I have a deposit on a S2000 and I just need someone from Michigan to reassure me that winter driving in a S2k isn

 

Ya see where I live? I'm holding your hand now and telling you everything will be all right. I drove all this past winter. I have Blizzaks and no problem. I live on the side of a hill to boot. On cold nights, I do have to plug in the block heater so in the morning it'll start on the first crank. The heater's great and with the hard top, you can scrape the rear window, too.

 

Although my lease on my navigator doesn't run out till next year, I plan on driving my S2000 during the winter. My hardtop should be here in time for winter and i plan on getting snow tires also. Car & Driver did some tests a few months ago where they found out that a rear wheel drive car with snowtires outperforms the same all wheel drive car with stock tires in all categories with the exception of straight line acceleration. The extra weight of a four wheel drive system actually adds momentum to the car which hurts its cornering and breaking abilites, the two most important things to avoiding crashes. If you can put up with being beat off the line by an audi quattro when there is a couple of inches of snow on the ground, you should be fine. You'll beat them when summer comes back!

 

with access to another car, then you shouldn't have a problem. i got an '01 Jeep Cherokee in October, and an '01 S2000 in March... guess which has more miles?!? you'll be fine - go and buy it.

 

With a good set of Blizzak's or Graspic's you should be fine. Remember narrow is better with snow tires.

The only thing I worry about Michigan winters is salt. Japanese cars are not know for their great rustproofing. If you have access to another car, I'd just drive that. Or you could get ahold of a classic "Michigan Winterbeater", which if done right can often pay for itself in insurance savings.

When you really look at it you dont need much for a lower-michigan winter. The roads are salted to heck and plowed pretty well, and this state is mostly flat as a sheet too so that helps!

My "Michigan Winterbeater" is my 93 Audi S4, quattro. With the proper snow tires (Graspics on the OEM 16" wheels), its pretty much unbeatable for traction. (On the 17" summer tires though its worthless!) Granted, theres no advantage given in deceleration over a FWD or RWD car. In about a month when my custom turbo comes in, it will have about 320hp too, which will ALMOST get me to the hp/weight ratio of the S2K. (11.67 for the S2k, 12.03 for the S4) However the S4 has a significant advantage on low end torque so it would be an interesting competition...

 

Thanks to everyone who reassured me. I have a deposit down on a silver/balck and it arrives in June! On top of that, my local dealer has a used one that I'm going to test drive tonight!

I guess putting that 3.5 large (for the snow tires and hardtop) would go along way towards a winter beater...

Decisions, decisions!