are a lot of wreckless things I've done while in the possession of me parents vehicles that I'm glad they'll never know about.
I think you should invest in a beater for her. Just like every other high schooler. Id hate to see a trusting father get his Honda get jacked up by his reasonably inexperienced daughter.
Cheers
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,128
Likes: 19
Teach her how to drive it? Yes!
Get her to Autocross it with you? Hell yes!!
Let her take it out occasionally (once the above has been done)? Maybe.
Let her use it as a daily driver? No......just no.
The s2000 is fine, until it isn't. The slightest little slip-up has put even seasoned drivers in dangerous situations.
Get her to Autocross it with you? Hell yes!!
Let her take it out occasionally (once the above has been done)? Maybe.
Let her use it as a daily driver? No......just no.
The s2000 is fine, until it isn't. The slightest little slip-up has put even seasoned drivers in dangerous situations.
I have two daughters, not driving age yet, but they both like the S. When they are the appropriate age and are interested, I will let them drive it but...
1) They will learn on another manual car, and will not drive the s until they have decent shifting skills
2) They must attend a car control clinic done by my local HPDE club. I would also encourage track days if interested.
3) They will only be able to drive the car (without me) on special occasions for a very limited amount of time.
It will not be their car, they will have a daily or use my daily driver.
Some kids are responsible, but anyone can succumb to peer pressure. If I think back to when I was a teen, if my GF or girl I knew had a cool car like an S, I would beg her to let me drive it.
Registered User
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 4,359
Likes: 3
From: Houston, TX
You don't need a "500HP torque monster" to get into trouble. There are plenty of crash threads that you can refer to.
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 8,745
Likes: 1,850
Originally Posted by Apex1.0
This...
I have two daughters, not driving age yet, but they both like the S. When they are the appropriate age and are interested, I will let them drive it but...
1) They will learn on another manual car, and will not drive the s until they have decent shifting skills
2) They must attend a car control clinic done by my local HPDE club. I would also encourage track days if interested.
3) They will only be able to drive the car (without me) on special occasions for a very limited amount of time.
It will not be their car, they will have a daily or use my daily driver.
Some kids are responsible, but anyone can succumb to peer pressure. If I think back to when I was a teen, if my GF or girl I knew had a cool car like an S, I would beg her to let me drive it.
Get her some professional driver training. Bring her to autocrosses. Let her drive often with you present.
Give her an S for dd, with no traction control. No.
Joined: Jan 2013
Posts: 1,137
Likes: 100
Teach her how to drive it? Yes!
Get her to Autocross it with you? Hell yes!!
Let her take it out occasionally (once the above has been done)? Maybe.
Let her use it as a daily driver? No......just no.
The s2000 is fine, until it isn't. The slightest little slip-up has put even seasoned drivers in dangerous situations.
Get her to Autocross it with you? Hell yes!!
Let her take it out occasionally (once the above has been done)? Maybe.
Let her use it as a daily driver? No......just no.
The s2000 is fine, until it isn't. The slightest little slip-up has put even seasoned drivers in dangerous situations.
The S2k is about the opposite of what you'd want in a first car.
-Bad visibility with the top up
-Snap lift-off oversteer esp. in the wet(!!!)
-No traction control or stability control
-Hard to be seen since it's low and small
-Very close-gated manual (my first car was a manual, but that was after learning on an auto... might be hard to navigate a tight 6-spd gate)
-Fast enough to get into trouble (in VTEC), but slow enough to not get OUT of trouble (out of VTEC)
About the only positives are decent gas mileage and good reliability. Which any number of cars can have. Even if she wants a convertible, there are so many better options.
An S2k was meant to be driven, hard, and on the right road. You can tell just by the interior that that is its main intent. To get it for any other purpose - long-distance tourer, sunny-day cruiser, grocery getter, let alone FIRST CAR - is putting up with a lot of compromises while missing out on the car's strengths.
Registered User
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 630
Likes: 2
From: Miami
So unlike most people in this thread I'm a 17 year old guy in NJ my first car is a S2000 CR. Now a lot of points mentioned here bring up good points I already knew how to drive stick because of dad, but I think the biggest thing that he did for me that made him feel safe and really helped was the first day of any new weather so snow heavy rain he went out with me and showed me what will happen and what to do if it happens. Honestly if you teach your daughter how to handle situations like hydroplaning, the tail slipping out, snow etc she should be alright. Also the comfort of knowing only one other person and can be in my car and I'll be focused on driving stick instead of texting really helped them. My parents knew I would speed the taught me that if I did speed do it where there are no other cars and to stay safe and slow down the second another car is seen there not stupid I'm 17 so they know I am stupid of enough speed, you said your daughter is responsible but honestly were teenagers just assume we speed. Yea the S2000 isn't the greatest car to learn how to drive you just have to approach it right and I'll gladly provide proof to show I really am 17 if you guys think I'm just some older guy over the internet. I say go for it, just teach her how to handle any situation the first day of snow don't let her drive the S make her drive something else when she gets home show her what happens in the snow, how to handle the situation correctly and what not to do and honestly she should be fine, first day of heavy rain same thing then show her what hydroplaning is how to handle it and what to do and what it feels like to hydroplane so she understands. This my 2 cents, you show her everything that can go wrong and how to handle it she should be fine, it really isn't such a big deal.
Been trying to convince dad that it's not a shit car and that I will buy one when I'm older and such. He just hates honda, and says the block will crack and coolant leak recall yada, yada...
Remember.... Your car has VSA.... 6sigma's ap1... Not so much. A NEW driver behind the wheel of a car that can, and will slide out on you. Not as hard as a MR2. But it wants to slide when in the right conditions.
And... Yeah, kind of agree with the fact that "we're teenagers, we speed"... That torque at 1,800RPM is so easy to pick up speed with...
You can say it's not that big of a deal when you drive in Miami after school and in the parking lot...