I love these cars, and I may be in a position to buy one very soon however I only want one vehicle. My girlfriend has a Jeep Cherokee and this would be my only car (the s2000). I live in PA and Maine, would it be a terrible idea to drive one of these all year?

I would pay extra attention to keeping it cleans and washed down at all times of course.

 

I'd be more concerned with wrecking it on snow/ice than of salt damage. PA is one thing, Maine gets tons more snow.

A $1,000 beater car pays for itself in the winter when it snows to prevent damage to your nice car.

If you do choose to drive the S2000 in northern winter weather you MUST get snow tires. Trust me on this. We only get about 1 small snow fall in Virginia a year but the S2000 with all season or summer tires is like a sled on the snow covered roads...all over the place!

 

I'd be in PA 95% of the time. I would get blizzaks. I would expect it to do pretty well with good tires... or is it a miserable white knuckle fest?

 

My fiance has a Durango and I have an S, they are out only cars, but Im in NJ where it doesnt snow all the time and the snow only hangs around a few days. On days there is snow on the roads I will be taking the durango since my fiance works on campus (we are both in college) and I have to go to philly twice a week. Im just driving on all seasons in the S when there is no snow. I don't know first hand what you winters are like but id definitely say snow tires.

 

When I bought my S I lived in Connecticut and had to take it to the dealer about a week after I purchased it. I'd had RWD cars in the past and grew up in New England so I know how to drive in the snow, but the S is VERY diffucult to drive in snow especially w/o snow tires. Move to Florida we can use a younger population here.lol Good luck

 

We dont use salt here (cinder is readily available), but with snow tires the S does great. I personally use Toyo Observes.

 

the s will do fine in the snow with snow tires. what i would be more concerned about would be other people. you can't control them, and you don't know who was too cheap to buy snow tires...

either have FULL insurance, and be prepared to cry, or go buy some pos mid 90's subaru for $1000.

 

When I attended a local s2000 meet, I talked to a few people who daily drive their cars every single day even in snow. Keep in mind these people live in Toronto so it would be a safe guess that the snowfall is equivalent to your area. One of them drove a 2004 AP2 so it didn't have traction control and he said he had absolutely no problems just as long as he had winter tires and drove according to the conditions. The only problem I see with the s2000 in winter is if there's more than about 4-6 inches of snow, you're going to have to find another method of transportation since our cars are very low to the ground and you won't have clearance through the snow. Other than that, I would suggest you get all the rust proofing done to your car if your town salts the road.

 

^ the snow plow method can work for some people... i know that with snow tiers my sti evjoys romping through a good foot and a half of snow... ya its awd but i think with snows the s could likely handle atleast 8 inches... helps you stop faster too.

 

Depends on how heavy and/or packed the snow is too.

8" of powder is no problem. 5" of icy snowpack would be scary.
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