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| 2006 Honda S2000 Review | |||
| Whether you're about to spend $40K on a brand new car, or half that on a used car, it is always important to learn as much as you can about the used car. Read these car reviews to learn about all aspects of the vehicle. Each of the usedcar reviews cover interior and exterior features, options, road tests, and more. | |||
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Introduction
| Road Test
| Inside & Out
| Other Thoughts
| Last Word
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| Inside & Out | |||
Model year 2006 brings the S2000's third set of wheels (watch for 10-spoke pentagons), third set of [LED] taillights, and first set of daytime running [xenon] lights while the rest of this long-nosed, bullet-shaped midget carries straight through time. Open that long aluminum hood and you'll discover something: that raging red engine sits fully behind the front axle, technically making the S2000 a mid-engined car. Now you know.It holds a few more surprises, the first of which is that in some ways, the S2000's interior is a reciprocal of other Hondas. That is not a good thing. Brand H's usual display of clean and impeccable ergonomics were lost in some misguided quest for originality. Starting with the Start button, it's a gimmick. Unlike on luxury cars, it works manually (don't press it with the engine running!), accomplishing nothing besides making starting a two-handed affair. The stereo has a cover that looks fine when up but messy when down, pokes your knee, and the low, recessed head unit makes for awkward reaches to the volume and tuning knobs. If they'd gotten any of that right, the redundant stereo controls wouldn't be necessary - and they didn't get those right, either. The channel knob should be a toggle switch so it's not so easily confused with the Mute button, and the whole cluster is barely any closer to the driver anyway, so what was the point? It's also a roundabout reach to the cruise and stability control switches and the behind-you center console (oddly containing the trunk release), and no glovebox can be found. The "cupholders" are square-shaped afterthoughts, and even the climate controls had their usual four-speed knob hijacked for the sake of a fussy seven-speed toggle switch. Make up your own mind about the digital instrument cluster - they're a model of clarity compared to most digital systems _ but overall the S2000 leaves as little candy for the eye as it does for the mind. Even the power top could use a rethinking. Even if it lowers in a muy rapido six seconds, having to meddle with two rather complicated latches and set the parking brake before getting started makes it akin to walking two miles and hailing a taxi for the third. I'd rather have a manual top I could toss back in half the time, which would also leave one less thing to break and keep the pounds (and price) down like the engineers obviously intended. Finally, the softtop boot is so cumbersome it hardly seems worth dealing with. It's a big, floppy slab of rubber that takes up too much trunk and takes the better part of a minute to wrestle and screw into place. Add it all up, and full conversion from top up to top down takes 10-15 times longer in the S2000 than the Miata. The Honda reciprocality I mentioned has one advantage: the driving position is almost perfect. I may be speaking from only one perspective, but all drivers within walking distance of average size seem to report good comfort as well. Paradoxically, this flexibility was accomplished with a steering wheel that doesn't tilt or telescope. I can't name a single other car guilty of that omission, but if this is what it takes for Honda to make a car whose steering wheel isn't a mile away, so be it. And from this point forward, the S2000 shines. The tight little steering wheel is a leather-wrapped driver's tool, the seats are firm and flexible, the super-cool aluminum pedals (with rubber inserts) are weighted and spaced well, and all body parts rest in all the right places. The shifter falls right to hand, and in case you want to get really creative on the road, so does the parking brake. The windblocker is one of the better, non-rattling types, and the clock that got added a few years back now gets new company from a new outside temperature gauge and oil life monitor. Legibility of all primary and secondary controls is fine, and visibility has been just as good (by roadster standards) ever since the original plastic rear window hardened into glass. One ongoing target of the upgrade department is the stereo. The original four speakers just doubled to eight after the addition of two standard speakers in each of the roll bars. None are subwoofers yet the bass is passably deep, and while the sound still isn't the warmest in the world, it's a flight of stairs above the usual token Honda stereo. The factory is silent on the wattage rating, but it's clearly several times higher than the 30 watts (!!!) of the original. XM is still optional, MP3 still isn't. With all the climbing content over the years, the S2000 just needs one more thing: side air bags. Yet it's still ahead of the safety curve overall: an automatic passenger air bag means junior can come with you on a summer drive, and unlike most cheaper convertibles, those roll bars are real. Despite a protruding spare tire and protruding hinges, the tiny trunk leaves enough space to count for something: 5.0 cubic feet. The indented well comes in handy, and there's an emergency release. |
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