Value
The Most Expensive Honda Ever Sold
The most expensive Honda ever sold is a 2003 NSX-R at €934,375 — about $1,060,516 — at Villa d’Este, the first Honda of any kind to pass a million dollars at auction. It is one of 140. The Honda you can rent in Los Angeles is an Odyssey, and that is not a joke about the gap.
| Car | Figure | What kind of number that is |
|---|---|---|
| NSX-R, 2003 | €934,375 | Villa d'Este. About $1,060,516. First Honda past $1m. |
| NSX-R, 1995 | $632,000 | The previous record, set in 2023. |
| NSX-R production | 140 built | 2002–2005. Under 20,000 first-generation NSXs in all. |
| Honda Odyssey | $114/day | What our Honda costs. |
A million dollars for a Honda, and it took thirty-five years
No Honda had ever made a million dollars at auction until a 2003 NSX-R did it. The previous record for the same model was $632,000, set in 2023 — the price roughly doubled in two years.
The car was Championship White, showed under ten thousand miles, and is one of 140 NSX-Rs built between 2002 and 2005. It made €934,375 at Villa d'Este, about $1,060,516, which is a figure no Civic, no Accord and no S2000 will ever approach.
What makes it worth writing about is not the number, which is modest beside every other marque in this series. It is the direction. Honda values have historically gone one way, like Corvette's and Ford's, for the same reason: volume. The NSX is the one Honda where the arrow reversed, and it reversed fast.
What the NSX actually did in 1990
The first-generation NSX was the first production car anywhere with an all-aluminium semi-monocoque chassis and body. Ayrton Senna, then a Formula One world champion driving Honda engines, gave input during final development. The cabin was laid out after an F-16 cockpit, on the argument that a driver who can see out of a car drives it better.
Underneath was a naturally aspirated 3.0-litre V6 with VTEC, taken to 3.2 litres in 1997 — a small engine by supercar standards then and now. The NSX was not the fastest thing of its era and was never trying to be. It was trying to be a mid-engined supercar you could start on a cold morning, drive to work, and hand back to a dealer who could fix it. Nobody had offered that before, at any price.
Two rules, because they are where these lists break
An NSX is not an NSX-R. Fewer than 20,000 first-generation cars were built across sixteen years; 140 of them were Rs. Quoting the R's result as “the NSX is now a million-dollar car” is the same error as pricing every 911 off a GT3 RS.
A record two years old is a data point, not a level. This model doubled between 2023 and now. A curve moving that fast tells you the market is still deciding, and any figure quoted from it should carry its date.
Why the rest of Honda will never do this
Honda's output is measured in millions, and almost all of it was built to be used until it stopped. That is a compliment to the engineering and a death sentence for collector value: the cars did their job, wore out, and were replaced.
The exceptions follow the pattern this series has found in every marque. Where Honda built something in small numbers for a competition or halo purpose — the NSX-R, the Type R homologation cars, the 1960s Grand Prix machinery — the value behaves differently, because scarcity and a reason for existing arrived together. Where it built for volume, it did not.
The interesting wrinkle is that Honda's racing history is genuinely first-rate — Formula One engines, motorcycle championships — and almost none of it is in cars a collector can buy. The competition assets that would carry the money in another marque are largely engines, and an engine does not come up at Villa d'Este.
The most expensive Honda in Los Angeles
Ours is an Odyssey at $114/day, and setting it beside a million-dollar NSX-R is a wider gap than any other article in this series contains.
It also earns its place here more directly than most. The commonest call this fleet takes that ends in disappointment is a group of six or seven who have been quoted three exotics and then discover the exotics hold two people each. An Odyssey carries seven and their luggage for a fraction of one day of a Huracán, and pairing it with one exotic for the evening solves the whole trip. That is not a consolation prize; it is usually the correct answer, and it is worth saying before the call rather than during it.
What it costs, and how it reaches you
The Odyssey carries a $350 refundable deposit, back 5–7 business days after the car returns. It is one of the cars where weekly and monthly blocks make a real difference to the per-day figure, so the rate on its own page is the one that matters.
Collection from our lot on Robertson Boulevard is free and delivery to the partner hotels in Beverly Hills is complimentary. Airport delivery is priced per direction: $75 standard, where the car waits in the airport parking structure and you take the shuttle out to it, and $150 VIP, where it is at the terminal when you walk out. Anything past the mileage allowance is charged per mile at the rate written into your agreement. The rest is in the terms.
The short version
The most expensive Honda ever sold is a 2003 NSX-R at €934,375, about $1,060,516, at Villa d’Este — the first Honda past a million dollars at auction. One of 140 built.
It got there because the NSX did something in 1990 nobody else had: an all-aluminium chassis, Senna’s input, and a mid-engined supercar that started every morning. Everything else Honda makes is built in millions and priced accordingly. The most expensive Honda in Los Angeles is an Odyssey in our garage, and for a group of seven it is the right car.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the most expensive Honda ever sold?
A 2003 NSX-R, which made EUR 934,375 — about $1,060,516 — at the Villa d'Este auction, becoming the first NSX of any year to pass a million dollars. It is one of only 140 NSX-Rs built between 2002 and 2005, in Championship White, with under 10,000 miles.
Why is the Honda NSX worth so much now?
Because of what it was in 1990. It was the first production car with an all-aluminium semi-monocoque chassis and body, Ayrton Senna gave input during final development, and the cabin was laid out after an F-16's for visibility. It made a mid-engined supercar reliable and usable, which had not previously been on offer at any price.
How many Honda NSX-Rs were built?
140 of the 2002–2005 car. Fewer than 20,000 first-generation NSXs were built in total across sixteen years of production, which is a small number for a company that measures most of its output in millions.
Has an NSX always been expensive?
No, and the change is recent. The previous NSX-R record was $632,000 in 2023, so the model roughly doubled in about two years. Before that the NSX spent two decades as a used supercar that people bought to drive, which is exactly the period when the surviving low-mileage cars became scarce.
Which Honda can you rent in Los Angeles?
An Odyssey, at $114/day against a $350 refundable deposit. It is a seven-seat van rather than a mid-engined supercar, and it is genuinely the right answer for a group that has been quoted three exotics and needs to move six people and luggage.