I've almost always used "all season" tires when I drove through winter. Used winter tires only one winter. Man were they noisy! No difference than all season from my experience other than the noise. The car goes sideways just as easily. "Summer" only tires? I never knew there was such an animal. Guess I've got to get out more often.

The high performance tires that most of us put on Boxsters are summer tires - they are optimized for high speed maximum traction and high wall strength for turning in warm temperatures.

Yeah I didn't realize all this until a few years ago and I've had my Boxster for 16 years... I thought the same - that the traction is not the greatest in the winter because it's not an all season tire, but I didn't realize that it could actually be dangerous and I've had three close calls during cold weather due to poor traction and not being aware.