If you want to buy one purely for your daily drive, I would just go with a high mileage cheaper S2000. If it is well taken care of, it should be trouble free, which means it is not worth paying another $10,000 for a low mileage S2000.

Personally though, I would not buy one that has over 200,000 miles. I remember there was a post on LA Craigslist where a person was selling a GPW S2000 with over 370,000 miles for $7000. Not by any means cheap but that I would NOT buy...

 

It has. It's not just about number of miles as other posts have indicated.

If search isn't turning up what you're looking for then try a site restricted Google search:
https://www.google.com/#q=site:s2ki....+many+miles%22

Same applies to any brand. Miles don't tell you everything so you can't rely on them alone. A car with X miles could have been poorly maintained and cared for while a car with X + 20K miles could have been perfectly maintained and might be a better option. Don't fixate just on that one number.

Pre Purchase Inspection. A good one will tell you a LOT more about the vehicle you're considering than the odometer will.

 

I spent $5k more to get an 04 back in April of 2010, with 30k less miles and 2 yrs. newer than another I was going to buy.
I realize now I didn't need to at all, but I couldn't resist getting a "new" car b/c of low mileage.
Story line of previous owners mean $$$ for me.

 

I disagree with that statement that most were!! That statement might be true with the 3rd and 4th and later owners but the first owner was more likely use it as a Top-Down Weekend car.

 

If you really have $20k to spend, don't settle for anything with high miles.. while regular maintenance will allow these cars to last a long time (my '00 has 198k with barely a hiccup), lower is usually always better. Don't be spooked by low mileage; as mentioned, these are more often than not used as a weekend car. The original owner of my car drove is only 1400 miles/year.. it was immaculate.

 

Mileage of a car comes up in debate a lot on another forum I'm on.

In my experience, buy on condition, not miles - but use the mileage to make sure it is priced accordingly (and expect a discount for a higher miles vs lower miles car, due to re-sell value).

My point being, a car that has higher miles, but has sat at 60mph on the highway for most of it's life, will be in better condition than one with half the miles that are driven bouncing off the limiter on a cold engine.

Likewise, some cars that have been stood for a long time, maybe outside in the rain (depending on where you live?) could have things starting to seize.

I bought mine at 9 years old with 38k miles on it, and it spent 2 years without moving left in the rain, so all the brakes had to be overhauled due to this as it was all rusted to hell, but I got a good deal on it so it was worth it for me.

 

I bought my 2003 almost 2 years ago with 112k on it from its second owner. He was in his mid 60s, owned it for 6 years. He put 90k on the car.

I paid a bit under what they were going for at the time. It had a minor accident, new rear bumper cover and some paintwork on a couple of panels that were blended very well. I "rescued' it from far south Jersey the day before hurricane Sandy hit, the place I bought it from was 6 to 8 feet under water during the storm.

He didn't fawn over it, it was very honest, a nice running car, with nearly all original parts. He was a fairly easy driver, his son went with me on the test drive. The car had never seen over 6 grand the whole time he drove it, I'm sure his son did though. I know the original clutch picks up high, but doesn't slip and there's no rust anywhere, just some light surface rust on some hardware here and there.

I picked it up and drove it 150 miles back home, it performed flawlessly. I've put about 5k on it since I got it. I love it. It gets 26-29 mpg.

Only things I found, LR wheel bearing slight play, retorqued axle nut and clicking and play are gone. Borderline acceptable autozone brake pads (they're going soon). Nearly bald rear tires.

What I've done to it since I got it; a full detail and interior disassemble and clean. For maintenance: 2 oil changes with M1 0w40 euro formula for now, trans fluid, diff fluid, brake fluid, coolant, air and cabin filter, bypassed clutch switch, 4 tires, 2 outer tie rod boots and regreased them. Valve adjustment and plugs. Replaced all dash back lights.

other stuff, kenwood head unit with swc adapter, new front speakers. Eventually I want a good sub, but haven't really looked into it enough. Got a top tonneau as the top is down almost all year until its put up for winter.

I noticed when I switched it to M1, it did use considerable oil at first, about 500 mi to a qt, esp if I run it thru 6k a lot. After 3k I changed again, it's slowly reducing it's consumption, now at 1000 mi/qt. I'm primarily using the M1 as a step to switch to Redline.

 

I dk... mine is over 200k, I know who took care of it these miles.. not that I would buy a car from me.. however... depending on the care.. i'd buy a high mileage S2000 like that 370k one mentioned wouldn't scare me.. if it was taken decent care of..

many other manufacturers, I couldn't say the same thing...

 

I bought my 2001 model in 2011. It had 27,700 kilometers [17,212 miles] on it & a history to prove it. It is in mint condition, & completely stock.

In Oz, where cars are quite expensive I paid $30,000 for it. They range from around $18000 for a rough one to what I paid.

I then changed all hoses, & all fluids. The tyres were little worn, but were 6 years old with the rubber going hard, so & replaced them too.

I now have a virtually new S2000 which is doing a lot more mileage now than it is used to.

 

thanks all! I feel better about higher milage and lower milage now...

This will be my "final car" according to my wife, so she says I better buy what I want... that's why I'm looking to spend around $20-25k...

I'm still about a year to 18 months out... now I just gotta decide between Yellow, Red, or Laguna Blue!