Hey Cool Car Fans,
The other day someone asked me what I thought would be a good vehicle to buy today that will probably be worth more in the future as a classic car. It had to be cool and really fun to drive and there were quite a few of them that came to mind right away. One vehicle that I have noticed has been going up in price recently compared to what they sold for new is the iconic Honda S2000 roadster. It was Honda’s last true sports car and a really cool one for sure.
The Honda S2000 was manufactured by Honda from 1999 to 2009 and sold worldwide. It’s a super cool car that was one of Road & Track‘s Best All-Around Sports Cars, I would have to agree with that assessment. Honda created a great vehicle for the money and they ended up selling 66,547 in the United States over the decade that it was available. That may seem like a ton of cars, but it’s really not since in 2009 there were fewer than 1,000 sold. In 1999 there were only 3,400, so they are getting more difficult to find, especially with lower miles and in great condition.
I spotted a 2000 Honda S2000 with about 195,000 miles running through the dealer auction and it would still retail for close to $9,000 to $10,000, which seems a bit crazy. Granted it was in excellent condition, but the original MSRP of this vehicle back in 2000 was $32,000. The reality is that vehicles are getting more expensive on an annual basis and many people are turning to older cool cars that have already depreciated enough that they are affordable to drive.
WHAT ABOUT REPAIRS ON AN OLDER VEHICLE LIKE THIS ONE?
As The Cool Car Guy, I find cars like this for people who are into cars all the time. It can take some time to find the right one that isn’t trashed or hasn’t been driven hard to the point that you’re going to spend a fortune in repairs. It’s true that there are 
maintenance costs for some of these vehicles, but if you do the major issues such as a timing belt, water pump, brakes, tires, alignment, change the oil, etc. these vehicles can last a very long time. As long as parts are readily available, you can usually go to an local shop and get repairs done for less.
This is another strategy to own an affordable cool car for the masses that many people often overlook. Certain vehicles hold their value much better than other vehicles. Some vehicles you can actually drive for nearly free because of how they hold their value and appreciate after a certain time period based on supply and demand. Of course, I can’t tell you that’s going to happen for sure, but I can tell you that I’ve done it many times. The Honda S2000 is one of those vehicles that is unique, fun, engineered extremely well and popular enough that you can buy one at a good price and drive it for a few years and not lose a ton of money in depreciation. The biggest challenge is just finding another buyer, but they are out there because more care enthusiasts are discovering how fun they are to own and drive.
This is a different strategy than one of my other ones where you can be driving a near new vehicle every three years and have most of the warranty in place during the time you’re driving it. That strategy is really cool as well and it’s a great alternative to leasing. I also have my unique CoolCarsForLife.com strategy where you can buy a vehicle like this one by borrowing against your cash value life insurance policy and paying it back on your own terms with no credit check or having the loan even hit your credit report. If you know what you’re doing, you can do this at nearly zero net interest as a great way to fund a vehicle like this one as your daily driver or to own a fantastic future classic for Summer or warm weather driving.
Another great feature of the Honda S2000 is that after-market and OEM parts are readily available and you can still order parts from the Honda dealership as well. There are also plenty of online forums and car clubs available for this vehicle because it’s a vehicle with a bit of a “cult” following. Why wouldn’t it be since it’s such a cool looking car and it’s now affordable for the masses. If you want me to track you down one like the photos in this article that I pulled out of the dealer auction website, just reach out to me through the contact form at CoolCarGuy.com.
Finally, if you want to read another perspective on why it’s a great time to look at this vehicle as a potential buyer be sure and check out the article over at TheDrive.com called Why Now Is The Time To Buy A Honda S2000. If you decide this is a vehicle you want to own just get back with me and I’ll track it down.
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Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
John is an auto consultant who owns CoolCarGuy.com, a licensed car dealership in Lone Tree, CO. He can help you save time and money on any make or model, new or used, lease or purchase – nationwide! Call or email John about your next vehicle! jboyd@coolcarguy.com or Twitter @coolcarguy
The other day I was cruising through Amazon television and I spot this movie American Gigolo with Richard Gere that came out back in 1980. I remember this film because I was about 13 years old when it came out and living in Florida at the time. Everyone was talking about this movie and what a big deal it was at the time, but I was just a kid, so what did I know. I remembered though that the song Call Me, by the singer Blondie, came out and it was featured in the film.
As The Cool Car Guy, I find cars like this for people who are into cars all the time. What’s really cool about this vehicle is that you can have me find you a 1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SL, depending on your budget, in a variety of conditions. If you only have $10,000 to $20,000 to invest in a cool classic car consider having me track down one of these for you. It might take some time to find the right car, but it’s worth it when you can get a vehicle that you know isn’t going to be losing money the minute you drive it off the lot.
Which is why if you’re going to get an EV you should lease it for sure because you don’t want to be the proud owner of one of these where the batteries are depleting continually. It’s also why I call them a “disposable car”. Let’s just look at the Tesla Roadster for example that came out in 2008, so ten years ago now. It’s hard to believe it was that long ago, so Tesla has done extremely well lasting for a decade now as an electric car company. However, eventually the batteries wear out and just like an iPhone or iPad you have to either update the batteries or sell the car for parts. It’s inevitable. It’s not like a 1908 Model T that you can get parts for and put gas in and head down the road.
The Electric Vehicle business model came right out of Silicon Valley. You know, the guys who tell you that your first iPhone doesn’t work anymore or your iPhone 5c for that matter no longer accepts the latest software update, so you need an iPhone X.
Which is why I’m not a fan of electric vehicles, like so many others in this industry seem to be. I like the fact that you can buy like a sweet 1958 Chevy Impala for example and drive it down the road on a tank of gas without hoping that some company from 60 years ago is still around to offer a battery upgrade to make the car actually work.
That’s pretty unreal considering the 350hp 2010 BMW X5 4.8l had an MSRP of $56,300 before adding in all the options for the vehicle. It’s more like $60,000 to $65,000 by the time you start adding options on a vehicle like that one. And that’s compared to a 179hp 4 cylinder 2011 Toyota RAV4 LE with an MSRP of about $25,575. So, you have a high-performance german luxury brand that is over twice the amount of money new selling 7 to 8 years later for the same amount of money at auction and at retail as a basic Japanese SUV. Which means that if you’re into European vehicles be prepared to lose money or you can buy them at a substantial discount.
It started with Tesla getting millions of people fired up about electric vehicles over the last decade and now Volvo is planning to go all electric in the future with their cars. Mercedes Benz has announced that they are going to be spending a $1 billion investment into their manufacturing hub in Alabama…
A petroleum based engine is designed to run on gasoline or diesel fuel and it can be rebuilt. When batteries wear out they are finished and have to be replaced and it can be extremely expensive. Some people argue that this is no different than rebuilding an engine that can also be expensive.
The challenge for electric vehicles is not the new car market for consumers, but it’s actually the used car market. Most people are afraid of buying electric vehicles that are five years old and having to replace the batteries in the future. The lifespan of batteries in electric vehicles today is about ten years, like in a Toyota Prius. It’s pretty difficult to convince someone to pay top dollar for a used electric vehicle when they are concerned about the battery life and the cost to replace the batteries. In 2015, Autoblog.com had an article titled 
Hey Cool Car Fans,
I decided I should take the time to write an article on why luxury vehicles are more expensive than other brands on the market. Many people assume that it’s all about just selling a vehicle for what the market will bear. Which is a nice way of saying that they think that all vehicles are the same and therefore they are ripping people off with a brand name. It’s true that the manufacturer needs to turn a profit, but when you buy a more expensive vehicle you are also getting a product that costs much more to produce. The components are more expensive to build the vehicle.
Brembo brakes are usually found on a vehicle like a Porsche 911 Turbo or a high-end Audi. You can grab a set of these over at 
Contrast that with a set of rotors for a 2015 Hyundai Elantra GT that you can grab for $122.83 and these are much better than what the manufacturer would put on. These brakes are not even close to the same in performance or quality which is why they are more 15 to 16 times less money!
Here’s the engine for a 2011 BMW 335xi, which I happen to own and drive as my daily driver here in Colorado. It’s a 6 cylinder twin turbo engine that produces 300hp. If you needed to replace this engine it would cost over at CarMonkeys.com close to $11,000 for a used one and that’s a deal.
As you start to go throughout the vehicles and add up the cost of components like brakes, tires (run flats on the BMW or Mercedes Benz for example), the transmissions, shocks, struts, all-wheel drive systems, sound dampening, the quality of interior, you discover that everything costs more on the luxury vehicle. You can keep going with this sort of exercise in other aspects of the cars.
Finally, here is what Google, Uber, Lyft, Tesla and even Ford and the other car manufacturers are apparently forgetting and missing when it comes to selling vehicles. Hummer was a successful brand for a while, so were Saturn, Suzuki, Oldsmobile and Pontiac. Don’t forget that Chevrolet and GM needed to be bailed out for their bad decisions in the past and even filed bankruptcy. Many of these car companies trade hands like a deck of playing cards because the market is saturated from a manufacturing standpoint and the marketplace is extremely fickle.
Hey Cool Car Fans,
This particular vehicle has the 7.0l V8 that produces 505hp. My client also had the following modifications done to the vehicle, but nothing that would affect the overall value of the car. The wheels are the factory ZR1 rims with Nitto tires. Air Raid exhaust. Full cat back. It also has the carbon fiber ground effect parts (side skirts), but my client liked the way the vehicle looks better without them installed. He’s including them with the vehicle to the new buyer, should they want them.
Air Conditioning
Separate Driver/Front Passenger Climate Controls
Interval Wipers
Daytime Running Lights
I am expecting that it won’t last long on the market since so many owners keep their corvettes for a long time. Corvettes have been being built by Chevrolet for over 60 years and they have built close to 1.5 million Corvettes over six or seven generations. The majority of them have been really good cars and a few have been pretty terrible. The C-6 platform that was from 2004 to 2016 with the LS7 engine in 2006 was definitely a winner!
Hey Cool Car Fans,
These cars are super cool, but the race series is not winning over new fans and that’s a problem for the future of the Formula One racing. John Malone’s Liberty Media has agreed to buy the racing series in a deal that values it at $4.4 billion, plus debt that will take it up to $8 billion. That’s big bucks for a racing venue, but this is Formula One racing, which is the Super Bowl of race car driving and a global audience.
Since the announcement was made back in September other news reports have said that they intend to put spending caps on race teams. This is a great idea because Formula One has been dominated by Red Bull and Mercedes Benz. This is because they can spend $400 million or more on putting together a racing team and other teams have been spent into ruin trying to compete, which has created an unfair advantage for smaller teams. It’s not a big win for the fans when two teams can dominate the racing circuit with better technology and loads of cash, so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out with the new owner.
Auto Consultant – John Boyd: The Cool Car Guy
Hey Cool Car Fans,
One of the reasons why I selected these two vehicles is because of the incredible disparity in price between the two vehicles. I wanted to use this article to illustrate the fact that no two vehicles are ever the same, especially when it comes to classic cars. Much like a piece of a artwork the beauty is in eye of the beholder and what has gone into the creation of the vehicle. Many factors come into play from vehicle restoration, make, model, year, original miles, overall condition, who did the restoration, color, popularity, scarcity, etc.
First I spotted this 1962 Porsche 356B that was yellow and black with about 100,000 miles on the vehicle. The description of the vehicle didn’t really say much about it though. This vehicle was being priced around $72,000 with auction fees and shipping. Here’s what they had to say about it, but let’s get some more research on this year and model as well.
“The 356 was created by 
One of the reasons why the 356 is popular is because it was originally created by the son of Ferdinand Porsche and it’s a cool body style. In addition, it’s an extremely popular Porsche model and is claimed to be the world’s largest classic Porsche club of all the models. They also are popular for rally and racing car events as well. What about the 1962 though compared to the 1960? Actually, there were not huge changes in these vehicles from 1960 to 1962 since the biggest changes to the 356 actually occurred in 1959.
The second vehicle I spotted was a 1960 Porsche 356B convertible, which I’ve put some photos in this article of as well. This vehicle was a complete restoration with an asking price of around $189,000 with auction fees. The first 1962 Porsche that looked like a pretty sweet ride was being listed at around $72,000 and this one was being listed at around $189,000. That’s a big spread in price.
The Listing: “1960 Porsche 356 B Super 90 Convertible Signal Red Tan Leather Interior 1600cc Super 904-Speed Vin/Serial: 87746 Full Restoration in 2014 500 Miles Since Restoration Rust Free Body Rebuilt Drivetrain Solex P114 Carburetors New Clutch New Brakes and Suspension 12-Volt System Leather Trimmed Seats Leather Trimmed Door Panels Leather Trimmed Dash Detailed Undercarriage New Seals and Weather Stripping Constant refinement has always been the watchword at Porsche but the new-for-1960 356B represented a marked leap forward in both mechanical and cosmetic features. Most notably the traditional dropped nose and slanting headlight covers gave way to a raised front bumper and fenders and more upright headlights. The T5 body style also introduced such new details as opening front quarter windows except on the Draus-bodied Roadster so named to appeal to the fast-growing American market. 
Famed photojournalist Jesse Alexander described the 356Bs new T5-series body as a rather drastic face lift that will come as a shock to Porsche owners all over the world but today it is symbolic of Porsche excellence. This superb Drauz-bodied 1960 Porsche 356B T5 Roadster is presented fresh from a three-year no-expense-spared nut-and-bolt restoration completed in 2014. After being stripped to bare metal the rust-free body was finished to high standards of fit and finish and expertly painted in Porsche Signal Red. In addition to all new seals weather stripping and exterior trim it features excellent glass chrome and canvas top Concours-standard detailing including the undercarriage and a crisp clean Tan interior with leather-trimmed seats door panels and dash pad square weave carpets and fully functioning controls and instrumentation. The restoration included rebuilding a Super 90 1600cc flat-4 engine with Solex P114 carburetors. The transmission was also rebuilt and a new clutch installed; the completed driveline now has approximately 400 miles of use. All steering linkage brake system and suspension components have been restored or replaced and the electrical system upgraded to 12 volts. This marvelous collector-grade 356B Roadster is offered with the Porsche Certificate of Authenticity.”