The S2000 has been on sale since 1999 and so predates Honda latest pedestrian-friendly designs. It is though, a strong car that suffered little damage to the occupant compartment, with the door remaining straight and substantially undamaged. The car was tested in the frontal and side crash with its top left up to check for head injury risks for the driver. Although no child restraints were fitted during testing, it is possible to place one on the passenger's seat, so the fitting and labelling requirements were checked. Protection for pedestrians was proved by tests to be very poor.
Front impact
The body structure performed exceptionally well. The door opening and surrounding body suffered minimal distortion and afterwards the door could be opened and closed as normal. The driver's airbag was judged to have given stable support to his head. The area around his knees could cause serious damage if his legs struck unforgiving components such as the shroud screw turrets, mounting bracket, and column lock. Finally, the driver's footwell added to injury risks because of spot weld release and its loss of stability during impact.
Side impact
The driver suffered a glancing head contact with the hood frame that could have posed injury risks for a taller occupant. There was no side protection airbag but the driver was still well protected. The S2000 has a dense foam block within the door which helped to protect him from the side impact. The S2000 has very strong sills, which help prevent the bodywork being pushed towards the driver by the impact.
Child occupant
There was no permanent warning against using a rear-facing restraint on the front passenger's seat. As two adult dummies were fitted there was no room to test a restraint.
Pedestrian
This car turned in very poor results in this aspect of the test, and it compared badly with other Hondas of newer design tested recently. The CR-V scored three stars. Honda says the S2000 predates its decision to introduce a range of pedestrian protection measures at the design stage. The company intends to incorporate improved pedestrian protection measures into all future designs.