I will grant you that the S2000 is not an overly practical car. I would estimate at least 75 percent (conservative) of my driving is done alone; so in my case, the S2000 is pretty practical, as I have no need for more than two seats.
The trunk has a surprising amount of space; though, that does go without saying that you have to pack efficiently when using it. I can fit two sets of golf clubs in typical stand bags in the trunk; it can get a bit tight with two sets of clubs and the longer clubs, ie woods, have to removed and placed in the trunk individually for the bags to fit, but the bags will fit. When it is just my bag in the trunk, I do not have to remove any clubs from the golf bag, as my bag will comfortably fit.
Also, I cannot comment on how the S2000 handles long winters. Oklahoma gets very little snow and ice in the winter and I have not driven the car on either with proper all-season or winter tires. We had some ice and snow last winter and the factory Bridgestones do not perform on the ice or snow. I had to drive home from work one day on the ice with the Bridgestones and it was incredibly hairy. Just getting out of the parking lot where I work was an event. By the time I got home, The knuckles on my hands were as white as the snow/ice dropping from the sky. I floated every stop sign on the way home and had a cop wanted to pull me over for it, then he/she would have had to waited until my car was pulled into the garage.
Insurance can be a bit expensive on the S2000. I believe that is partly because of the relative small number of the S2000s produced and well, it is a sports car. One insurance company quoted the S2000 as being more expensive to insure than the Corvette.
I have not driven an AP1, in fact the only S2000 I have driven is my own. So I cannot give you an impression of the differences in the AP1 and AP2. You might ask JacZilla about the AP1s.
When I was looking into S2000s--and when I have looked at used ones lately, just to see what the market is like now--the AP2 S2000s fetch higher prices. Expect about $21,000 up to around $27,000, though the high side of that is rare; somewhere in the middle, around $23k, is pretty normal. You can find low mileage cars on the low side of the price range. When you start seeing AP2 S2000s priced below the above range, they usually have some miles on them. AP1s are priced lower than the AP2s.
Finally, the nice days, where you get to put the top down, are just wonderful. Just going for a drive on a nice day is very enjoyable. Like I previously said, I disappear for hours just to go drive. Owning such a competent convertible just out of college may have ruined car buying for the rest of my life.
