If all there was to deal with was the snow, I wouldn't hesitate to drive the S, but here in the state of NY, they are salt and sand crazy! My local highway dep't. throws everything they have at a quarter inch of snow. The residue itself becomes a hazard. As much as I'd enjoy driving it, I think it will be a garage queen this winter.

 

"All seasons" tires are "no season" tires. They'll get you by until the deep snow hits, so if you don't ever get snow deeper than a couple of inches, the they'll be OK. In deep snow, leave the car at home.

I use the OEM rims for my snow tires now as I have Volks for summer. Before I got Volks, I got cheap aftermarket rims for the snows. Some people will switch tires onto their OEM rims every season. This gets to be an inconvenience for me. With separate rims, I can install them onto the car whenever the season turns.

It's not the diameter of the rim or tire that "cuts" through the snow. It's the tread width. Usually, snow tires are 1 size narrower than OEM for snow duty, however, for the S2000, you can get away with OEM sizing as the rear 225 OEM SO2 are actually wider than most aftermarket tires. Getting them in 225 will already make them narrower. The fronts are already narrow enough in the stock sizing.

 

I wouldn't go golfing in a thunderstorm, call me paranoid....

Seriously, I'm teasing a little. If I were in your position, I'd drive the S2000 year round. But my wife and I need the Pilot for family stuff so why not drive it during the worst storms?

For the other questions:
1. Separate rims (OEM 16s)
2. Blizzak LM-22 so I don't cry at the loss of handling.
3. Had all-seasons for one winter. They are a compromise and not nearly as good in the snow.
4. Pilot with studded tires for the really nasty snowy days.

If I could only have one car (being married and living in the snow belt) and one set of tires: Audi S4 Avant with all-seasons.

One car, two sets of tires: S4 Avant, S03s & LM22s.

I went for two cars and four sets of tires....
Dry, warm: S2000 with S02s
Wet, warm: Pilot with OEMs (S02s don't have thick rain channels)
Dry, cold: S2000 with LM22s
Wet, cold: Pilot with knobby, studdable, winter tires.

But as xviper said... it shouldn't scare you from driving your car if you'd have fun doing it!

 

we're gonna be running the S2000 this snow season the PO bought these Michelin Alpin's and mounted on the stock rims. so i'm running around on snow tires right now. makes the car really really squirrelly and i'm chirping 'em all the way to 3rd..

now should i just buy new summer tires and unmount the snow tires.. or should i buy a new set of fancy rims.. decisions decisions...

 

Two cars ago, I had an Audi allroad -- the A6 platform version of the (B5) S4 Avant that CKit mentioned as a single-car solution (but the allroad also had a cool adjustable suspension to go offroad with -- IMO, the allroad is the single best all-around car ever manufactured). I had the 2.7T version (being at 7500' at the time); the V8 version is similar to the newer B6 S4 Avant, but larger.

I used Michelin Pilot Sport all-seasons as my summer tires and (as I recall) Dunlop Wintersport M2s in the winter, on separate wheels.

Separate wheels are a good idea for convenience, mainly, because then you can swap tires yourself (a hydraulic floor jack is a wise investment for this).

On the allroad, the (ZR) Pilots had very little in the way of summer compromises and were great for jeep roads (I didn't go on extreme ones with this car, of course); their only drawback was that they got way noisy as they wore. The (HR) M2s felt a little squirrely on pavement, but in snow, as well as on packed snow and ice, they were as good as anything I've driven except tires with studs (which truly suck on pavement).

For variable weather conditions, any tire is a compromise, and the trick is to minimize the compromises. All-season (aka "no-season", per xviper -- he's right on this) tires almost always represent a middle-of-the-road compromise to try to deal with everything. As a result, barring the use of high-end ones like the Pilots, you'll never be satisfied. (I think the Pilots on an S wouldn't be up to the summer handling standard of the OEM tires -- for all its performance virtues, the allroad is a 2-ton station wagon, after all.) I certainly wasn't the first time I had the Pilots in snow. HPH

 

Time to buy a set of your favourite aftermarket rims to spice up the summer drive. I got Volks.

 

My thought now is to buy a set of cheap winter rims and get some dedicated winter tires on 'em. The only thing slowing me down here is this sneaking suspicion that this is how the bling rim addiction starts.

16" rims and a decent set of winter shoes sound good to the northern crew?

 

This will be my 3rd winter with an S2000. It's really no big deal. The hardtop is a nice extra, but not needed. I had a plastic rear window on my '01 and it really wasn't so bad.

But having the hardtop is really nice.

That being said I'm buying a second car, and plan to drive the s2000 less frequently in the winter. Where I live currently the roads are not plowed as often as I'd like.