Exactly this.

If Honda wanted to extend the life of the car, they could've made an auto-tranny version and opened themselves up to a much larger market share. However they chose to keep the car pure and focused and for drivers only. When people ask me about the car, I tell them "It's not a car you find yourself in by accident." You need to love it to put up with its quirks, but for the 1% that it's envisioned for, nothing else will do.

Of the cars listed, let's look at how the mfg's were able to save cost or increase market:

z3/z4: Auto tranny, shared engine
SLK: Auto tranny, shared engine and platform
Audi TT: Auto tranny, shared engine and platform
Miata: Auto tranny
Mini Cooper: Auto tranny/fixed roof

Nope, the S2000 is as pure as they come these days (Lotus Elise notwithstanding), and I wouldn't have it any other way.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3QxEOkgPws[/media]

 

It's the purest roadster ever made available for sale state side. It's so pure it's not attractive to a large market segment, IE the average buyer.

That's what helps make it a classic. Enjoy it. If everyone drove it, it would mean it was as bland and boring as a camry - which tells you something about the average buyer.

 

This car fell to the same fate as the NSX. Both were innovate and fresh for their time but were soon outdone by the competition and Honda didn't give enough of a shit to substantially update the cars. I for one would have loved to see an S3000..

 

Read up on the history of the S. It was never intended to be a regular production model unless the sales were strong enough. Rehashed quite a bit over the years.

...and a lot of men. Mass market appeal means caving in to the lowest common denominator. If the S was like the SLK, TT or Mini then I wouldn't own an S in the first place. Why does every armchair analyst (regardless of field of interest) seem to think that their favorite company needs to copy the others?

Some of the other cars mentioned by the OP (e.g. Morgan) are also niche cars that command quite a premium.

 

purposebuilt...the others you mentioned, not so much imo. I think this has alot to do with who gets it.

Its a s2000 thing, you wouldnt understand.

 

couldn't agree with this more, if they brought back the s2000, especially with some futuristic spaceship look, like how the RUINED the classic nsx, i would cry

 

From ask.cars.com:

When Honda announced in January 2009 that it would end S2000 production later that year, the automaker said only that the highly acclaimed sports car had reached the end of the line after a 10-year run in which more than 110,000 were sold globally. Honda also noted that the two-seat S2000 was originally intended as a limited-production car in recognition of the company’s 50th anniversary.

It certainly didn’t help that S2000 sales in the U.S. had slowed to a trickle by 2009, when the auto industry was experiencing its worst year in more than 25 years. What Honda didn’t say publicly is that the high cost of designing a replacement and the prospect of low return on investment made the car expendable.

Around the same time, Honda abandoned its high-budget Formula One racing program. About four years before that, it discontinued the exotic Acura NSX sports car after a long run. Low-volume sports cars don’t help the bottom line much, and Honda clearly was focusing its resources on hybrids like the Insight and CR-Z and other clean, green machines for the future.


The car was getting old and new safety/EPA regulations meant it would either need to be discontinued or replaced. They had a team set up to make the replacement, the lead designer was Hiroshi Yoshida, the same guy that designed the Euro version of the Civic Si. But in the end the economic conditions didn't allow them to do it. Lots of factors going on.

I'm just happy they made the S2000 in the first place.

 

It kinda sucks they don't make it anymore, but at the same time I'm glad they stopped production. Makes it more rare.

 

I am thankful that I have had opportunity to own and drive one of the greatest roadsters that has been made. I doubt there will ever be anything like it. I would say the S2000 came along at the perfect time - before cars became so bloated with features and regulated safety equipment that it had to weigh 3000+lbs, and after the innovations that allowed such an amazing power train combination to be engineered and produced.

It puts a smile on my face every time I drive it, and I don't see that changing for a long long time.

 

yeah, i agree with the posts before me.
i like how it's exclusive by using only a manual transmission and having only a limited span of production, which makes it more rare and that much better to own it

and if honda brought it back, based one the direction they plan on heading (simply by seeing the nsx concept) the new "s2000" (if they did decide to bring it back) it wouldn't be nearly as driver orientated and have more electronic complexity to it and in turn, have more of an "automated" feel. so like the new nsx, it would be less mechanical and probably have a hybrid engine too. i feel like they want to re-shape the image of the typical hybrid car/user and honestly we need to because we can't run on gas forever (as much as i don't want to drive an all-electric/hydrogen car) i hate driving quiet cars lol