Boxster in the Snow
 

Greetings,
I live in Boston, and am contemplating buying a boxster that I will use as a year-round car. I'm not having much luck finding one I can afford with traction control, and wondered if anyone had experience with a non-TC model in the snow. I don't expect to do much winter driving, but I'd like the option. Any thoughts?

hey frank..Welcome Aboard :cheers:
unforunately, I live in NorCal and I can't give my $.02 about it but there's a lot of members here in this forum that love driving it in the snow...one of them is DJ. He will chime in soon :)

Hi Frank,

I live in Boston....I've been here for about 15 years.....Let me put it to you this way.....I wrap up the Boxster and leave her in the garage come winter....I battle the snow in a Cayenne....(6 cylinder....the money tree hasn't reached full maturity yet...:-) )

vheidenr,
Is this Vince from Weymouth Club tennis?

Welcome to our forum - Richard Kwei (James Kwei's Dad)

just get some tires and ure set, i even drove mine w summer only tires (although i dont recoment that, but if you have good winter tires ure good to go) and its actualyl a lot of fun to drive a box in snow

I drive mine here in Chicago with snow tires and you will be a ok. I even took it out the worst day of the snow season and commuted for 4 hours and not a scratch. Just a little slide which I cured by leaving in 2nd gear.

On the other hand, plenty of normal cars in the ditch and a sweet X5 face first in a street pole.

The winter comes down to you driving with some intelligence and a lot of care.

And please please discount the statements of those that haven't driven the box with a set of snow tires...kind of hard to speak without experience on this particular car......18" continentals on mine and not a problem.

Like DJ, I've driven in the snow on summer tires twice, don't recommend it, but I'm still here typing.

Size Matters
 

Hello and Welcome!

My Box is a daily driver. Last winter I purchased some Blizzaks and got along fine. However, when it's snowing like crazy, I stay home. No matter how good the tires are, deep snow will defeat a low sports car every time. And I might be able to get around but the idiot flying along in his 4wd can't stop and I don't want to meet him by accident. :eek:

Size matters when it comes to wheel diameter. 17" snow tires perform better than 18's. The wider the tire, the less effective it will be as a snow tire. Also tire companies do a CYA and probably sway more towards performance than snow traction when building 18's - at least a little more than 17's. Since you haven't purchased a Boxster yet, you may want to consider tire size in your purchase. Normally buyers prefer 18's over 17's, so if you find one with 17's it might work in your favor to buy it. But you can get along fine with 18's with a little common sense and a light foot.

You will fully enjoy purchasing a Boxster.

Terry

Yep, I have run winter contis in the snow for the past two years and did just great.

I have a client in Buffalo that I have to visit once per week - I have definately proven that this car can be quite practical in the snow.

No TC should just make you more cautious - the Box does just fine and you will be OK as long as you take it easy. Since cars have been on the road, there have been non TC enabled RWD vehicles slugging it over snow covered roads in the winter. Only recently have people decided that they had to have AWD or FWD. The important thing in the snow is stopping, that is all about the tires, not which wheels are driving the vehicle. Tire technology has never been better too - you will be OK and likely have a lot of fun to boot.

You'll also want to consider your particular situation. Do you live in an area that is regularly plowed or do you need to get over some fairly deep snow at times?

Here in Colorado, the main roads are normally plowed pretty well but my neighborhood is totally ignored. At times I can't get out of my driveway let alone down the street without some decent ground clearance. If there's more than 4" on the road, the Boxster turns into either a snow plow or a sled no matter what tires you're using, neither is much fun.

Long Answer: Since a lot of people seem to be ignoring the actual question: I have TC on my box (I live in central PA, it's my daily driver, and I have a set of Blizzaks for it), and I usually ended up turning off the TC to get around here in the snow. The reason for it: We have a lot of hills where I live, and when the idiot ahead of you starts getting close to it and says "WOAH!! There's a hill! I had better come to a complete stop before I try to move up this one!," you basically have to spin the tires to keep moving forward.

I did try a couple of the steeper hills around here in the first snow, first with TC on, then with it off. With TC on, I was unable to make it up a hills here, cause I couldn't actually apply any forward thrust as soon as it started slipping. TC off just meant I had to give it a little gas, and it'll grip eventually :)

Where traction control is really nice is when you're driving down that road and hit a spot of ice, especially if you're in the middle of a turn. THAT is when you want TC, but it's not necessary even then, by any means. If you've ever driven any other RWD sports cars in the snow, the box is exactly the same. You don't need TC if you're not an idiot. As you know, the first vehicles in the bank after a snow fall is the SUV driving soccer moms who think "hey, I have 4WD! I don't have to slow down like the rest of these peons!"

Short answer: No, you don't need TC :)

Frank, I live in Boston and this is not my daily driver car. I couldn't do it the box but you'll read that lots of folks drive their car in the dead winter and have no problem.