Winter Ride Questions - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

NickCats · 02-22-2007, 08:43 PM

AFRay007,

When I bought my Boxster last year I had the same problem ( although I'm sure that winters in North Dakota are much worse than here in Chicago ).

I thought about buying winter tires & wheels and a hard top, but I decided to just buy a winter car instead.

Figure about $1000 for wheels and winter tires and $3000 for a hard top - you could probably find a nice 4x4 for $4000.

Not sure about North Dakota, but there are some awesome roads in South Dakota !

That dealer does look scary, though. $35k for a 1999 Boxster with 38k miles - $50k for a 2000 S with 23k miles

Good luck...

Nick

Jonesy08054 · 02-23-2007, 02:32 AM

I'm at McGuire myself....sorry to hear about the Forks. I agree with SigmaPi, get something cheap and reliable for the heavy snow days. I have an 04 Audi A4 as my beater (quattro is nice too for the snow and ice), and only drive the Boxster on nicer days. Jersey salts the crap out of their roads, so I havent' been driving the Boxster that much.

Chills · 02-23-2007, 05:29 AM

I agree with Nick, buy a winter car. I bought my Boxster in October 2006 and originally planned on driving it during the winter... just being careful. Well, this winter in Chicago has sucked, so in December I bought my fiance a new Honda Civic EX and she gave me her Hyundai Elantra. So now I have a winter car and I am SOOO glad I do.

986Roadster · 02-23-2007, 05:56 AM

Hey i used to baby my boxster, stored it for the first 2 years. This year i decided to drive it throught the winter. do not attempt to drive with summer tires, it's the dumbest thing you will ever do. the tires are like plastic. winter tires are much more softer. i suggest maybe getting an all season tire.

I love driving the boxster in snow, i would also only attempt to drive this car with traction control ON. The traction control is amazing. The car drives very good if not better then any car i've driven in the snow.

Wear n tear is obvious!

djomlas · 02-23-2007, 08:47 AM

if you are cereafull you can definitely make it trough winter, you probably will not enjoy it as much as in summer time but you can get trough it.
this year sucked bad in chicago, and i still made it all good, summer tires, no traction, no heated seats, empty trunks

Rodger · 02-23-2007, 09:47 AM

Grand Forks sucks, but it could be worse. It could be Eielson!

I'm at Elmendorf and I let my Boxster sit until the snow is gone. Although you may get snow tires and a hardtop to make the Boxster a liveable winter car, someone else won't do the same for their car. The result? You get hit.

Definitely get a beater car when you get there! It's the only way to survive the winter!

BTW, hope you've got a 100% indoor job. I'm outdoors all night and it's no picnic at -20.

AFRay007 · 02-23-2007, 11:28 AM

Thanks for all the responses so far, its been helpful.

Do you guys know how hard consistent -30 type weather is on the internals of Boxster? Will I start to encounter serious maintenance issues?

I'm leaning towards keep her right now and trying weather it out most of the year. Right now financially its not feasible for me to get a cheap beater and worry about maintenance and unreliability of a second car.
I would also much rather drive the Boxster if I can winterize her up.

Thanks again

Oh yeah and Schnell.... youre right, it could be worse. I was at Eielson for a month two summers ago, that place is terrible. At least Grand Forks is a semi university town, UND is 15,000 students and in the middle of the town.