Pre- facelift or save up for early facelift
 

Just joined the Forum, although Ive been lurking a while. I have a quick question I need some help with.

I have decided on an S2000 as a 3rd car for weekends etc. I don't want to spend more than £5k-£6k and have found some really nice 1 owner pre-facelift to look at. Every review Ive read warns about the wayward handling etc and how this was (kind of) sorted in the facelift - how much of this should I believe and should it be a concern for me at all - I doubt the car will see rain or track days so is this relevant to me at all ? Would a decent set of dampers and/or geo set up help.

Or am i better off saving up for an early facelift car ?

I know you guys can speak from experience so all contributions appreciated. :thumbup:

Cheers

Brad

Welcome!

I came from a pre-facelift and after 4 years went to a facelift car and to be honest, the handling isn't that wayward, so don't let that fool you. The early cars aren't going to kill you, priovided you dont drive like a weapon.

The main thing to factor in to the purchase is the alignment bushes - if they are siezed then you are looking at £££ to sort out unless you are a mechanic or have a tame one to hand.

It really depends what you are after - there are some really good examples of pre-facelifts out there and some bad ones, but the same could be said of the facelift cars.

The biggest things for me where the more modern look of the facelift cars, the bigger wheels (17" up from the 16" of the earlier cars) and also the fact that the facelift cars have a non oil burning engine.

Oh yeah, before you get flamed, there is no AP2 in the Uk - all cars are AP1. People on here refere to the cars as either <MY03 or MY04+ (or pre facelift / facelift)

Hope this helps

Cheers Sound_Wave - and original post amended accordingly....... :bow:

The only reason I wanted a facelift was that with the pre-facelift there was a potential for someone to have forgotten to check the oil at some point in it's life (even if it was only once) - the later F20C2 apparently burns less oil so has less likelihood of suffering the same.

With regards to the handling being "safer" - If you check out eBay there are a lot of crashed facelifts on there, so if you do get a facelift don't assume you can drive like a loon because you have the "safe" version :)

I had an 02 car for just over 4 years and now have an 04. It's hard to judge objectively as the new car has half the mileage of the old one, but... On balance I think I prefer the new one in the looks department but can't really comment on the handling as I need to sort the geo out and I'm driving like a pensioner ATM ;)

HTH

It's worth noting that from MY02 (ie pre face lift!) the plastic rear window was replaced with a glass one. :thumbup:

I had a friends 04 for a week and my 00 at the same time. I was toying with buying their car and there's a thread on here somewhere.

The 04 is a nicer place to be, quieter, more comfortable and more refined. A far superior daily driver and if that's what mine was used for I would've bought the 04.

However on a b-road blast I found the 04 suspension to wallow at the back end and it really took the edge off the car. As mine is a third car used for fun and the odd weekend away I stuck with my 2000 car. I just preferred the way it drove.

My advice is to give them both a decent test drive. There's bound to be some for sale at a dealers somewhere near you.

My advice... Buy one you can afford and then spend the extra money on toys for it!
And don't forget to look on the meets page as we are really nice and friendly and will like to see the beast when you get it.

:)

Minvo.

The 17" wheels to a large extent calm some of the waywardness (assuming they're the correct wheels!) of the early cars. But for the cost, you might as well go for the later car. A lot was down to the unforgiving (but exciting) nature of the discontinued original tyres.

There is a trade-off that you lose the 'rawness' of the original car.

Suspension braces also make the breakaway point much clearer, for a few hundred quid.

I suppose ultimately, it's buy the best example you find.

At that sort of budget, I'd be more bothered about getting the best one you can. If you were to restrict yourself to 04+ models, you may fond yourself looking for a longer time to find a decent, well looked after one. Oh, try to come along to a meet if you can. That way there will be loads of pre and post facelifts you can look at.