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At the time the S2000 top was pretty good, the best in terms of speed. But Honda really dropped the ball by copying the MX-5 design, which makes it a nightmare when it comes time to replace the top due to age. Almost zero consideration was given to ease of replacement. Even the original plastic window 00-01 S2000 was a flawed design. It has a zippered window section, but the process for replacement requires disassembling the interior panels and the complicated rear seal. It should have been zippered all around.
And, there are hot spots that create fast wear in certain areas, which creates rips/tears that force you to install a new top.
A replacement top is almost $1000 from Honda. Plus 5 hours of labor if you want Honda to do the installation.
Recently, there have been advancements in soft top design. Porsche has done a great job improving the smoothness of the exterior surface. Their 718 Boxster soft top has a super smooth surface, they have eliminated the lumpy area over the soft top frame rails. It looks better and is more aerodynamic, and probably reduces wear and stress points, so replacement is less frequent.
Also, the new ND MX-5 has a very simple and lightweight manual soft top. It's very easy to use, fast, and saves a lot of weight. And it sits flush when the top is down.
Lets not forget thos was Honda's first soft top. Well, first one in many decades.
Considering all the rest of the engineering challenges involved in building this car, copying a known workable design, then executing it well so it was reliable and functional, seems like a pretty good choice.
I would rather have this than some innovative new design that just ended up causing lots of problems (which is what I'd expect for a company trying to reach too far on their first attempt at something they have no recent experience with).
Honda could have done better than copy a flawed design. It really just needs a little bit of consideration for the inevitable replacement of the soft top, primarily around the rear seal.
I'm guessing that the soft tops on most roadsters (including the S2000 and the Miata) can be traced back to other designs that are far older than these two cars.— more of a design evolution.
I am amazed at how good it works but I think they should have made it a manual and saved the weight. Seems inconsistent with the fairly uncompromising execution of the rest of the car.
the top works well but in terms of quality the s200 top is sub par. Compared to other soft tops like bmw and porches. The s2000 top does not last close to as long as other CARS. Plus the material is not as nice. I'm on my 3rd soft top for this car. If you park your car out side and go top down every day the top only last 5-7 years.
This subject came up in a different thread and it started some discussion, so I thought I'd start a fresh thread on the subject.
This the 3rd ragtop that I've owned and the first one that is motorized. Personally, I find it to be quite nice. That said, I would not have rejected the car if the top was a manual unit only. I'm guessing that Honda chose to motorize the top on the S2000 because this was how it's primary competitors (Boxster, Z3/Z4) were configured. Do you feel that Honda got it right with the motorized top on the S2000? Have you had any problems with the top's motorized system?
I absolutely despise the look of the S2000 soft top, it is no better looking than my Datsun 2000 Fairlady that was built in 1970 which I had many years ago. 30 year difference on both cars... really and that what they come up with? They could have made it better.... sorry just venting!
I don't have any real complaints how it looks with the top up. A hard top looks sleeker but you are stuck with it on the road. I use the tunneau cover when I am driving in town. Looks nice and keeps the dirt out. I remove it for road trip so I can have the top up or down and not worry about trunk space. I have grown to appreciate the motorized top of the S. I can put that roof (and often do) up or down in seconds at a stop light. Doing gyrations to manually raise and lower are one thing at 20 and another at 65.
I think Honda did a decent job especially considering the size of the trunk. Much better than a lot of similar roadsters.
Mine is a 2009 and I keep it in a garage at home and use Raggtopp for conditioning. I made sure there were no sharp spots on the frame as reported here in this forum. No real wear has occurred; it actually looks pretty good.
I guess I do not really see what else they could have done to make it "better" and still be a soft top? I mean, it fits, it stays tight for a long while. It is a soft top, its gonna look like a soft top. Cant say I have seen any soft top that looks any better. I have seen a lot that look worse or look stupid at highway speed due to poor fitment. So for a motorized option the only other thing I can see they could have done was a motorized hard top. And a big nope to those. Tons of weight, require more space and full of things to fail.
Flawed design? Flawed design is any '60s era English roadster top. The S's top is tight and light, far lighter than any Porsche or MB top. I have changed the top on both a Miata (RIP) and my S2000. The Honda top is a challenge, but well worth saving the labor cost of paying someone else to do it.
