OP.

So now you have read that the VSA isn't even on the vast majority of the time. When it is on you get the light. It doesn't change NVH when it is on.

Take the car to a decent dealer for assessment and test drive another s2k.

 

regarding passing on the freeway, etc:
what rpm do you shift at? if i shift before 4k, i find the car is slow and boring. if i shift at 4.5-5k, i enjoy the commute much more.

regarding noise
the car is noisy, raspy, and the engine makes a lot of metal cacophony. but i think that is a characteristic of the car that trickled out as a result of the engineering. smoothness when accelerating and maintaining speed should be great, but the engine will always be noisy and raspy.

vsa
i dont have a benchmark, but it only applies the brakes when the yellow caution light is flashing. i get it a fair amount when careening around corners or driving in the snow, but when commuting it rarely comes in. and it cuts throttle first if it can. but it is only intruding when the light is flashing, so if you dont ever see the light, vsa is not the issue.

 

My S2000 has VSA and in 1500 miles it has only kicked in twice when I gave it too much gas pulling out from junctions, once was deliberate.

I have first hand experience of what an S2000 without VSA can do and if your car is driven daily in all weather conditions, VSA is a good thing. Like most people have said, it is very unobtrusive, in the wet I have had two nice "sensible" slides which I controlled on the throttle and the VSA did not activate at all.

In my opinion, if the VSA light comes on whilst you are corning then you have over-stepped the mark, the key to good control is to not have the light flash at all.

 

I don't know about VSA on the S2000, but I know Porsche owners that say the same things as the OP and turn off the PSM every time they drive.

 

I've never had such issues with VSA turned on. VSA very rarely kicks in. I think the last time it did I was driving through some heavy downpour.

 

Or D) None of the above.

 

Have you driven another S to know that your's is atypical? Comparing it to different cars from other manufacturers couldn't be less relevant. What you describing sounds exactly like how an S2000 should be...

 

My previous MY07 S2000 didn't have VSA and it didn't drive any different to my new MY07 with VSA, so a VSA equipped S2000 shouldn't drive or sound different to a non-VSA car.

In fact I think my new S2000 pulls harder than my previous one.

 

Well, it makes about as much sense as the problem being caused by the cigarette lighter (and the car doesn't even have one), but there it is.

I would not mind driving another S2000, somewhere and, yes, Ill have the dealer check it out.