S2k Hunt Update and Buying Process
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S2k Hunt Update and Buying Process
For context I had a previous post this one https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-ta...221692/I'm making this post to hopefully give someone some insight into what their buying process might look like, especially if they live in California.
I was searching for an S2K (AP2) with less than 100k miles, and I live in California. I searched everywhere, and there was nothing even close to my budget, which was $25k max. On average, S2Ks with 80–90k miles were priced around $27k–29k — even with missing VINs or modifications. And yes, I was willing to travel far.
Dealerships were horrible options due to the salespeople acting just like those Facebook Marketplace folks who hit you with the classic “I know what I got — price is firm.” And I’m not talking about non-franchise dealers; it was the main franchise ones that were really hard to deal with.Looking everywhere kind of discouraged me — Facebook had overpriced cars with mismatching rims, dealers refused to negotiate, and out-of-state dealers didn’t really want to deal either. I’d get hit with, “If you're calling from that far away, clearly we already have a good price,” which, to be fair, makes sense. But I didn’t give up. I set up alerts on sites like CarGurus, AutoTempest, and Facebook Marketplace.
Eventually, I got an alert that one of the cars on CarGurus dropped by $5k. I immediately called and asked if I could put down a deposit since the car was in Arizona. They said yes, and I got the S2K for $24k. The car has no issues, a new top, all VINs present, and only 83k miles.With that being said, one thing that almost deterred me was the sales tax.
If you buy a car out of state, you can apply the sales tax you paid at the place of purchase toward your registration at the DMV — they’ll deduct it, and you only pay the difference. Every dealer told me I’d have to pay sales tax twice — this isn’t true. You only pay the difference.I’m so happy with my purchase, and I’m glad I waited. Honestly, my favorite resource was CarGurus over AutoTempest, but I’d recommend using both.
Thank you for reading feel free to ask any questions!
I was searching for an S2K (AP2) with less than 100k miles, and I live in California. I searched everywhere, and there was nothing even close to my budget, which was $25k max. On average, S2Ks with 80–90k miles were priced around $27k–29k — even with missing VINs or modifications. And yes, I was willing to travel far.
Dealerships were horrible options due to the salespeople acting just like those Facebook Marketplace folks who hit you with the classic “I know what I got — price is firm.” And I’m not talking about non-franchise dealers; it was the main franchise ones that were really hard to deal with.Looking everywhere kind of discouraged me — Facebook had overpriced cars with mismatching rims, dealers refused to negotiate, and out-of-state dealers didn’t really want to deal either. I’d get hit with, “If you're calling from that far away, clearly we already have a good price,” which, to be fair, makes sense. But I didn’t give up. I set up alerts on sites like CarGurus, AutoTempest, and Facebook Marketplace.
Eventually, I got an alert that one of the cars on CarGurus dropped by $5k. I immediately called and asked if I could put down a deposit since the car was in Arizona. They said yes, and I got the S2K for $24k. The car has no issues, a new top, all VINs present, and only 83k miles.With that being said, one thing that almost deterred me was the sales tax.
If you buy a car out of state, you can apply the sales tax you paid at the place of purchase toward your registration at the DMV — they’ll deduct it, and you only pay the difference. Every dealer told me I’d have to pay sales tax twice — this isn’t true. You only pay the difference.I’m so happy with my purchase, and I’m glad I waited. Honestly, my favorite resource was CarGurus over AutoTempest, but I’d recommend using both.
Thank you for reading feel free to ask any questions!
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