sayonara, S2000

Reading upon one of my favorite vehicles - the Honda S2000, I found a couple of articles about its fateful departure. It will be a sad one.

Honda is considering replacing it with a 4-seater. Ok, I guess they're not really replacing it with it but the comparisons are there.

Behind firmly closed doors in Japan, Honda continues to work on a possible S2000 successor. But with a twist: the new version, if approved, will have four seats and shift upmarket toward a more affluent SLK-type audience.

While the S2000 has had its fans, and that brilliant 2.0-liter screamer of a four-cylinder is almost worth the price of admission alone, overall it’s been too raw and hardcore of a package to deliver the kind of sales that Honda originally hoped for. (link)

The S2000 has been commented on as non-profitable by Honda or otherwise a steal for the car enthusiasts. With the new Solstice GXP "packing a punch," alongside the similar-looking Miata, even though they aren't direct competitors, S2000 is further driven down a tougher road allowing little maneuverability as an old dog.

Already a big hit just as it was, the Pontiac Solstice has gotten even better for 2007 with the addition of a high-performance version known as the GXP.

And for those who've already had a hard time finding the base Solstice, be prepared to wait even longer for the GXP, which will be even more limited in supply. GM plans to built only a fraction as many GXP models as the regular Solstice during 2007. (link)

On Mazda MX-5 Miata:

The affordable two-seat roadster is the new black. It's also the old black. And, frankly, it's likely to be the next new black, too. So goes fashion in the auto industry. The cheap-but-fun sports car has been a perennial favorite since the late 1980s as a low-volume, high-energy image maker that can cast a zippy aura on less exciting but more practical models on the same lot. (link)

My opinions: While the new Solstice GXP and Miata look the part, they are not in the same leauge as S2k performance-wise. They're cheap, fun, and "zippy", but what's underneath the S2000's hood are the ideals of young engineers putting together a driver's car, which did exactly that. Kudos, indeed.