A RWD Honda may seem antithetical to the marque’s ethos, but when they did do such a car—as represented by today’s S2000—they did the format right. Let’s see if this one’s price is a bit of alright too.

Yesterday’s may not have been a looker, but even fewer of you liked the looks of its ad. The rancor was owed to the fact that the seller—let’s call him Mike—offered the car for $22,999 in the headline, and then hidden in the body of the ad noted that there was an additional $6,000 tacked on as down payment. It was sketchy as hell but even with that $28,999 final price the porty Porsche engendered a 58 percent Nice Price win. Still, bad form, Mike.

Okay, I’d like to point out that “Must sell, leaving the country” is prime Craigslist scam fodder. These scams generally starts with the scammer setting an overly attractive price for an item. When a prospective buyer bites, the seller claims to be leaving the country—typically for military service (cue the patriotic heart strings) and hence requires a convoluted transaction in which they send the item for a “test period” while the money is held in an escrow account, supposedly indemnifying both parties.

Well, of course the item never shows up, and the escrow is a front leaving the prospect out their money and the scammer richer both monetarily and in the affirmation of the gullibility of rubes.

Now, I’m not implying that the ad for this is such a scam. I just wanted to bring that info to light seeing as the reason the seller gives the reason given for having the car on the market is “I am leaving the country soon.” Hmmmm.

It’s hard to believe that the S2000 was in the country here for almost a full decade, having debuted all the way back in 1999 as a 2000 model. Shit, I think MTV was still playing music videos then.

This second gen “AP2” model hails from the model’s third from last year, which includes a number of tweaks to both the looks and the mechanicals over the earlier AP1.

Perhaps the most notable of the latter was a displacement bump for its highly strung engine. Dubbed the F22C1, the 2,157-cc DOHC four maintained the same horsepower rating as its two-litre predecessor—237—but upped torque a bit to 160 lb ft. The six speed manual received revised ratios to take advantage of that embiggened engine’s remapped output.

This one sports 140K on the clock and a history of two owners. The body seems to be in pretty decent shape with clear headlamp covers and only minor peppering in front. The top seems perfectly serviceable, with decent rubber at the seals, while down south the 17-inch wheels appear to be free of curb rash both left and right.

Inside, the leather on the seats appears fully intact, and the digital dash is still digitalling. A logo on the radio cover and some sort of cell mount seem to be the only anomalies present here.

One point in general: if you’re seriously claustrophobic, you should check and see if you don’t get all twitchy in the S2000's incredibly tight cabin. This might not be the car for you in general.

Of course, that’s how they all came. In fact, the seller says that, save for the exhaust this car is all stock. Not only that, but he will put the stock exhaust on “later,” whatever that means.

The title is clean and the car is said to have just passed its California bi-annual smog test. That implies that it carries current tags, however in yet another questionable move, the seller seems to have placed the sticker-free front plate on the car’s rear bumper, so we’ll just have to take him at his word.

And what is that word? Well, it’s not the bird. The word is $16,000, which is the asking price for this Silverstone bullet. What’s your take on that price for this car, does that feel like a killer deal to you? Or, does that price and this ad feel just too sketchy?

You decide!

San Francisco Bay Area , or go if the ad disappears.

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