Boxster's & Winter Driving

[Rich G]

I live in Western Pa. and own a 912E in excellent stock condition for fun driving on weekends maybe 6 months out of the year. My current daily driver for work, etc. is a 2000 VW GTI VR6. My wife and I are talking about purchasing a used Boxster to replace the GTI at some point in time. Although I have read numerous articles about the Boxster and it's performance changes w/r to design changes, I have not read anything regarding how it would handle a typical Winter in WPA. The 4 wheel drive Carrera is always mentioned in terms of Winter driving but what about the mid engine real wheel drive Boxster? I've read the cars balance is extremely good and would assume the real wheel drive traction is good also. Of course I could just ask my local Porsche dealer, but forums like this offer real world performance answers. Thanks in advance for any information ... Rich

[Wayne 962]

The Boxster would probably be ok in winter driving. Not as good as a C4, of course, with the engine weight on the rear, and the 4-wheel drive, though. Make sure that you have snow tires for the winter, and driving tires for the summer. Convertibles seem to be colder with the cloth top too, so that is a concern. Plus the rear window is a pain in the cold weather too.

But the traction should be ok in general.

-Wayne

[jaxs986]

I live in Chicago and "tried" to drive my 00 Boxster last winter and just gave up. I just have the stock 16' wheels/tires and found it was just to difficult to drive. The problems are the back window you can't see out of and the car is very low so after a snow plow comes by I got stock in the grooves of other peoples tires trying to make turns and cracked my spoilers I also spun out alot on right turns...this winter im going to garage mine and get a front-wheel drive beater for the winter,,,unless Porsche comes out with their SUV LOL

cheers
jk

[RayVan]

I too live in Chicago and my 2000 Boxster S is my daily driver. Last winter I tried to drive my car during the first snow on the stock Michelins and I scared the hell out of myself. It felt like the roads had been greased. Then I equipped my car with a set of Dunlops (factory recommended Winter Sports)and the car was transformed. Although it isn't as good as my Audi A4 Quattro, it now starts, stops and corners extremely well on snow. I would tell anyone planning to drive their Boxster in the snow to get the same set up.

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Ray Vanderhulst

[Sportsman]

don't do it unless you want to replace your front valance.

[Doug Zielke]

My wife just bought a '00 Boxster S, and will probably be driving in mild winter conditions. Was thinking of Bridgestone Blizzak winter tires. Comments?

[canyonlands]

Absolutely on the Blizzaks. I've had them on all kinds of performance cars in the winter and they do wonderful things on any car. Check out the MZ-01s. They are performance car specific.