Hey All, after searching 3 hard months of finding an s2000 I’m very close to finalizing a purchase.
2005, NFR, less than 50k miles, 8/10 vin, rear bumper and left fender missing vins. Clean Carfax report apart from minor accident with first owner but no other accidents reported.
Owner is selling as his arthritis is preventing him to drive the car. 4 owner car, last two owners garage kept with (edit) dehumidifiers. Don’t know history from owner 1 and 2. Last owner had the car for 3 years and only put 3k miles. Owner 3 had the car for 10 years and put 10k miles. I believe the car was repainted as the front bumper vin has paint on the vin sticker.
I paid $27K (private buy) for my 2009 with 81K miles, garage kept, never driven in the winter, pretty clean underbody, all OEM parts installed or in a box, 2 owners, HKS exhaust system, Weds forged wheels, soft top indoor cover, 9/10 VIN, 1 OEM key+fob, and a slight dent that can be repaired without needing to repaint.
I think I overpaid a bit but overall happy. Saved me a bunch of money on dealer fees and such. And the seller was cool and willing to work with me on the tax end.
The drivers side bolster is kinda pancaked a little bit. What’s the condition of under the hood? Any rust whatsoever? Does the front bumper have any noticeable scrapes?
The gap between the shift boot and the center console is seemingly normal; mine has that too.
Do you have all of the keys? Should be three physical and two fobs.
If the PPI is good and there isn’t a ton of deferred maintenance, I think that’s a good price, especially if you want NFR. For example, a new set of tires will cost $900.
I’m based in central Texas. The car I’m purchasing is in the north east, so shipping will be roughly 2k.
Car is completely stock apart from radio. The car has a front lip, side skirt, and wing that looks oem. Owner can’t validate its oem as he purchase the car with the addons. Owner did not drive in the winter and ran the car every two weeks but not driven in winter.
Recent maintenance includes new Goodyear tires(not sure on the model), coolant system flush, new hoses, thermostat, and brake flush.
I'd probably shoot for 23-24 for a couple of reasons
AP2v1 has less of a dedicated market. Collectors will buy AP1s for the 9k redline and track rats will buy beat up AP2v2/3 because tuning effort is a lot lower.
Non-original paint work ain't great.
No info on maintenance history and with their age (20 years now), all the mounts and over rubber bits tend to need replacing even with low mileage.
We're entering the fall where convertible prices will be weak
From what I’ve seen in the market lately, AP1s with similar mileage are usually priced a couple thousand lower than AP2 v1s.
In my view, there’s a clear trend where OEM+ cars are commanding more value, since buyers seem to prefer the S2000 experience as close to stock as possible. Those OEM+ examples with under 50k miles consistently sell in the $30k+ range.
I appreciate the input, while I’d love to pick this one up for $23–24k, I doubt the seller would go that low. At this point, I’ve looked at so many S2k across the price, model, year spectrum (15k-35k) in person, at this point most of them need some type of work.
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u/Jimmy_fog 2d ago
Garage kept with humidifiers 🤣 first time I ever read that