I went to the local Honda dealer Saturday to look at the yellow S2K on display (Anderson Honda in Palo Alto, California, USA). They were asking $41K for it.

But they also have five barely used S2K's available for sale (two white, two silver and a black). They all have between 500 to 1000 miles on them, and they were all "imported" to the Bay Area from other parts of the country. So why would someone buy the car, drive it for 500 miles and then unload it? Any thoughts on this?

 

It seems like people are willing to pay more on the West Coast, and people in places like the Midwest can get them at MSRP, so it's possible that some people are just trying to make some money.

 

I noticed when I first started looking at the S2K, alot of buyers were money grabbers. They bought just to play for a few miles and turn the car over for some quick cash. Those cars were probably abused. Then forums like this one saved the serious perspective buyers from loosing money. I'm sure the scumbags are out there. Always will be.

 

Also some people may have driven the car a short while and then realized all the small problems with the 2000 and opted to go for the 2001.

 

I think it is clear that this is a challenging car.

Surely many bought it because it sounded great, but ended up unable to live with the demands it makes.

-Stiff ride.
-Little space.
-Noise.
-Stick.

The beauty is that these very things that are trying for some, and are benefits for others. In my case, they are why I love the car, but I know others that wouln't settle for less than a Merc 500SL.

And even I have to admit to occasional frustration when I can't pick up more than one of my kids.

I'm thinking about another car for those occasions.

Dan.

 

... or they may have realized that the S2000 is not the car for them. It is an elemental roadster that does not fit the transportation needs of many people, despite their desire for it to do so.

 

It's like those Porsche Turbo magazine ads..."So wrong for so many people." I warned my buddy that he MUST get a drive in one since it is very hard core compared to many other cars. In the world of early M3s, even BMW now says that at first many of the buyers bought the wrong car for their true needs. And that the cars later did wind up in the right hands. Many folks just buy an "image" and never, ever drive over 5-6 tenths. Ten tenths in a car like an S2K is quite a thrill ride!!

Stan

[This message has been edited by E30M3 (edited November 13, 2000).]

 

It seems some people have sold their S2Ks to start families, buy that house they've wanted, changing priorities

Some sell theirs to make a quick buck

I read about some guy on the H-A board who developed foot cancer or something and couldn't shift so he had to sell the car

Then there are those people who live in the Snowbelt region and thought they could live with the RWD all-year round but would rather have an Audi quattro

 

the bunch of "used" s2ks came out of the florida area and anderson had them shipped directly to palo alto for resale....seems that there's a large potential customer base out here with lots of $$ and an unwillingness to wait.....msrp??what's that....

 

Even assume the original purchaser paid MSRP for the car initially, they can't be making any money by selling a used car back to a dealer/broker who then must ship the car across the country and then ask for not much more than MSRP because it is used. So my point is that the original buyers must suffer a significant loss for selling the car so quickly. I can understand someone making a quick buck by turning around and selling the car at an inflated price to another individual who must have a S2K and didn't want to wait. But dealers are not willing to pay inflated prices to buy the car back. And shipping the car across the country cannot be cheap either.

So maybe people in the Florida area are getting their cars at below MSRP???

I know that other (non-Honda) dealers in the Bay Area are also importing "used" S2000's to sell. Courtesy Mitsubishi had several (the story is that the owner also owns a Honda dealership in the Sacramento area and just shipped the cars here to sell because they can ask for more money); Smyth European also sold several. But the biggest collection so far is at Anderson Honda.

By the way, the yellow one looked very very nice. The color is very saturated.