In April of 2004, someone walked into a Honda dealership and bought a brand new S2000. In September of 2026, the same person sold their S2000 on Bring A Trailer, the largest public collector car auction site on the internet. While one continuous owner for 22 years is neat, it’s not especially noteworthy. The real story here is what happened over those years, nigh-on 323,000 miles in the hands of one keeper.
That’s a lot of mileage for any car, let alone a frenetic roadster known for high revs and singular focus. Admittedly, I’ve never quite loved the S2000, but I’ve always respected it. The seating position isn’t great and the steering’s rather numb and early cars have bump steer issues and the AP2s trade a bit of redline for still not that much extra torque, but when the conditions are right to really rag on it, it delivers the goods. And evidently keeps delivering the goods for an exceptionally long time.
Imagine the stories this car could tell. The slightly frayed seat belt, the aftermarket subwoofer, whatever that speaker on the bulkhead is doing (single-point rear fill?). I’d love to know what caused the slight crease in the quarter panel, the scuff near the fuel door, or the staining on the passenger seat. I guess the English word for that is ‘life’, isn’t it?
On the subject of minor knocks, it’s perhaps unsurprising that this silver roadster doesn’t have an entirely clean history, although it made it quite far before its first reported cosmetic repair. According to the Carfax, that came in 2022, with a minor claim. Looking on the bright side, the Carfax also reports 117 service records, and I can’t believe how well this S2000 has worn cosmetically after all those smiles.
The seats still look to be in commendable shape with no splits or anything like that. The paint looks rather decent and really just needs a buff, and the steering wheel looks sensationally nice for the mileage. Even the wheels look remarkably good, which is quite the feat considering how there’s loads of opportunities over the course of 323,000 miles to accidentally curb an alloy.
Really, the biggest concern here is the engine. The listing states it “consumes oil and smokes under acceleration,” signs that something’s starting to go. It could be a really bad PCV system, or it could be a sign that the piston rings aren’t quite functioning perfectly anymore. My money’s on the latter, but even then, how much of it is just carbon deposits? Still, if that’s the only major concern after this much running, that’s not bad. While everyone waxes on about how the S2000 revs to the moon and has a fantastic shifter, perhaps its greatest appeal is being the quickest reliable sports car of its sort. On these second-series AP2 cars, there’s nothing properly catastrophic that goes wrong.
After 22 years, this S2000 has covered roughly 14,500 miles per year, 282 miles per week, or 40 miles per day. It has dents and scratches and a hit on its Carfax and uses enough oil to smoke, and yet it was all probably worth it. See, sports cars are normally like the good china of cars. Often, they’re kept under lock and key, reserved for the rarest of special occasions, after which they’re washed by hand and put away for safekeeping. The trouble is, loads of people don’t use the good china at all. They wait and wait through the highlights of life until one day, they’re no longer around for those rarest of special occasions. The plates may be special, but it’s the food that’s served on them and the company they’re set out for that really matters.
If the weather is nice like it usually is in Southern California, why not drive the sports car? Stone chips can be touched up, seats can be reupholstered, engines can be re-ringed, a bit like the art of kintsugi. It won’t be the same as new, but it will be perfectly functional and beautiful in its own way. Signs of life.
So what about the auction? Well, despite its flaws, this S2000 sold for $17,500. That’s a strong result for a moon-mileage car, but given the way the S2000 market is still going, it makes perfect sense. When a nice example costs nearly $30,000, $17,500 for a one-owner slight fixer-upper with an amazing story doesn’t seem awful. Still, I can’t help but wonder what’s next for the first owner of this car. Another 300,000 miles on another sports car? Maybe we’ll know in another 22 years.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
“Hero”?? Some hump driving a car is now a hero? Give us all a fucking break. Never mind about our men and women serving in uniform. Good God what a dumb thing to say.
From what I hear about the S2000 market, if it’s unmodified that’s where most of the value comes from. Apparently most of these have been severely messed with.
This is such a great quote:
That’s a really nice $5,000 Honda S2000
Does Honda still warranty their seatbelts for life, including wear-and-tear? If so I’d take it to the dealer for that before driving it even more.
They replaced seatbelts catches on my late-80s civic a few years back, so they might.
I had a couple of first gen Honda Insights (‘00 and ‘02) which were built in the same plant as the S2000 and the NSX. Both cars were nearing 300,000 miles and running fine. Honda really shot for the moon in this era with both engineering and quality.
Meanwhile my 2025 Honda is away for a month getting a new engine as part of a recall.
This is not the Honda I grew up respecting. Still, at least they’ve given me no replacement vehicle, or said sorry, so I can get properly angry about it.
Doggone it. C’mon Honda – be better. My daughter just experienced similar trauma with her ‘18 Kia Sportage, which ate its engine in classic Kia fashion.
$17k then you just slap a $500 junkyard K24 in it do another couple hundred thousand miles. It’s not a bad deal.
I think there’s a fair amount of modifying involved to get a K24 into one of these otoh the F22 is pretty spendy so might be a wash in the end.
I bought a 2004 in 2014 with 96k miles and sold it 6 years later with just under 120k miles. It never needed anything other than routine maintenance. My head’s about 2″ taller than ideal for an S2000, but otherwise a delight to drive.
The AP2 is quicker with noticeably more torque IMO and I’ve driven both. The 2004-2005’s have the softest, most forgiving suspensions, but handling is still excellent.
In the words of Mr. Regular, on a long enough timeline, everything gets an LS.
Anything that has a warranty that expires !!
this is how you live. buy something you love, care for it and enjoy it. it’ll be rewarding either way. not everything needs to be an investment. greed steals joy.
Over the last year or so it’s dawned on me that my GT86, which was the most expensive car I’d ever bought by a factor of two, is going to be mine forever.
I’ve stopped worrying about getting the scuff behind the passenger door fixed, I’m just going to keep driving it until it rusts away or the engine Subarus itself. Seven years so far, and there’s nothing I’d replace it with.
And it will do another 323k easily 🙂
My god, somebody used something for its intended purpose, I would be more horrified, but I’ve been breaking too many monocles lately
I recently had this epiphany. This year I bought my wife a 2002 Ford Thunderbird. It has 73kmi, and while its not museum quality, its nice. The underbody isnt all rusted and there is only a little starting to come through by the rear wheel. We can ha e that fixed. We live in upstate NY and winter is a coming. I started thinking, oh, I need to clear a spot in the garage to put it away, we can’t drive it on the salty roads. Then I stopped and said, why? Because in a few years it might be rusted out? We might have to junk it? Or sell it for a song? Will the 12k I spent on it break me if its valueless in a few years? No. Screw it. Drive it. I felt this innate enthusiast need to preserve it because its a relatively low mile rare-ish drop top. Really, who cares.
That’s my view; I buy cars for the utility they offer. These days, that’s simply whether they make me grin —or even chuckle. They don’t elicit that response in me while parked, so I drive them.
Sure, I take a lowered Roadster on fire roads the first couple owners surely would have shunned—but that’s how I get proper return on my ‘investment’ : delighted chortles occasionally mixed with alarmed squeaks
Why not do both? I recently bought a 2014 Ford Raptor, in excellent condition for it’s age. So far I’ve replaced some worn out plastics to bring it as close to perfect condition as I can, and am slowly giving an LED refresh to all of the lighting.
But my intent is to keep this truck as my daily driver for as long as I can, so while it does live outside the garage, I will be fluid filming it every Fall, and maintaining it to a T.
That hero is Nicotunes from socal S2ki, also member of the local band Underhanded
Maybe it was put on blocks and put into 3rd gear (?) or so for 5 hours a day? In a garage? Perhaps to poison rats?
That was my absolute favorite joke from You’re the Worst.
I’ve put a few thousand miles on a new-to-me ’07 S2000 that I bought from my aging dad back in May (replacing my Volvo S80, which itself replaced a Boxster). It has about 120,000 mi, and I plan to drive it until it has at least as many miles as this one, because what’s the point in owning it otherwise?
PS: I prefer driving position of the S2K to the Boxster, which didn’t let me move back as far as my 32″ inseam wanted. Both are brilliant cars on windy roads.
There’s a few under-100k mi examples for around $25k in the PNW, and an interesting 211k mi $14k one that had a bunch of aftermarket body parts replaced with stock. Mighty tempting but it won’t pull a horse trailer.
How much did he buy it for? Measuring performance by todays standard is a bit unfair given how the original Miata wasn’t much more than a low horsepower 2 seater convertible that gained performance over the years
This is a good buy for someone who actually wants to drive it. You know the car is fundamentally good and not abused and that alone sets it apart in the market in a positive way, miles be damned. A car with much lower miles could also need a rebuild (I believe these are a bit more of a risk in that the cylinders can’t be honed or at least not in a normal way as they’re fiber reinforced aluminum, IIRC) and this buy in covers those costs and then some. Stuff that’s worn would very likely also need freshening/replacement on one with low miles and this might already have had that done seeing as it’s driven regularly. I’d take it in a heartbeat over a delivery mile car. It’s really impressive how durable these engines are considering the rpm they run and it’s not the kind of car that can get by rolling along on torque, so it has to hit high rpms often.
Yes you want a regular driven car but not 40 miles a day average. I bet you could bore it out drop some sleeves in it and solve the problem cheap if it is the pistons. Did this with a 907 Lotus motor bored it out dropped new sleeves and it allowed me to use drop forged pistons in it that I was able to purchase all the pistons for the cost of one lotus piston.
One one hand yes, but I’m on my second high mileage (195K ish when purchased) well maintained and preserved car and honestly both of them wound up feeling like they needed constant messing with and fixing of small things (and some large in the case of the BMW) while I’d trust a Honda more than the BMW or Subaru I’m thinking of, and the basic-ness of the S2000 probably also works in its favor here but I can’t help but wonder if this just feels a bit tired at this point?Though I’ll admit I can’t think of much that’s more fun these days for $17,5k though those F22 motors are a bit spendy if the oil consumption catches up with it sooner than later. Granted I’d probably trust a 323K Honda over a 100K Boxster
I suspect it needs a thorough working over. I’d expect engine rebuild of some extent and all suspension refreshed, but age takes almost as much toll on that as mileage, so no guarantee a version with 1/3 the mileage and a higher price tag wouldn’t need that as well. Whether it feels end-of-life is impossible to say, so I couldn’t factor that in. Everything has a different fate. My Mazda3 felt EoL at 5 years and 165k relatively easy miles even with no particular issues besides some burgeoning rust (nothing structural), but my ’90 Legacy with 270k and 15 years of heavy abuse (at the time it was parked for a restoration that never happened) felt like it had no intention of ever giving up. You could very well be right about it feeling tired, though, which might explain the sale at this point where it doesn’t seem the case of an owner who’s merely sick of it and wants something else (or it could be the impending likely engine rebuild bill).
In 2012 I had the opportunity to buy a 2004 S2000 for $12,000. It had around 100,000 miles and some minor imperfections, but it was nice. I decided not to buy that car – for some reason I thought I could do better for the money.
At least that wasn’t my worst non-purchase. I turned down a chance to buy 1000 bitcoin for around $50 a few years before that. I decided it would have been a waste of money. Oops.
Hindsight is 20/20. My foresight must be somewhere around 20/800.
In 2013 or 2014 there was an article in a magazine or maybe on Autoblog about how it was the last year for Honda CPO S2000s (based on them only doing CPO for a certain number of years). There was a CPO example at the local dealer with maybe 30k miles for $17,500. Seemed like a good deal at that time.
What stopped me was insurance quotes roughly equally the monthly payment on the car. Not so much because sports car, but because Michigan insurance was (and I think still mostly is) fucking ridiculous.
So yeah, I regret it, but I made the right decision at the time.
As for bitcoin, I was aware of it and had the opportunity to buy it at around $5-6 each. But being a poor college student it was either a couple of those or enough gas in my car to make it to classes that week. So I just try to remind myself that I would have sold it at $100. Or maybe I would have forgotten about it and sold it at $1000. But certainly would not have still had it at $50k.
Yeh who would’ve known bit coin would go so high. I remember looking into setting up a “mining” rig for it in the early days but it didn’t seem worth it and at the time it never even occurred to me that going through the rigmorale of buying and holding it would actually become worth an insane amount of money some day. Years later when it took it’s big dive circa 2016 or 2017? I bought $50 because that’s all I could afford at my crappy job at the time, it’s worth about $550 now and gone as high as $800 lol too bad I couldn’t have afforded more back then.
I mined dogecoin back in the day. Managed to get around 240k of them, which I of course sold for around $.03 each, right before it took off to $.50+. If I had waited not even a week, I think it was maybe a day or two, I would have had $100k+ instead of $7k.
This is also why I don’t play around in the stock market.
Damn lol that must have hurt. And yeh the stock market is basically just gambling, I’ve dabbled a tiny bit and made a couple hundred here, couple hundred there, I can see the terrible temptation to risk stupid amounts of money though and mostly stay away.
It was irritating, especially when I told myself well before it surged that I wouldn’t sell for under $1. At least I made some money.
Now I’m boring and my cash just goes into my 401k and IRA.
Lol ya just realized last week I have a 401k that got converted into a Roth IRA from my previous job that I should really be aiming to maximize my contributions into, cest la vie
I would much rather have the constantly used sports car than the one that sits all the time. The best machine is almost always the one that get used.
I’ve got an S2000 that’s a dedicated track car, and had been since 2014. It probably has 20k worth of track miles, because until my dad got a C8 Corvette for track duty a few years back, we shared the Honda. It still runs like a champ, we’ve done aero/brake/suspension mods but the drivetrain is stock. It has never given us a single problem despite screaming around at redline regularly for over a decade. Okay, the fuel gauge is no longer accurate. That’s all. It’s only got 80k or so on it…but those are some hard miles. It doesn’t surprise me that the car in this article racked up so many miles on the street.
I adore that car though, it makes racecar sounds and with the wing and aero it corners like it’s on rails. I never get tired of driving it.
Apart from a nice set of glowing rotors at night, that’s my favorite thing about race car. That unreal aero stickiness through corners that would unseat a lesser vehicle
I’m glad you’re living to and with that car as much as you can.
I think it’s wonderful seeing a well used, well loved sportscar.
I hope the new owner enjoys it as much as the first owner and continues to pile on the miles.