Winter Ride Questions
 

Hey guys, I just found out that Uncle Sam is sending me to Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota. I get there this coming August and I really want to keep my Boxster but I'm wondering if it is worth winterizing her. Several people have told me that in January and February the temperature can stay a constant -30 degrees. The area is real flat and snow clearing is usually good, except the occasional heavy blizzard. My commute wouldnt be more than 20 minutes.

I understand that I'll have to get winter tires and a hardtop but will the winter wear down hard on the internals of the car? I'm worried I might suddenly encounter a lot of maintence issues. My car is an 03 and its been great so far. There is a dealership 70 miles from where I am but I cant find any independent places that work on Porsches so far. I'm already hesitant of the place because of the ridiculous prices they are overcharging their cars by:
http://valley-imports.porschedealer.com/preowned_cars/search.php

Any good advice would reeeealy be appreciated. I really want to keep her but right now it does not seem very practical :(

Oh my god, you poor bastard. I'm at Schriever but I only drive the Boxster on nice days. Right now, I am still a tab bit hesitant to take her out because of all the gravel on the road. I have a 97 Lexus for my daily driver. I would highly recommend a high mileage Toyota or Lexus that is front wheel drive. Mine has been great and I've been able to plow through quite a bit of snow. Being "mission essential" allows me the opportunity to traverse all kinds of weather. Or you could just stick a plow on the front along with a set of Blizzack's and call it a day.

i drive my all year long, on summer tires mind you, and its been fun actually on those bad days hehe

so u should be fine if you get some winter tires, hardtop you dont really need.

good luck, keep the thing.
my box is a daily, is awesome to drive around year round

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 :eek:

Good luck...

Nick

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.

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.

Seriously, a nice used Subaru with a 0-30 synthetic oil and seat and block heaters is in order.

Oh, yes and a garage.

Best of luck in ND and thanks for serving our country!

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!

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 :)

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.

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.

I had this dilemma when winter started to get closer this year. But as NickCats said, once you start adding up the costs of "winterizing" the Boxster, you're getting well into the price range of just buying a second beater car.

My biggest worry was, as someone else mentioned, someone ELSE plowing into me, and the damage that salt can cause. Even on the "nice" days, there will still be evidence of salt on the roads, and it can kick up into the tiniest little places where even a thourough car wash will miss.

I bought myself a $2500 BMW e30 and although it's not even close in comparison to the Boxster, I am much more happy putting it through the abuse.

It all depends on whether you will be needing a car on a daily basis or just occasionally for non-essencials. If I was in your situation and I had to have ONE car to drive every day in all sorts of weather I'd just get rid of the Boxster and buy another car that would be more reliable, cheaper to maintain, and able to handle all seasons there (Subaru, SUV, etc.). The Boxsters aren't exactly stellar in the relaibility and 'cheap maintenance' departments, and muliple daily starts in bitter cold can't be helping that picture either. Also, I can't see how it would be any fun to drive the Boxster daily in -30 weather on flat straight roads, so it doesn't seem like you'd be missing out a lot without it.

It would have been a sad and hard decision, but one I would've had to make.
Just IMO.

Z.

Funny how even your winter beater is a RWD car.
I spent 5 years in Rochester (grad school U of R) driving a white 86 RX-7 with white rims. Bought it for $3000 and traded-it in for $1500 five years later -- no mechanical problems whatsoever. Absolutely loved that car. It drove great in snow, especially after putting a huge bass-box in the back. :)

Z.

I went with a RWD car for a winter ride as well.

Wasn't quite sure what to expect until the first snow fall hit...

Threw some new tires on it, and with traction control, the car isn't half bad :cool:

Nick

I have a horrible addiction to sideways motion... RWD was the only option for me ;)

Yep - it's all about the tires. RWD makes you a little more likely to lose the back end - but that is fun as long as you are careful. FWD and AWD don't help you stop, and they don't help you around corners either. Stopping and cornering (weight shifting over drive wheels aside) are accomplished through tires.

If you can't do the cheap beater avenue than consider the following:

1) Winter tires
2) Hard top
3) Replace serpentine belt right before the cold season starts
4) Make sure you are using the proper weight of oil
5) You might want to consider a more frequent tranny fluid oil change than normal
6) Oil warmer that you plug into an outlet with an extension cord
7) Make sure your coolant is up to snuff for extreme cold weather

-30 is extremely hard on ANY car.

As I said, I would have a decent Subaru with all wheel drive and a GOOD set of winter tires.

I would have a new HD battery with great cranking power.

I would have a good PAO based 0W-30 or maybe a 0W-20 oil for the winter, likely Amsoil would be the deal.

An electric block heater is a must. Electric engine blanket might be OK or in addition to the block heater.

Lots of emergency tools in the car, including a full charged portable power pack.

Etc etc etc.

Forget the Box IMHO.

Or, don't report for duty.

okay we had a pretty bad snow storm come through here in Chicago last week.....the boxster handled it like a champ....not to say I wasn't nervous but everyone else was nervous too considering they were driving 15 miles an hour on interstate 90....

I had some cold weather problems ready...

1) windshield wiper fluid stopped coming out....I thought the motor was bad and had an appointment to take it in....started to work again once the temp came close to 40 degrees F....hmmmmm....the car is parked inside overnight also but it still froze up? locked up? don't know...

2) one scary moment sliding sideways on a ramp going like 5 miles an hour....I ended up facing the wrong direction no matte what I tried, then I remembered reading hear someone said sometimes to take off in 2nd gear, problems solved...I was able to get straight and start my 2 hour commute

3) The day it warmed up, I started driving and my steering wheel started shaking really bad over 50 miles an hour...not sure why, I got to work, parked, 3 hours later problem gone

4) lastly, the digital readout on my stereo is acting weird on a couple stations, where it tells you what songs its playing and such forth, need to have it looked at but I'm hesitant to take it in....cause I know they will find nothing wrong and I'll be stuck NOT drving the boxster...and that to me is the worst thing on earth!

so it can be done, I personally wouldn't do it without snow tires....DJ is a daredevil