S2kalldayy

I found a really clean 2000 s2k for 18900 I'm going to try and talk price down but it has 32,000 miles on it and has only had 2 owners second owner has had it for 15 yeas and it looks new, is this a good price and should I jump on it or are the s2k ap1 not as good as the ap2?

Chuck S

You'll get emotional, rational, and irrational responses to the question.

Note the very early S2000s are infamous for snap oversteer by guys used to front wheel drive cars and will spin in a heart beat. Exaggeration, of course, but they will swap ends much easier than the later cars. The roof has a plastic window. Car has 16" wheels. Etc.

Price may be OK if you intend to leave the car as-is as a "collector" car. And a second, weekend car. If you're going to update it with 17" wheels, glass rear window, etc there are much less expensive options. Daily drive the car and any collector value will plummet. Don't garage it and it's easily stolen.

-- Chuck

NDAZONE

Best advice when determining between the two is to:
1st search this site for AP1 vs AP2 threads;
2nd test drive both AP1 and AP2 cars;
and look at condition of the vehicle.

Miles, while important, don't speak the volumes that the condition of a car does. MY2000-2001 never had any serious problems. Pay attention to burning oil, grinding when shifting into 2nd gear, plastic rear-window condition and rear tire tread. Good luck.
P.S. The first generation S, MY2000-2001 is my personal favorite due to how it drives.

RussianHammer

I have a 2000. Never had any issues.

But i would recommend checking/ checking retainers if you plan on tracking the car.
You should be good. Ap1 has a more aggressive feel than a ap2. From the suspension, to the transmission it is a more raw feeling machine.

The snap oversteer claim is very much true. This can be fixed easily though by getting anti bumpsteer for the rear.

Janus00

I have a 2000 as well. Some things to consider:

Will you be adding forced induction? I recommend upgrading the oil banjo bolts and retainers.
Does the clutch buzz bother you? Change clutch disk to newer model.
Regarding the snap oversteer: I drove the piss out of mine in stock form with some really good tires, and you just need to worry about lifting the throttle mid corner.
I don't mind the plastic rear window, as I only use the car when its nice anyway.

You should definitely be able to talk them down. I have not driven an AP2 yet so I can't compare the 2, but I will say I do enjoy how raw the car is. Since then, I have upgraded shocks, wheels and sway bars, and I'm extremely pleased with the car now versus stock form. If you're not happy with the handling there are plenty of aftermarket options.

Elistan

In general, get the best condition S2000 you can afford. For example, I'd much prefer a low mileage good condition 2000 model over a trashed high mileage 2009 model.

Honda made some changes to the S over the years - search out a list of those changes to see if any of them are important to you.

I've no sense of what the S2000 market is like now so can't help with advice on that price, sorry.

Chuck S

Janus' notes are good. But if you're considering supercharging, lowering, shocks, wheels. etc the car I'd not pay for the collector-grade car you're looking at. You can get one for 60% if that price and modify it.

Here's a later model already tricked out for less money.

-- Chuck

rpg51

I'll chime in - as usual - and say that I personally prefer ap1 cars over ap2 - especially 06 and later ap2s. I street drive only. I drive winding country roads all the time. I upgraded to 17" ap2 wheels and I run max performance S04 tires. Try as I might with what I personally consider pretty darn aggressive driving at times I cannot make the rear end go loose. I took the car to am empty lot recently and tried very hard to get the rear end to go loose and it just is not going to happen for me. I do not know where the limit is in that regard but I can say I have zero desire to drive any faster or harder in corners. I think maybe the tires I am running just have a LOT of grip. So, given my personal style of driving, the over-steer thing is a non issue. The ap1 is more raw, has a higher red line, quicker steering, better gearing in my opinion and it is an absolute joy to drive on the street. To me, the ap2 is not quite the same thrill. I think the added torque is minimal and that it is not worth the loss of the red line and the other softening that the ap2 cars have. I might well buy an ap2 someday because the differences are subtle in my opinion. Still - if I were searched for a new, or a second, s2k - my search string would be for 02 or 03 to get the glass rear window and maybe avoid fussing with the banjo bolt issue if the engine number is mid 02 or later. The other thing of course is that the ap1's are a bit cheaper. The first video referenced pricing sounds a bit unrealistic to me. I paid 21K for an 02 with 8.5K miles and an oem hardtop. Personally, I am happy to pay more for a low miles car.




So, call it an emotional response if you want. But, that is how I feel and I am probably in the minority but I am know I am not the only one.

Saki GT

In general the car got incrementally better every two years, but there is nothing like an S2000 and any year is great.

There are no bad S2000s.

If you look at the different years, what you will see are early years had some "quality" improvements with things like banjo bolts, glass backlight, floormats, and the like, and every two years, ECU updates tended to bump hp as evidenced by dynos, but the car is basically the same, with the biggest breaks between 03-04 and 05-06, when the engine and transmission changed and dbw was added.

rpg51

This part I agree with. The rest of it? No. In fact, just the opposite.