Good Afternoon All,

I hope you are all well?

My name is Dean & at present I live in Surrey, I have been thinking of buying a convertible for a while & really like the S2000 for a while now. At present I have a mini cooper s works which I really enjoy driving but would like a change. I think I'll have 8-9K to play with. I have wanted a convertible for a long time now & I'm seriously thinking of buying a S2000. I've done the normal thing of looking around different options like the Boxter, Z4, VX220 & YouTube videos but I think the S2000 would be the one I go for out of all of them

I do have a couple of questions about the car, if anyone can help me that would be great
What is the drive & ride like / handling?
How much is Car Tax?
How much is Servicing?
What is the Insurance group?
Fuel costs roughly?
Cost of tyres?
Any other costs I my have missed LOL?

I'm looking to buy over the summer this year I reckon. Any help I would much appreciate it

Enjoy your weekend

Dean

 

You probably want to post this in the UK regional section.

 

Its a super car all around but as far as the tax without representation, I recommend a revolt against the crown!

 

A lot of your questions are region specific but I'll answer what I can and you can make the appropriate conversions.

The ride is very firm. No one will mistake this car for a grand tourer. The comfy seat and excellent driving ergonomics make up for a lot but I would strongly prefer not to drive this car further than an hour and a half in one direction. Handling is excellent and confidence inspiring. You'll find yourself taking sharp corners in town at 25 mph and thinking nothing of it. It takes a lot to find the limit but when you do there is a tiny bit of off throttle understeer. The car is 50/50 but the staggered tires are likely to blame for this. Of course, you should understand that the staggered tires are doing other things for you. Namely, allowing for a light steering wheel and a lot of accelerating traction. The brakes are very strong, but again, the staggered rims prefer 100-40 MPH braking, not 60-0. There's always a good bit of ABS intervention when I have to make an emergency stop on public roads. The brake balance is very nearly perfect but if you're into the brakes too late into a corner, the rear under-rotates first. It's never been a problem. Quite the opposite, I find brake oversteer to be the most exciting driving circumstance.

90% of my fuel economy is between 23-25 MPG but I've gone as high as 28MPG and as low as 22MPG.

Tires are expensive and I tend to need them every 20-25k miles. If you drive your car hard, you will need them more frequently. Last time I needed them they were $1000 for all four with an alignment. This is the most expensive regular maintenance item so it might be a good idea to call a couple places for a quote if you're concerned about it. My $1000 bill was from the dealership with a buy-full-set-get-one-free-with-alignment special.

As for miscellaneous worries, if you need a soft top, and everyone does eventually, it will run you $1000. Keep your eyes open for tears in the usual wear locations and run some water over the rain rail before you buy. Make sure water is evacuating through the wheel wells and not into the trunk or cabin. While tires are expensive and you should pay a bit more for the synthetic oil, the car is pretty affordable otherwise. It's a tiny single cylinder bank engine in a large engine bay. I recently got my valves adjusted at the dealership for $250. I'm used to owning v6 engines where it's impossible to do anything for less than $1000. You might feel different about the repair bills coming from a mini; I'm not sure.

 

Keep in mind the figures above are all in USD. YMMV.

You will not find a performance car that is cheaper to maintain than the S. Yes, it eats tires, but a lot of that can be mitigated by more conservative alignment specs, and more sedate tire choice, leaving you with performance closer to that of all those other cars that don't eat tires. Many opt for a happy medium somewhere between the extremes.

 

Most owners with no weird mods have zero regrets. buy a 04 or 05 clean as you can afford and it will be so good you will be cruising the forced induction section as you will not believe how good and easy this car is stock. Worst thing about a s2000 is it works so well the mod urge is strong, I am fighting the dark side that wants me to spend more than the cost of the car. It is so reliable and good you cant help the greed that wants more, yet it is the best you will have owned to date.