What 2 seat runaround MX5 - MR2- Honda S2000

[Gerald-TVR]

Thinking of getting a daily runaround from the above as an extra car. But which should i ne looking at bearing in mind cost, reliability, enomomy, serving costs and above all practicallity.

What advice do you have?

Norman

[kambites]

You don't give an ideal of budget, but out of those, I'd say the MR2 is the best car to drive as long as you can get a mk3. It has no boot though, so it kinda falls down there.

I doubt there's much in it in most of the running costs, although the S2000 will cost more to fuel.

[Snowboy]

What's your budget?

S2000 is a cracking little car.
But, it can be a bit of a chore as a daily drive.

Aggressive clutch, low driving position. It's not fun to drive in heavy traffic.
But, it a blast to hoon around on clear roads.

Very few driver aids make it a great drivers car.
Very few driver aids make it a bloody lethal on wet oily roads.

The roof often leaks when left out in the wet.
But, you can get them for under 5k.
I found them to have more drivers space than the MX5.

MX5 is a great car though.
You'll probably get more MX5 for your money compared to the S2000.

MR2?
All I know is it means st in French – which will amuse a 12 year old schoolboy, but not much help here.

[hornetrider]

Budget?

[300bhp/ton]

Gerald-TVR said:

Thinking of getting a daily runaround from the above as an extra car. But which should i ne looking at bearing in mind cost, reliability, enomomy, serving costs and above all practicallity.

What advice do you have?

Norman

As kambites said, what sort of budget are you looking at? You can get an MX-5 for £900......

Guess it really needs to come down to what you want. The S2k is by far and away the quickest and most powerful, the MR2 MK3 probably the most agile and flighty and the MX-5 more of a middle ground all rounder with more hooligan like tendencies.


Also what do you mean by run around? Run around where and on what roads? How practical? What will you be carrying? And how many miles, is economy really an issue?

[XitUp]

If you've got less than £2k get the MX-5.
If you've got enough for a decent S2000 get that.

[NiceCupOfTea]

I am biased - but as an all rounder, probably the MX-5. Cheap to buy, cheap to run, reliable, practical, benign handling. I have run one as a runaround for over 4 years and not regretted it at all. Get one with standard suspension though as opposed to any trick JDM stuff and your spine will thank you (and truth be told, it will handle just as well on typical UK roads). Only real disadvantage is that it's a bit "Tomy My First Sports Car", but if that doesn't bother you then fill your boots.

I could never get on with the Boxster-aping Mk.3 MR2, and as said there is very little storage so falls down on practicality. S2000 looks fab and sounds like a great proposition. I know opinion is divided on whether they have snappy handling but a modicum of care/tyre choice probably the order of the day. The problem for me is that you are getting into Z4 3.0 / TVR Chimaera money, and one of those 2 is where my money would be going I think.

[Gerald-TVR]

It would replace a BMW 320 E46 Touring as my 1st car (the BM would go to SWHBO as the 'family' car) so prcctitcality isnt an issue and would be thinking of around £5k. My fun drive is a TVR S2 which gets used quite a lot but not everyday - does that change the advice?

[300bhp/ton]

Gerald-TVR said:

It would replace a BMW 320 E46 Touring as my 1st car (the BM would go to SWHBO as the 'family' car) so prcctitcality isnt an issue and would be thinking of around £5k. My fun drive is a TVR S2 which gets used quite a lot but not everyday - does that change the advice?

How about a BMW Z3, less frantic than the other offerings. The 2.8 is quite nippy too.

[Snowboy]

If you have a TVR you probably don't want a £5k S2000.

(there's a few assumptions below)
If the weather was great you'd want to take the TVR, and the S2000 is quite an effort in bad weather.
A £5k S2000 probably would need some maintenance, and I'm taking a guess your maintenance time and budget would be better spent on the TVR.

I'd be inclined to look for something that was more of a 2 seat comfortable car rather than a 2 seat sports car.

BMW Z3 is a good suggestion.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Is the MX-5 going to be that different to drive to the S2 in the real world?

[Baryonyx]

300bhp/ton said:

Guess it really needs to come down to what you want. The S2k is by far and away the quickest and most powerful

Unless of course, you consider the MR2 Turbo. 1 more bhp, faster to 60...I'd wager thats the fastest of the lot.

Having owned both an MX5 and an MR2 and given serious consideration to an S2000, my thoughts:

My MX5:



This was a good little car, but there were a few things that stopped it being a great car. The one thing that sticks in my mind was the lack of a rake adjustment on the steering wheel, which means it was never really in the right place. The engine loved to be revved, but the lack of performance did start to grate after a little while unless you were exclusively driving down twisty B roads. It was very harsh on the motorway, doing circa 4200rpm at 70mph in 5th. The fuel economy was disastrous for the power it delivered. The interior wasn't fantastic, and the seats were pretty crap. On the upside, the gearshift was nice and the handling was relatively benign in the dry. You need to have the right tyres on it though, I had P6000's on the back and they were wayward in the wet, leading to all sorts of unexpected behaviour. Also, the convertible factor started to grate after a while, as it roof made a lot of wind noise at speed.


Later the same year, realising I did want a sporty Japanese two seater after all I looked at the MR2 Turbo and bought this:



It really is a beauty. The performance is astounding, and the turbo adds a dramatic appeal to the whole thing. The interior is fantastic, and it's a much nicer place to sit than the MX5 was. The handling is better, and more communicative. The controls are all nicely weighted, but the clutch is heavy so consideration should be given to that factor. The fuel consumption is little worse than the MX5, though it does take 98 RON at the pumps. On the flipside, it produces over twice the bhp of the MX5, so I can hardly complain. It is simply a better car in every respect. Hard top too, so no more convertible roof worries. It's also more practical than the MX5, which a big deep boot as opposed to the MX5's long, shallow boot. But the mid-engined, RWD coupled setup with a powerful turbo would make me think that this car is definitely not for first time RWD'ers or those new to performance cars.


As for the S2000, I looked at those too. They are stunning cars, but the buy in price is still pretty high on them. I am sure the VTEC engine is a hoot though, and the build quality will be of Honda's typically high standard. The insurance is high though, considerably more than the MR2 Turbo. I am not sure about the handling, there was some reckoning that they had dialled out the snap in later iterations of the S2000. I imagine the S2000 is much like the original Focus RS, in that it really comes to life on the right road and thats where you'll see how good it is.

[N88]

Don't forget about the horrendous insurance costs on the S2000, must be taken into consideration.