So I'm in the process of looking for an S, and I've been trying to find a reliable website that accurately captures the cost of these. My problem is I've looked at three different popular sites now, and am getting very different answers from each.

For instance, I'll use an example car of: 2002 Honda S2000 with 65,000 miles in excellent condition

Results:
Kelly Blue Book: $16,822
NADA: $13,175
Edmunds: $9,072

That's almost a $8,000 difference between the high and low ends. I feel like I'm getting an idea of what these cars are worth in various conditions just by browsing through countless listings, but it would still be nice to be able to get a standardized value to back up an offer when someone is clearly asking too much. Has anyone used these methods or something different to get decent value information for these cars?

 

Kelly Blue Book has consistantly shown unrealistic values for our car--there's lots of threads discussing it. I just ignore their numbers.

Part of the challenge in the used car sources coming up with a "valid" price for our cars is there are relatively few sales of them compared to many other cars--for example, Honda sells more Civics every 80 days than they sold S2000s in the entire 10 years they were in production.

A couple of other sources of info is the "For Sale" section on here---would give you an idea of what folks are asking and how long they've been for sale at that price.

Also check out eBay's "completed" sales---search for S2000s in the for sale section and then click on "completed" listings along the left side----cars that sold with have their prices in green, ones that didn't will have their prices in red---you can sort them on price, mileage, year, or location as well. eBay is the most complete listing of actually sold S2000s I know of and would be a great database for negotiations with a seller.

When you find a car you're interested in, you can post it here and ask folks their opinion of it--lots of people do that and usually get good advice

good luck in your search!

 

Yes, I've been constantly watching pricing in the market and on NADA/KBB pricing. NADA prices across the board seem far more realistic for current market prices.

For my zip code, 100k miles in excellent condition.

KBB
AP1 2001 - $14k
AP2 2004/05 - $11.6K
AP2 2006 - $12k
AP2 2007/08 - $13.6k
AP2 2009 - $12.6k

NADA
AP1 2001 - $11k
AP2 2004/05 - $14.5K
AP2 2006 - $17k
AP2 2007/08 - $20k
AP2 2009 - $22k

2009 $12.6k vs $22k, doesn't even make sense.

 

Thanks for the input, I didn't even think to check eBay autos. And it sounds like a handy function. I'll have to check it out.

 

Check the How much did you pay for your USED S2000? thread. The most accurate/reliable method is to compare what others have paid.

When I bought my S, I went off that thread alone.

Cars that have sold on eBay generally sell for lower value than market prices.

Of the 3 sites, NADA is the most accurate/reliable, although it's still off.

 

Thanks, NADA did seem to be the most reasonable of the three. And I did check that thread, but found it difficult to assess the real value since the majority of the cars listed there have been at least light modification done. At that point, sometimes people have an unrealistic idea of how much of their money they can get back from what they spent on mods. This seems to skew the price in cases like that.

 

Edmunds is junk when it comes to used car pricing so throw that out. KBB has a hard time with certain cars (s2000 being one of them). I like NADA, but generally, try to get a feel for the market by watching the listings for a while. No one can tell you what a car is worth except you! I jumped on my 06 even though prices seemed to have gone up because it was very clean inside and out. +1 on the "what did you pay for your used s2000" thread. Prices vary a bit seasonally and regionally as well! Good luck, the search is half the fun.

 

The definition of "market value" is what an unrelated seller and an unrelated buyer reach agreement on and a transaction (sale) takes place. (called an "arms length transaction" as neither party knows the other and neither party has to do the deal unless both sides come to an agreement)

The sales on eBay represent "market value" as well as anywhere else.........though it does seem the "market value" of cars sold on that site are typically below the "market values" sellers and buyers reach when the transaction is hosted on another site (this forum, craigslist, etc)

The OP asked about places to document reasonable sale prices as a negotiating tool to use againt the seller when buying his S2000---sales on eBay are perfect for that as they represent some of the lowest transaction prices for our cars.

 

Yes, it is indeed difficult. It's hard to gauge the condition of the cars that folks got (clean titles?, accidents?, modifications?, exterior/interior condition - everyone self-rates the condition to be 8 or 9 out of 10). But over a large enough sample, there is a trend.

When I was buying, I was looking for a 06+. I created a spreadsheet of all 06 and 07 model year cars regardless of mileage and location. I then tried compare cars that were bought in the same year and took a trend line. Here's an example of what I did:



Agreed 100%, but your last sentence highlights my point.

Unfortunately, the thought of selling a car to most people on eBay is an never a consideration and seems like a bad idea. As a result, it's hard to negotiate with the typical local/private buyer on eBay prices. They won't accept it. It's still worth a shot though.

 

Most people buy cars local to them. My advice is buy local if you can. In my area most of the S2000 9k - 11 need alot of work. 12K-14k minor work but good condition. 15k-17k very clean 18 and up should be close to new.

You will notice what some adds call clean or mint may not be so. In my area not many stock clean s2000 for under 16k. Take a look in your area go out and see these cars. I would not buy a car I could not drive first.

If you find a s2000 you like buy it. Most of the ones I looked at were trashed and were said to be clean in add but looked clean in the pictures.

Good luck.