Highly recommended All Season Tires for Boxster
 

Just purchased and installed 4 new tires for Boxster. I love my Boxster so much I have no reserve about driving it year round (yikes!). Anyway, being in the automotive repair industry I have lots of experience with tires. I experimented yesterday with an all-season, z-rated, 17 inch tire for my car. I purchase 4 Kumho Ecsta ASX tires. It has been pouring rain here in Upstate SC and I nearly spun out with summer rubber on. Not only do the Kumho ASX perform to the same standards as my former Kuhmo SPT, they also have better wet traction and lower road noise - much lower. The freeways and secondary roads around here bite the big one but the Kumhos handle them with skill. These are 420 treadwear and 30,000 warranty tires, well worth the sub-$600 for a set. Available nationwide. Always specify the exact size in your owners manual, don't let them sell you a one-off size. 986 Boxster with 17" rims are 205/50/17 front, 255/40/17 rear, 16" rims are 205/55/16 front and 225/50/16 rear. Now no more 180s in the rain! :dance:

I have always been very happy with the Kumho Ecsta.

Good luck.

Interesting. I had both the ASX and SPT on my old IS300 (215/45 17), and they were completely different tires. The SPT, being a summer performance tire, had much more grip and gave me more confidence when things got fun than the comparatively greasy all-season ASXs. Sharper turn-in and better communication as well. The same held true in the rain - the SPTs were far superior. That said, the ASXs were slightly quieter and rode a bit better, maybe, but they also flat spotted when the car sat for more than a day. But the flip side is that light snow duty is possible with the ASX, if that's your thing. But yes, it's a very good high-performance all-season choice.