Hamada

Yep I agree,
I paid 32,000 down at long beach honda

Prancing Horse

Hello Mohei,

Considering I lived in LA my entire life before moving to Seattle, the best advice I can give you is do NOT buy the S2000 if it is going to be your daily driver. I STRONGLY recommend you purchase a beater to use for errands, transportation to and from school etc. and use the S as a recreational vehicle. I know of many people who had their nice BMWs, ITRs, MBs, and other nice cars completely ruined after living close to UCLA while attending school there.

So, save yourself (and the S) the anger and misfortune by not using the S as your only means of transportation.

Secondly, if your heart is set on a S despite the possibilities of theft and/or vandalism even as a secondary car, you would be able to purchase a S at MSRP in Southern California, if you do your research. There are a few individuals who have purchased their S at MSRP but they did so by being firm and researching dealers that will honor their request. It just a matter of time by searching on this board for the topic and calling dealers. Start with the list on this board of dealers in the CA area that sell the S at MSRP. Give them a call and speak to the internet manager or the fleet manager and notify them that you are a S2ki member and would like to purchase a S at MSRP. If they will honor it, tell them you will buy the car immediately. When I purchase my S, I am looking to get near invoice so if you don't care for that, then you do not need to worry about buying the car from Chicago.

Best,

-Nader

P.S. What are you majoring in at UCLA? And welcome!

Maveric

I strongly recommend that you don't have a nice car while attending UCLA. I have about half a dozen UCLA friends who had their cars vandalized while they attended school there. The best that you can probably expect are some dings and scratches. However, even that is just too much for me to bear.

This is probably the same situation at most major colleges.

Just some friendly advice!

mohei

Hey, thanks for the info and tips... I kinda had a feeling that was the case in terms of getting a nice car for transportation to and from campus. I thought it would be great for the weekends, though but man, thats a bummer cause you guys are probably right! There's a certain bit of fun in getting yourself all worked up looking forward to the purchase but that might be cut short here .... well.. see what happens, might have another idea or two about this situation!

Prancing Horse, looking to do various bit of digital design and augmented reality related studies...

thanks again!

Ulrich

Well. if you decided to buy one in Agust in Chicago (though it seems that the others already talked you out of getting an S2000 for school), I'd definitely have your relatives buy/order the car for you before you get here. Otherwise you might not find one on a dealers' lot (I never find the stuff I want when I really need it). August is sort of the back end of summer, so it might be a bit early for end-of-year discounts or dealers' panic sales. I got mine in November, which was absolutely the right time.

I don't know if I would whole-heartedly recommend any Honda dealers in Chicago. I only visited three of them, did not like Grand Honda at all; encountered no pressure or attempt to negotiate at Valley Honda (I told them how much I was willing to pay, and that was it), and had a neutral impression of Honda of Lisle. Some people here seem to like Honda of Joliet, but I haven't been there.

All in all I'd recommend buying the car where the total price is cheapest. if you can get it in the midwest for $1000 less than what you'd pay on the west coast, you break even (shipping seems to run $900, fully covered/insured). Anything less will go straight back to your pocket.

dbw

i suspect all this is relative....after returning from a trip to japan in mid 1999[where i saw dozens of s2000's in tokyo] i sat on my dealer till he got his first shipment of 3 cars ....red,black,silver....take your pick.in nov of '99 i paid 42k out the door,tax,lic,new air in tires etc....back then there was no msrp ,no cars to speak of in the bay area,tons of people with cash in their pockets...i was unwilling to wait for a "deal" as back then none were on the horizon[except maybe in chicago where greg stevens was wrecking s2000's with great abandon]....i paid the price and given the circumstances,i'd do it again.

keep in mind,i was v-tec'n while some new owners were still in high school!!
for even more perspective, at the '99 tokyo auto show, the hardtop shown was called a "prototype"..and despite the existance of yellow and the "real" blue in japan there was no indication they would ever appear in the states..and even now everybody says honda will NEVER offer a v-6 or an automatic..we'll see.

TRICKS46

As a person who was gang raped by their dealer --------HA! HA!----------The good o'l days!

hoof

njs2k, you're math might be wrong on the price difference between what you paid and the M3. $43k + 6% sales tax is $45.5k, thus the price difference is more like $7,500. Unless you mean that the $43k was out-the-door price (not likely given that dealers don't usually work on out-the-door prices unless you force them to), $43k is not how much you'd have paid.

Incidentally, $7,500 is almost an additional 20% over the price you paid for your S2k, according to my math.

Just checked the competitive comparisons section of the honda site. They list the M roadster at MSRP as $45,990 (about $46k). $43k for a 20002 M Roadster is an amazing deal, it's like getting an S2k for $29,850. If that price was *with* tax, it'd be equivelant to getting the S2k at $27,415. If you figure you could only get the M roadster for MSRP, add 6% sales tax and you're at $48,750, which is a price increase of $10,750 over what you paid (28% price increase over $38k).

I suspect the M roadster would have cost you a little more vs your S2k than your original post implies.

TXBavarian

Sorry, I just gotta chime in with a little Dealer Rant :

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MikesS2K:

[I]