A car as old as our youngest staff member, this 2000 Honda S2000 stands remarkably preserved and remained on its original Manufacturer’s Statement of Origin until this past year.
According to the listing, the Honda S2000 stands best known for achieving the highest specific output of any naturally aspirated powerplant of its era, delivering 123.5 horsepower per liter through a …
First owned by Ms. Hedy Cirrincione, this Honda sports just 42 miles and stood as a preservation piece alongside her daily driven Formula Red S2000.
As you do.
I was in the car business for years and it was "unusual" at the very least to see cars with less than 50 miles on them. The cars have to be test driven at least, loaded, unloaded, and then are usually driven around storage lots and dealer lots. Then, they get driven by sales people and hopefully customers. In other words, for a car to have only 42 "original" miles, it would have had to have the shortest distance to travel in every situation to the dealer and then loaded onto a flatbed and then taken to the new owner who would have pushed it into their garage for safe keeping, all the while to not have driven the car in 24 years. I'd love to hear the story behind this and I have a hard time buying it. If this story is true, what about the fluids after 24 years? The hoses? The possible corrosion? I just dunno because it seems unlikely.
So, 2.0 or 2.2L S2000? At a Honda event many moons ago, we got to drive them back to back. As I recall, it was a toss-up between revs and footprint. IIRC, I got quoted in Super Street about it.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
2.0L, no question. 9000 rpm > +7? lbft of torque. Most people just shift at 6k rpm and never get the full experience.
DavyZ said:I was in the car business for years and it was "unusual" at the very least to see cars with less than 50 miles on them. The cars have to be test driven at least, loaded, unloaded, and then are usually driven around storage lots and dealer lots. Then, they get driven by sales people and hopefully customers. In other words, for a car to have only 42 "original" miles, it would have had to have the shortest distance to travel in every situation to the dealer and then loaded onto a flatbed and then taken to the new owner who would have pushed it into their garage for safe keeping, all the while to not have driven the car in 24 years. I'd love to hear the story behind this and I have a hard time buying it. If this story is true, what about the fluids after 24 years? The hoses? The possible corrosion? I just dunno because it seems unlikely.
In early 2004 (I think), we had a customer ship a Miata to us for modification. IIRC it had 42 miles on it. We also picked up a Miata from the dealer in 2003 that had 20-something. It happens. Heck, there was a 1990 Miata with 38 miles on Bring A Trailer a few months ago.
The thing that sticks out in this story is the MSO sticking around until last year. In other words, someone registered it. Why, after all this time? That's odd.
It'll be interesting to see what it sells for. That (fully optioned) 38 mile Miata sold for $40,500, which is less than it cost new when you take inflation into account. Original MSRP of the S2000 was $32,477. With inflation, that's $60,733.53, or the bottom end of the hopeful projection by the auction house. In other words, if it sells for that, the owner dedicated 25 years of care and storage space to get absolutely zero return - never mind the opportunity cost. Turns out that buying new cars as investments is not a good idea unless it's some Ferrari that was never intended to be driven anyhow.
Keith Tanner said:
Original MSRP of the S2000 was $32,477. With inflation, that's $60,733.53,
As a person who was lusting after S2ks when they were still on the showroom floor and I was at my first job that is incredibly depressing - apparently I never really got any closer to being able to afford one...
Yeah, you forget just how expensive they actually were/are. $61k is within a couple of rebates of a base Stingray today. Or two 2004 Miata ragtops with enough left over for a couple of sets of tires, which means you have an instant spec series :)
I just checked, we took delivery of our Tesla with 3 miles on the odometer. When it only has one truck ride from the factory to the delivery point and they get delivered immediately, they don't accumulate a lot of miles!
I wonder how dried out some of the seals are from nonuse?
Keith Tanner said:Yeah, you forget just how expensive they actually were/are. $61k is within a couple of rebates of a base Stingray today. Or two 2004 Miata ragtops with enough left over for a couple of sets of tires, which means you have an instant spec series :)
Base model C5s could be had for $28k, too. Cheaper than an S2000.
Keith Tanner said:I just checked, we took delivery of our Tesla with 3 miles on the odometer. When it only has one truck ride from the factory to the delivery point and they get delivered immediately, they don't accumulate a lot of miles!
Yeah, minimum for an imported car seems to be about 10, presumably because there are at least 2 trucks and a ship involved. If you place a factory order then your car won't be used for test drives by sales people or other customers and doesn't spend very long at the dealer getting moved around between parking lots either. My latest Audi had 12 miles on it when I got it home.
The other thing about early S2Ks is that (at least around here) they were so popular that Honda dealers weren't allowing test drives.
DavyZ said:I was in the car business for years and it was "unusual" at the very least to see cars with less than 50 miles on them. The cars have to be test driven at least, loaded, unloaded, and then are usually driven around storage lots and dealer lots. Then, they get driven by sales people and hopefully customers. In other words, for a car to have only 42 "original" miles, it would have had to have the shortest distance to travel in every situation to the dealer and then loaded onto a flatbed and then taken to the new owner who would have pushed it into their garage for safe keeping, all the while to not have driven the car in 24 years. I'd love to hear the story behind this and I have a hard time buying it. If this story is true, what about the fluids after 24 years? The hoses? The possible corrosion? I just dunno because it seems unlikely.
If I were to take delivery of a new car I ordered and it had more than 50 miles on it, I would find another dealer. Every new car I've gotten, especially the ones we had to order, had way less than 50 miles on it.
In reply to alfadriver :
Every new car I've bought has less than 10. 50 or more is not the norm. Pull up most dealer websites with photos of new inventory and most have 7-10 on the odometer.
I knew a guy who wanted absolutely 0 miles in the odometer whenever he bought a new car.
I explained the following to him:
When I worked for Mitsubishi/Chrysler at the plant in Illinois, we ran each car through the gears during final inspection and then they went for a fast trip around the test track (I think it was only a 1.1 mile lap), and then they were driven to their place in the 10,000 space parking lot. In time, they were driven to either the train or over the road trucks to be delivered to their destination.
If someone sold him a new car with 0 miles in it, they lied to him and likely committed a crime regarding the odometer.
He admitted he never saw 0, but he pressured the sales staff nonetheless. Good on you, bro.
In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
I bought a truck 2 weeks ago with 1. I've seen a 0 but the trip odo showed 0.8
In reply to Steve_Jones :
Well, maybe Chrysler-Mitsubishi didn't have faith in the line and wanted us to see if everything worked as designed. 
I believe what you wrote, but it does make me wonder how the vehicles are moved from the production line to shipping and they keep them so close to zero. Different manufacturers likely have different systems in place, and my experience at that plant was a single data point back in the 1990's...a lifetime ago in manufacturing.
In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
1 and zero are rare enough that it stood out. Normal is @10. It seems like the lower ones are on imports which seems backwards as on/off ships are involved.
Appleseed said:I wonder how dried out some of the seals are from nonuse?
That's on my mind, too. I suppose if the next owner treats it as the original owner, it'll be fine. But if someone plans to drive it, the topic will have to be addressed.
That's the problem with a low mile car like this. If you drive it, you destroy a bunch of value.
Unless you look at as a chance to buy a new S2000 because you don't think there's anything equivalent on the market today. I hope the new owner drives it, it was built to be driven. Locking it away is wasting it.
That's the biggest Miata I've ever seen
Flynlow said:In reply to David S. Wallens :
2.0L, no question. 9000 rpm > +7? lbft of torque. Most people just shift at 6k rpm and never get the full experience.
Completely agree. "This one goes to 9000."
When i worked at a ford lot, the new cars came and got a PDI, pre delivery inspection, where a tech would take it out on the road for a few miles to make sure it was correct. This typically left the cars with 8-10 miles on the odo when they were put on the lot.
DavyZ said:I was in the car business for years and it was "unusual" at the very least to see cars with less than 50 miles on them. The cars have to be test driven at least, loaded, unloaded, and then are usually driven around storage lots and dealer lots. Then, they get driven by sales people and hopefully customers. In other words, for a car to have only 42 "original" miles, it would have had to have the shortest distance to travel in every situation to the dealer and then loaded onto a flatbed and then taken to the new owner who would have pushed it into their garage for safe keeping, all the while to not have driven the car in 24 years. I'd love to hear the story behind this and I have a hard time buying it. If this story is true, what about the fluids after 24 years? The hoses? The possible corrosion? I just dunno because it seems unlikely.
I picked up my brand new S2000 of the transporter as it was being unloaded at the dealership. It had 6 miles on it.
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