The Honda S660 is a unique little thing, albeit one we don’t get in the U.S., with its tiny roadster setup and mid-engine layout. And, in addition to reminding us that modern cars can be both quirky and fun, Honda’s new S660 Trad Leather Edition is a testament to the fact that cars don’t have to be big to be classy.
Modern consumer vehicles, at least in the U.S., are huge. All it takes is one look at a 1970s Datsun 240Z next to a modern Dodge Challenger to see that—both have two doors, but the Challenger looks like it could swallow a 240Z unfazed. But the S660 knows it doesn’t have to overflow a parking spot to be cool, and the Trad Leather edition certainly doesn’t have to be huge to be hugely fancy.
The S660 launched in 2015, and Honda said at the time that the goal was to make it really fun to drive. We in America probably won’t have access to the S660 until it becomes legal to import two decades from now because Japanese kei cars just don’t do well over here, so we’re stuck admiring from our computer screens for now—including on this new Trad Leather special edition.
-
Honda Japan announced the new S660 edition on Thursday, the day before it went on sale in the country. The new special edition has a black and tan leather interior to add to its “fine looking and refined presence,” Honda Japan said, and a brown soft top covering its two seats.
The only option for the car’s interior is the black and tan scheme, but Honda Japan is offering three exterior colors on this special edition: the green in the photo above, along with a white and a black option. The special edition also comes in both a six-speed manual and a continuously variable transmission with paddle shifters, and it has the same 660cc turbocharged engine as the other trims that makes a standard output of about 64 horsepower.
Honda’s selling this S660 edition at nearly 2.3 million yen, or around $20,500 at current exchange rates. That’s a decent amount of cash for not a lot of power, since the S660 isn’t powerful by any means. But power isn’t the goal with cars like this and it’s definitely not a requirement to have fun, as our contributor Ken Saito wrote in an S660 review last year.
The S660 is simply an admirable car to both drivers and passerby, and now, it’s even fancier—if that’s your thing, of course.