This will be my first post on the site as a long time lover of the brand, I am now in a position where I can get into something that I will enjoy and be able to keep for many years.

I am in a condo and only have one parking stall, so whatever vehicle I end up with, will need to be daily driven and would need to do daily duties in all weather and driving conditions.

My daily commute to and from the office would be 14kms (9 miles) each direction and I travel frequently as well, with around 50% of my working life completed away from Calgary.

Would a Cayman or Boxster be an easy daily driver? I know they meet all of the criteria for balance, performance and traction, but with the rare Calgary blizzard, would they be a handful in these conditions? I have always invested in good winter wheels/tires since 2003 and would not take any shortcuts on a set of winters.

Would I be best to try out a Macan to get used to the Porsche brand before making a leap into a true sports car?

Opinions, feedback, attacks, conversations are all welcomed

 

Because it's German, it can survive winter, but it's not ideal for it. I wouldn't want a fabric top exposed to harsh winters, so I'd prefer the Cayman for year round. But even then you'd probably need chains or studded tires to get around in the real slippery stuff.

 

Drove my 2002 Boxster in the winter (mid-west winter) a couple years.

My advice would be unless you really really really covet the top down experience to get the Cayman with its hard top.

You have already indicated you will fit proper winter tires to the car so that's taken care of.

Given my experience with my Boxster, which was very good (though it would have been a bit better had I put real winter tires on the car rather than continue to run the summer tires), I'd say buy the Cayman and drive it year 'round.

However, I have to point out ground clearance can be an issue. If you limit your self to plowed roads you should be ok.

course, you are probably aware of the occasional chunk of wheel well ice vehicles can drop in the road. Hit one of these and you can damage a radiator. The bottom of the radiators are rather low and in spite of the bumper cover at risk of damage. (Hit a not very big tire carcass fragment one night in my Boxster and it took out the driver's side radiator.)

And road kill can/will freeze and hitting a frozen road kill carcass is to be avoided if at all possible.

Have to mention with my experience 9 miles in the winter is not sufficiently long of a drive to get the engine fully warmed up. Heck even in mild weather both my Boxster and my Turbo engines are not fully warmed up after ~9 miles of driving.

As a result the engine oil will accumulate water -- a byproduct of combustion -- at a frightful rate. (After 4K miles I had the oil analyzed in my then several months old Boxstr and the water content was 7%! All from water accumulating in the oil and due to the cold temperature the engine running "cold" even though it was driven ~10 miles to and then from work M-F and driven on the freeway at least once a week for a 150 mile round trip to visit my folks. I decided given the water accumulation to change the oil every 5K miles. This has worked out well for me as the car now has over 313K miles and still runs great.)

Budget for frequent oil/filter services. At least start the winter driving season with fresh engine oil -- which should be 0w-40 oil due to the low temperature conditions -- and once the worst of winter is over with change the oil again to have fresh oil in the engine for the summer driving season.

 

Thank you for the feedback. I would go with the Cayman as my preferred model, however, I am not afraid of ground clearance as I have analyzed that information and I am sure you would be surprised to hear that the Cayman has a rated ground clearance of 5.2 inches which is higher than a 2017 WRX which has only 4.9 inches.

I have lived in this city all my life and am very aware of the hazards caused by wheel well ice, there is no frozen roadkill in these parts, unless its a deer!!!

I appreciate the feedback on getting the engine up to temperature and I don't abuse the warmup cycle.

 

You're going to be just fine. A friend of mine lived & worked in Calgary for a few years, regularly driving his Cayman to & from the Rockies for ski trips. He buzzed all over the place including up to Edmonton.

The only time he was stressed in the car was last spring in Lake Tahoe when he ran into a big blizzard. He had the summer tires on & traction wasn't great. The CHP were stopping people & checking if they had chains!

Driven many winter days in various 911's up in Edmonton with no problem.
Get a good set of Nokian or Michelin snow tires. You'll be very impressed with how the car handles.