There's a 1/2 page write up on the 'updated' S2000 in the latest issue of Wheels. The article does not say much, but the car looks really nice in the picture. Also under the sales section in the mag it mentiones that only 3 S2000s have been sold last month!!! That probably explains why practically noone has seen any of the 'upgraded' models on the road even though they have been out for at least 3 months. From the sound of it, only ~10 or so have been sold in the whole Australia so far.

3 sales per months is very poor considering that they were selling around 18 units per month about 2 years ago. Interstingly enough, per month, they sell 10+ Elises, 20+ Ferraries, 15+ Lambos, 60 Boxsters ... so all those cars are comfortably outselling the S2000 now.

IMHO, Honda needs to drop the price down to $65k + ORC as as that price it would sound a lot more affordable than it is now. I'm guessing most 'new' buyers don't realize that you can drive away a new S2000 from a delership for ~72k if you shop around. So if they are willing to sell them for that much, why advertize them for $10k more?

 

I would hazard to guess that the number of low km's second hand market sales have increased though? as can still lease these cars.

 

It does not help that you have such a long wait once you order the car. If you can go to the Elise dealership (Rick Damelian's Lotus only sells Elises from what i can tell) and just pick one off the floor... or at the very least take a test drive ... or look at it!

Same goes for the other cars. If you can't even see one and have money burning a hole in your pocket you are going to go where they will actually help you with your 'problem' right away.

That and the s2000 is a bit of an odd item: Too high class for your average Honda dealership but most people looking to make a social statement won't be looking there.


And they don't offer blue interior .... that is just wrong! it is the classiest interior IMHO

 

They did the same with the Insight. Right from the begginning they expected to sell 60/year, never had any in stock and priced it waaaaaayyyy too high (in the US is priced the same as the Prius)... no wonder they sold less than 10 in three years....

 

Just out of interest, does anyone know total sales numbers over the whole S2000 lifespan?
Would there be more than 300 in Australia?

 

Toucan: closer to 3,000

 

Just out of interest, does anyone know total sales numbers over the whole S2000 lifespan? Would there be more than 300 in Australia?

You could probably work it out. This year they seem to be selling 3 (or so) per month, but 2 - 3 yearsa ago, it was more like 18 per month. Not sure how many they were selling in the first 2 years.

So my quess would be around 1200 cars all up since '99. I used these numbers to work that out:
- 2004 = ~3 cars/month
- 2003 = ~10 cars/month
- 2002 = ~16 cars/month
- 2001 = ~19 cars/month
- 2000 = ~25 cars/month
- 1999 = ~30 cars/month

I'm guessing on ther '99 and '00 sales, but I'm going from publications for the '01 onwards sales.

 

DavidM, I remember seeing some reliable figures around the end of the year 2000 that said about 1500 sold to that moment. I think Billyblue's figure of 3000 is about right.

 

DavidM, I remember seeing some reliable figures around the end of the year 2000 that said about 1500 sold to that moment. I think Billyblue's figure of 3000 is about right.

3000 still does not add up. Even if we have 1500 units sold before the end of '00, I don't see how there was another 1500 units sold since then. The figures I'm listing for the 2001 onwards are from the sales figures that i see published in the mags ... I would think that they are accurate. And if they are remotely close to accurate, then there has been only around 250 S2000 sold since 2001 in Australia. That still gives us less than 2000 total, and not even close to 3000.

For 3000 units to be sold here in 5 years, 50 S2000s would need to be sold per month!!! I just don't see that possible cosidering they are selling 3 per months at the moment, and were selling 16 - 18 cars per moths 2 years ago.

ps.
To have ~1500 units sold in the 1st 2 years, there would needed to be 62 cars sold per month. If there were 60 cars per months sold per year, then it would be outselling Boxster, MX5, Audi TT. Interga, at it's peak sold 'only' about 150 units per month. There are about 200 Monaros being sold per months and only about 30 Integras at the moment. So, even ~1500 units in the 1st two years does not add up for Australia.

pps. I think theres about 130 RX8s being sold per month at the moment.

 

DavidM, we need to find some factual data. This is a topic that should be of interest to all the members here.

Perhaps there are some websites where we can find actual figures? Perhaps there might be an Automotive Chamber of Commerce or a Federal Govt Dept that amalgamates the figures from the various State Govt Registration Figures?

Maybe the Australian Bureau of Statistics has some data? What about some of the sites like Redbook or Glass??

Does anyone know where we can source reliable data?

Austblue, are you a Google expert?