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Excellent work twohoos !
My car: 2008 LBP
Date: 4/08
Vin: 2240
So, it looks like mine was one of 215 S2000s produced that month???
Thanks for posting all this research.
You're welcome!
My current estimate for 4/'08 is actually 115 U.S. cars (in the table in Part 1, it's the "April" row, and the "MY08" column). But as I described in Part 2, there's some uncertainty: production technically could have been anywhere from 96 to 133 based on the MY08 VIN stickers I've actually verified.
The story of the end of U.S. S2000 production is now coming into clearer focus. Shortly after I started this effort, it became clear that almost the entire U.S. MY09 production run (just 355 total cars) occurred in the fall of 2008. In fact, for almost a year, the latest date I had found for an ’09 car was 10/’08. Eventually I came across MY09 VINs 341 and 348, which both have 11/’08 build dates. Now, MY09 VIN #348 is the very last base-model U.S. S2000 ever made; it was followed by just nine CRs, which were the last U.S. S2000s ever. So that seemed to seal the deal: production surely must have ended in November 2008, or at the very latest, in December.
Not so fast! Thanks to s2ki user @migzs_s2k, it's now known that U.S. S2000 production extended into 2009! He emailed me a photo of his car's federal ID sticker, and his S2000, MY09 VIN #353 (CR #695 of 699), was built in January 2009! (Coincidentally, within a few days of migzs contacting me, MY09 VIN #0355 (CR #697 of 699) went up for sale on BaT! -- another Jan. '09 car! But migzs gets the credit in my book, LOL.)
So how could it be that (nominally) two months separate the build dates of MY09 VINs #348 & #353, which were just 5 cars apart? (Remember: at its peak, Honda was producing some 50 U.S. S2000s a day!)
Well, I've updated Part 3 of my original post with my best guess -- I’m including it here so you don’t have to scroll back to the top of the thread.
Here's my guess about what happened in late 2008, and into 2009: After the global financial crash in the fall of '08, U.S. demand essentially vanished overnight. Meanwhile, even before the "Lehman shock", inventory had been piling up at U.S. dealers, and Honda had already slashed U.S. production to a trickle (this is obvious from the data). So, I speculate that Honda must have suspended production of U.S. cars that November, following that final U.S. base model, VIN #348. In the weeks after, they would have been busily updating their global market forecasts (for every car in the lineup, most likely) so they could decide how best to respond. Now at that point, a total of 690 CRs had been built. With the S2000’s outlook unquestionably bleak, the final decision to kill the roadster must have been made in late December '08 or early January '09. However (again speculating) the top bosses probably granted approval for a final few CRs: these would serve as a swansong for the model’s ten-year run, and (just as important) would help clear out their inventory of CR-specific parts. (To the latter point: note that Honda also started selling the Type S worldwide for 2009, even though it had been Japan-only when it was introduced – another way to use up those distinctive CR/Type S parts!)
With the decision made, production of those final nine CRs would have occurred in January ‘09, and would have taken just a few days at most. Then it was time to go public: late that month (Jan. 29) Honda issued a press release announcing the demise of the car, with production scheduled to end forever in June. In the U.S., the announcement was greeted with mostly yawns, as there were still hundreds of '08s and '09s sitting around dealers, priced at steep discounts from MSRP. However, the Japan and Europe/UK markets sat up and took notice, and orders came pouring in! With the higher margins available from EDM and JDM versions (where the car was priced, relative to median income, about 20% higher than in the U.S.), Honda found itself with its highest JDM and EDM production quantities since 2001! In fact, JDM sales peaked at 273 units in July 2009, higher than any single month since the 2001 calendar year. The response was so strong that Honda took two unusual steps: first, that March, it announced a limited run of 100 European “Ultimate Edition” cars, plus 100 UK “GT 100 Edition” cars, each in Grand Prix White and equipped with hardtop, unique shift knob, door sill serial, and other bespoke touches. And second, Honda pushed back the end of production from June to August. The last S2000 ever built (one of those special editions, in Grand Prix White) rolled off the line on August 7, 2009 – ten years and five months after production started.
Again, it’s worth noting: the U.S. market tanked in Fall ’08 and never recovered, even after the car’s “death announcement” in January ‘09. From a pure profit perspective, U.S. production probably “should” have stopped entirely after the November ’08 build of MY09 VIN #0348. But there were two more things to consider. First, existing commitments to parts suppliers and unused inventories of CR-specific components almost certainly mean that the Suzuka plant had enough parts on hand for several more cars. Second, the S2000 was the last remaining “halo car” in Honda’s global lineup, with the NSX having been axed years before. So those nine U.S. CRs made in January 2009 (VINs #0349 thru #0357) were almost certainly considered “Final Edition” U.S. cars. True, they were indistinguishable from other CRs, but with the decision to end production at 699 CRs total (“one less” than a round number – a custom started by Ferrari with the F50) Honda unquestionably saw those last few cars as a special tribute to the American market, which had, through sheer volume, sustained the business case for worldwide S2000 production for a full decade.
Interesting update. @twohoos , as always I remain grateful not only for your continued quest for S2000-related information, but also for your willingness to share it with the rest of us.
Interesting update. @twohoos , as always I remain grateful not only for your continued quest for S2000-related information, but also for your willingness to share it with the rest of us.
I'd be surprised if the cars ran down the production line nose to tail in VIN sequence order. Differences in paint, interiors, and possibly QC and inspections will jumble the sequence. There's only one minute difference between the last day of a month and the first day of the next (6/'01 and 7/'01 and 9/'04 and 10/'04) and only the month and year show on the data tag, not the day. Are there more drastic differences other than special models? I'm assuming the VIN is stamped in the firewall before paint and the stickers are printed as the cars come off the line.
08-03-2020, 11:04 AM
