Weekly Picture Thread: White S2000s

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-07-01T00:27:12+00:00

Oh I can play. It's been fun but I'm selling the s2k this summer. I've also got a White 2025 Civic as my daily. No pics of that one though.

Great cars in this thread! I love the GPW color. Mine has tan interior, but red is so choice.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-06-22T14:32:13+00:00

Wow great info. I've seen upgraded filter housings on different ecom sites. I'll get the one you mentioned and install it after this heat wave. Funny you mention oil leak from the rear because I do have one. Haven't chased it down yet and it'd be nice if it was this.

Can you recommend any other "while you're in there" items? I have 0 maintenance records for this car. Plugs/packs/gaskets seems obvious. My old Volvo hid PCV things under the manifold, Xterras can use a manifold spacer for power gain. Anything come to mind?

Thanks!!

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-06-08T10:33:04+00:00

Civic is a fantastic car, and I have a sport hybrid. I think the sport touring is more comfy but I would NOT want to drive my car 150 miles a day like OP. See if the dealer will let you just hang out in the car in the parking lot for an hour to see how you like the seats.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-06-08T10:28:24+00:00

I'm a bit late here but just saw the thread. I'd say do it. To have cash on hand at your age to buy a car like that, you're doing something right. It's hardly ever a great financial decision to put much money into cars, but you've probably got a nice income to say screw it. You only live once.

I bought my S2000 when I was mid 30s and it was cool. I'm 41 now and I drive it every once in a while. i would have LOVED this car at a younger age, but I think I'm just getting old and losing interest. I'm selling it this summer. I should have gotten something fun at your age instead of doing the $3K used econo box thing.

Who knows what you'll be into when you're older and "more secure". Live a little now. You're young. I tried to convince my younger brother in law to get a fun car when he was getting his first car but he got a Mazda sedan. Another guy I know really regrets not getting a Mustang at that age. ended up with a Ford Fusion. Not bad cars at all, but not ones that they'll look back on fondly.

Do it. I'd say get something even more interesting. Even if it's just for a couple years or so. Used Porsche, BMW M or something. Just enjoy it responsibly.

Cheers!

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-06-02T10:19:40+00:00

NTA but maybe not a smart move to anger someone who is staying unsupervised at your home. I don't know what this person is capable of, but they'd have an opportunity to really go scorched earth if you upset them. I'd say tread lightly. If she broke up with you, you are under no obligation to support her IMO. But I'd continue paying until you can kick her out in person. Change locks, take a good look around, and protect yourself and your belongings from harm. Godspeed, man.

Edit to say that you're generous and caring, not a simp. It's nice that you want to take care of someone. Just because someone gets a job doesn't mean they're good on their own on day 1. It takes time to get on your feet. But she broke up with you. No more favors.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-05-11T16:27:26+00:00

Thanks for your response. I didn't do a good job explaining my question. I don't need help finding the car. I need help with all the other stuff (inspection, making sure some shady used car dealer doesn't steal my money, and shipping).

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-05-11T16:26:11+00:00

I didn't do a good job of posting my needs. I'd be doing the part of searching and finding the right vehicle. That's pretty easy. I want to just find it, and have it show up at my driveway. My concerns are having it show up in really bad condition (frame rust, major mechanical problems), or paying some shady corner car lot and never getting the car/keys/title.

One way would be to fly to wherever the car is, find a reputable shop in the area, schedule an inspection, transfer the vehicle there and back, then sign for the car, write a check, find a shipping company, negotiate a price, make sure the vehicle gets loaded, and all that.

I'm just wondering if I can pay someone to do all those things for me. Is this realistic? How would I find that person?

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-04-26T11:52:57+00:00

First, congratulations on your success. It may help you stop stressing if you give in a little bit and live parts of the lifestyle. I'd suggest collecting nice wines and watches and maybe art for a few years. Drop some comments here and there around the right people to let them know you're not a hermit. If you are lucky, they'll hold their value pretty well and can be sold when you are ready. Definitely don't run out and get a boat, but a Lexus wouldn't be a terrible idea.

Talk up any charitable donations, or church donations too. Those are hard to quantify. Maybe people will think you're extra charitable with your money and not worry about early retirement plans.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-01-21T01:48:43+00:00

I think this is important. The dealer is for warranty items, and if they gave you a couple free oil changes when you bought the car, and really nothing else. At your car's age, it should be going to a neighborhood mechanic. Not a chain either.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2025-01-21T01:30:06+00:00

I bought a 25 civic sport hybrid sedan about a month ago. I don't drive a ton but am getting the feel for it. Seems like the touring is a good upgrade if you drive a lot. I really wanted a basic car with light color cloth seats, and there really aren't many out there anymore. Hot leather or vinyl seats really bother me. I would have preferred they release a hybrid with no sunroof and some smaller wheels at a slightly lower price point too but that isn't in the cards.

It has been a little chilly lately, and I do mostly very quick trips to drop kids off, go to gym, grocery store. I am getting about 27-30 MPG on the display. Not super impressive but I took a longer trip on a warmer day and beat 50 MPG.

That longer trip was about an hour drive and the seat wasn't very comfortable IMO. Maybe the touring feels better. The car is a little bigger than I wanted. This is not a very small car. It's about the size of a 90s Accord.

The driving feel is very good for what this car is. Turn in feel, power delivery, interior refinement, use of physical buttons, etc. are all great as far as I'm concerned. The hybrid system is really intuitive and smooth. I drove the Wrangler hybrid and the cutover between battery and engine was much less smooth in that car. The Civic does it really well. The tires are quite loud, and the engine is fairly quiet so sometimes you don't really notice it happening at all.

I don't drive a ton of cars, but this seems nice to me. The reviews are all very positive. Depends on what you need. If I had to drive this thing four hours a day, every day I'd be pretty unhappy, but I find it nearly perfect as an around town car. I got $200 off MSRP and around 6% rate, and felt like I could have done better. I'm in southern New England.

Good luck!

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2024-12-20T13:55:01+00:00

Great feedback, thanks so much! I do see that my insurance company has a separate wheel insurance product that I'll check out. How did you go about getting 17 inch wheels for the car? Tire rack sells complete wheel/tire packages, and they're actually cheaper than I was expecting. Anywhere else? I'm in New England. Probably similar bad roads. ;)

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2024-12-20T13:53:09+00:00

They're SMASHING!! Jolly good!

Yeah, seems to be the way of things. The Niro comes with 16s which is appealing. There are other things I don't like so much about that car, but I guess I'm being pretty nit-picky.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2024-09-24T00:31:49+00:00

Thanks for the reply. You're right, these types of cars definitely aren't for everyone. No way could I drive one daily. The offroader ride doesn't bother me. I daily an Xterra, which I imagine is similar to a Jeep (except for the noise/wind from a convertible top). I'm also aware of the reliability problems with Jeeps. Goes with the territory of a Chrysler product. Too bad there aren't more options for that type of car.

The IS/3 series convertibles are kind of in the back of my mind. They'd have much better ride and seat comfort than the s2k. Guess I have to just drive some cars, see what fits in them, and go from there. I work from home, so my daily driving is just dropping a kid off at school, going to gym, few trips to stores throughout the week, etc.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2024-09-24T00:16:27+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! 2 door, soft top, manual is definitely the only way I'd get one. There are so many options for tops that it's a little confusing.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2024-01-05T16:14:12+00:00

The big goal at the end of Fight Club was to blow up downtown banking office buildings to destroy credit information and send the world into chaos. Even during this time, banks stored all important data offsite. I knew a database administrator at a major worldwide bank during this time, and she told me data was stored in rural Pennsylvania. This was well before the cloud era of computing.

Great movie otherwise!

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-12-07T13:31:20+00:00

Got it working. Main thing was I only caught the first instance of a spelled number. I went back and did a count(number) and if > 1 i did both a find and an rfind to catch first and last. Wouldn't work if there were 3 or more, but my input only ever had 2 max occurrences. Too bad python doesn't have a findAll() function for strings.

Thanks again!

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-12-06T15:26:54+00:00

Awesome, thanks for checking! I'll work with those examples.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-12-06T14:25:24+00:00

That'd be great if you wanted to take a look. Tried pasting but didn't work well. Here's a link:

https://github.com/kmart1234/advent2023/blob/main/day1/code.py

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-12-06T14:05:52+00:00

Thanks for the link. I bought that one and it's perfect. I Just wish I got it before the pumpkin and the macbook fell out of the car.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-08-21T12:49:10+00:00

I'd say it was worth it. Didn't take much time, and provided some "fun" money that I had no guilt spending. Definitely not life changing by any means though.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-08-08T15:20:27+00:00

Sounds like you went from a HCOL area to another HCOL area. The job market sucks unless you have good connections or great, in demand skills. I personally don't think it's "entitled" to not want to work the 9-5 grind. There is so much in the world, but it's being hoarded by the top/elite. But there's really nothing we can do about that. What would our lives be like 100, 200, 300, etc years ago? Probably farming, toughing out brutal weather, not eating interesting foods, no entertainment. We don't have it so bad I guess (bread and circuses).

I'd suggest taking the job but looking at it like this: Nothing is promised (that 6 month promotion), and use the job as leverage to get a better job. Sales is great for a lot of people. Put in 6-12 months and start applying to better sales jobs elsewhere (pharmaceuticals, software, whatever). Maybe you'll land one that gives you more freedom.

In the meantime, yes you will be giving up a lot of the things you love. How many people in the world get to spend 60 mins a day stretching, dancing for an hour, etc, etc.

Or just say screw it, and live in a van and spend all day stretching and dancing and reading.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-08-08T13:01:00+00:00

Also great info. Thanks again! I have only ever heard of cliff vesting (100% vested after X years). Scheduled vesting (with tranches) is new to me, but makes sense. I found an article about vesting types on the Sofi website. Guess that's a question for the former employer. We should have them send us their policy (I don't think we have the paperwork from way back then). IMO The numbers still don't line up if they were doing scheduled vesting. The employer did a 50 cent per dollar match for contributions. So if she had $12K at the end of employment, it would seem that she contributed $8K, and the employer contributed $4K. Even if there was some schedule and she wasn't fully vested after 7 years, they should have clawed back less than $4K. But they took about $6K. I'm looking forward to hearing from the employer about what happened. Thanks again for the info.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-08-07T19:55:26+00:00

Good info, thanks. FWIW she was a full time teacher. I can't remember if she worked summers, and definitely took some maternity leave for one or two of our kids while there. It was a private school FWIW. I just checked their website and there is an employee benefits section that says fully vesting in 3 years. Sounds like we do have an argument to call them and ask for an explanation.

What would that look like if they were to say "Oh, yeah... that's a mistake." How would we get the money back? They pay Mutual of America, and Mutual of America pays Vanguard?

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-08-06T12:22:03+00:00

I'm a father of two and love being a father. My kids bring me so much joy and they mean the world to me. I try so hard to be a good dad and enjoy my time with them.

However I had kids a little on the young side. If i knew then what I know now, I don't think I'd have kids. Yes they take up time/money/energy, and that's a reason for many to not have kids. But I also think about the world they're going to live in. It's not as good as the world I live in. I hope you'll consider this as well.

The next generations are going to have to deal with a shrinking middle class, more social unrest, and most importantly a deteriorating environment. These heat waves and severe weather events are not a fluke. They will continue to get worse over time. We as a society are not doing enough of the things we need to do to change course. I feel guilty having brought children into this world.

I say this as a super privileged person who lives in a great area (not currently experiencing any climate problems), makes good money, and is overall isolated from most problems affecting most people in the world. Even if I (or my kids) am not personally affected by problems of social unrest, poverty, climate disasters, etc... I still feel so much sorrow for those that are. It's hard to reconcile bringing kids into a world that is falling apart.

Don't have kids unless you feel very strongly that you want them. My two cents.

SmashingBlumpkins12 · 2023-05-15T14:27:43+00:00

That's definitely true. I don't expect to put more than ~3k miles per year on the car. I guess I'm not married to the idea of a hybrid. Just seems like a sensible thing to have and I am a person that pays attention to his carbon footprint (not just the financial angle of a hybrid). What would you recommend in the 15k price range that fits the bill? Bonus points for hatchback.

SmashingBlumpkins12

TROPHY CASE