You really should consider just storing the G away for most of the winter if you move to a place that gets a lot of snow and if your car is in good condition.

I've lived in Massachusetts my entire life... and all of my winter cars have taken quite a beating from the road salt/sand, flying chunks of ice, and collateral damage caused by plows passing by(pelting your car with an onslaught of snow/ice/rocks/dirt as they pass by). It sucks really really bad. Our cars have soft paint to begin with too.

Spend that money that you were planning to use on your G35 for dedicated winter tires and rims, and put it towards a vehicle that is either FWD or AWD/4WD. If your car is paid off and you have a garage, you could even take the insurance off of it and deregister it for the 4 or 5 winter months and just drive the beater car during that time to recoup some of the extra expense of owning 2 cars.

Honestly... I frickin LOVE having my Tacoma as a second vehicle. That thing is practically invincible, and will drive through any snow storm unless the snow is over the hood. I've driven it through fields of untouched snow that was almost 2 feet deep and it blasted through it just fine with the 32" tires and the associated abundant ground clearance, and have never gotten stuck in anything yet over the past 6 years that I've owned it.

Hell... buy a truck with a plow on it, and plow yours and your neighbors driveways while you're at it!

 

true. perhaps maybe a beater truck for the winter if money and space permits.

 

well posted on local forums to try and trade my car for an sti/wrx/evo

 

I have a question about that --

I am thinking about getting a 2nds set of wheels for my snow tires, so I will have a winter set and a summer set. I would get the TPMS monitors, also, so it would be two complete and separate sets of tires/wheels.

My question is, when you bolt on the new set each season, do you have to get the TPMS system recalibrated each time? I'm planning on both sets using the same size (OEM/Factory) wheels.

Thanks for any help on this question.

 

If you have two sets of TPMS, then yes, you will have to have the system reset to them each time you switch...if you get to know your service guy at the shop, they can do it for free (our local infiniti dealership shop guys do... and they will store the rims there too!).

good luck!

 

to the OP...


If you have never driven in snow, then do not try and drive your G here for the first time. Bring your G, garage it, and pick up a beater 4x4 pickup or even cheap a FWD/AWD car. Snow isnt what you need to be concerned with, you can actually get good traction in snow, it's the ice, or snow on top of ice that gets people, and if you have never driven/had little experience drivin in winter conditions like you get here, a G is the last thing you want to learn with.

Here is another thing to look into... yes MN gets more snow than IA, but IA is more likely to get freezing rain and icy conditions than MN.

Just FYI, yes these cars are AWD, still not going to be very good for winter roads. The AWD system in these wasnt meant for slippery road surfaces. We have a few STI's and EVO's in our area, they all park them because they suck in winter.

Also remember MN uses salt on the roads to get rid of the ice. Salt will rust anything and does it fast. Buying a STI or EVO for winter use is going to hurt you in the long run because it will rust the underbody.

 

Minnesota = 60 miles south of me. I'm in Winnipeg, which is really cold and gets a fair amount of snow for 4-5 months out of the year.

It just snowed yesterday here but its already gone off the streets. The amount of times you will drive on the streets when there is a fair amount of snow on the ground is small - especially if you are in minneapolis/st paul.

AWD is definetly preferable but if you have winters for your G you are fine - people ask me all the time if I drive my car in the winter then act surprised when i say yes, they ask me if its hard because its RWD, are you kidding me, if you ask me, RWD or front wheel drive doesn't make much of a difference, if anything I prefer RWD because its much more predictable in a slide and you don't suffer from understeer which can be much more disastorous then oversteer.

THE ONLY ISSUE WITH THE G IS CLEARANCE - any more then 4 inches snow and you might as well bill the city you live in for snow clearing.

Also, adjusting for snow really isn't that bad, just go out in a couple storms and you'll figure it out quickly, be cautious. stopping distance is reduced significantly, visibility is horrible (when its snowing) you can't see what side of the road your on, etc, etc. don't worry, its interesting.

 

I don't know where you heard this, but it's not true. STI's are frickin awesome in snow. Bunch of my buddies have them and they have a manually adjustable center differential so you can make it a real 4WD vehicle(full locked center diff), not just AWD.

Also.... the new EVO has different modes to adjust to your road surfaces, such as Tarmac/Gravel/Snow... and they work quite well.


The only issue is that you need to not use summer tires. Put some winter tires on these things, and they'll go through snow better than every single FWD car out there, no questions asked.

Both of these cars also have above average ground clearance compared to both cars... with between 5.5 to 6.3 inches of minimum clearance.

 

with good tires they are alright, but your looking at $250+/ea for tires. plus the salt here is ridiculous. You will rust out an EVO or STI in 1 semi normal winter here in MN. We have 3 STI's and 2 EVO's in my group of close friends, not one of them suggests driving them in winter.

I've lived in MN all my life, the roads here are not sport car friendly in the winter.

 

I hear you on the salt aspect... they salt the crap out of the roads like hell up here in Mass. as well... but any car that you drive in the snow in the winter is going to be susceptible to rust problems from consistent driving in that stuff. They won't rust out in one season. The rust process takes a few years of driving in the stuff to really cause serious problems. Still though, that rust issue has nothing to do with those cars ability to handle in the snow and all cars are going to be prone to the rust problem, there's nothing special about an STI or EVO that makes them any more or less prone to those issues than other cars that you would be driving in the winter.

Speaking of salt and rust, I just got the frame replaced on my Tacoma by Toyota(they had a frame rust recall on a whole bunch of those trucks).... it's an '01. Not a bad deal... new frame and leaf springs, fuel and brake lines all at no cost to me. $$-Ca-CHING-$$!!!

 

What about all-season tires + snow chains on the coupe in the snow? I want to go up to Tahoe for snowboarding/skiing season.

 

I'd just rent a car for the trip. It's not worth the damage and risk to your G35 of putting it through those conditions for a trip here and there, plus the cost of buying the equipment to attempt to make the car even remotely usable in those conditions. It doesn't cost much to rent a car for a few days, especially if you're going with a few other people and split the cost.

Chains also often scratch up your rims, and they can come off and do damage to the fenders... not to mention that our cars don't exactly have abundant amounts of ground clearance.

 

im in ma and the salt is really all im worried about. go to youtube and search g35x snow... its pretty impressive how well these cars do in the snow

 

Stay in Hawai'i!

 

I drove my G35 coupe last winter with snow tires and never got stuck. As someone mentioned ground clearance would be more of an issue. It sucks clipping snow piles that other cars on the road drive right over.

I bet you many of the STI and EVO owners that are saying the car is bad in winter are still running the stock Summer tires on them. They assume that AWD automatically should make it a good car to drive in the winter... However tires are the most important thing for winter drivability.