I took my wife's G35X out in the snow this afternoon when she got home from work.

The road conditions were: snow covered with a packed snow. The roads had not been plowed, but had been driven on over and over, so it was well packed down. We went to pick up Chinese food. I found the AWD system very capable and the car pulled away from a stop with amazing grip. The "snow" button really helped for a smooth start. I did find that once going 30 mph, it still felt the slightest bit twitchy. I suspect that is because the system occassionally tried to revert to RWD and began to slip. I wish there was a way to turn it on full time. Pulling into an unpaved parking lot with 4" of powder snow and up a moderate hill was no trouble at all.

I also noticed that the VDC (or whatever the stability control is called) did not help much with understeer. I took a corner a little faster than normal just to see if I could kick it in, and the car just tried to plow ahead. On the other hand I also tried to throw it into a hard fishtail and VDC did a fantastic job of controling the car. It took a half second to kick in, but once it did, it would not let the car spin. Pushing the throttle hard brought in the traction control quickly with little drama. The ABS halted the car great.

In sum, I'd say the G35X is a great AWD car in desperate need of true snow tires. The standard Goodyear Eagles, in my opinion, are "adequate" to get you through the snow, but throw a set of Blizzacks on this puppy, and you've got a nearly unstoppable snow car.

We're supposed to get another 6-8" of snow through tomorrow, I'll try it again in deeper snow.

Steve



150051-Mvc-001f.jpg

 

Great, never have to think about getting an Audi ever again.

 

Greetings Klayfish,
I've been considering the G35X over standard Sedan for quite some time now... Obviously you and the wife have had yours for a short amount of time but have you noticed any unusual vibrations etc from the AWD setup? Is this a "first design" for Nissan in regards to an AWD system? I have concerns about buying one due to its first year of production...
Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks

Smitty

 

Klayfish,

Do you mean to tell me the X cars don't have All Wheel Drive on demand...it only comes into play when the care feels it's warranted...and for that to happen you need to push a snow button? Is that pretty much right?

If so...I like the fact that you can turn it off, but the Auto mode, as opposed to full time, kind of stinks I think. My Z71 has the 2H, 4H, 4L, and Auto...which is very nice b/c I can dictate what I want the truck to be in and when.

I have Blizzaks on my 5AT Sedan and it was a Mountain Goat last night in about 2 inches of snow in Boston.

John
03.5 G35 14.6 @ 95
02 Maxima SE 14.5 @ 95 (Wife's)
87 Mustang GT 13.2 @ 107

 

Smitty,
I believe the ATTESA AWD system has been in use by Nissan in Japan for many years. It's just new to the US, so I think they have any "bugs" worked out of it. Our car doesn't even have 100 miles on it yet, but I can say that it truly feels like the standard sedan in regular driving. No vibrations, odd feels or anything. Very smooth, I'm very pleased with it.

John,
Wait until that 2" turns into two feet! It is AWD on demand. In its' "standard" mode, with the snow button off, it works like this...from a stop, it splits 25/75 up until 12.4 mph then the computer decides how to split it. It can go from 50/50 to 0/100 depending on what the numerous sensors decide. Obviously, in the dry, it's basically 0/100. When you push the "snow" button, it changes some. The car then becomes 50/50 from a dead stop until about 15 mph. It also slows the throttle response, so you don't spin tires off the line. Above that speed, it again decides how to split the power. So it really is a true on demand system. It can go from full AWD 50/50 if it feels it needs, all the way to 0/100 if the roads are dry.

The feeling I was describing was once I passed that 15 mph speed. I could be wrong, but it almost felt like the car tried to put power back towards the rear wheels for just a second, then noticed it slipping and went back to 50/50. Because for just a split second the car felt twitchy, then back to steady as a rock again. We only took it for a short drive in the snow, so I'd wait a while to pass final judgement. Overall, it really went quite well in the snow. We went up a hill of unplowed snow about 4" deep that I'm sure most cars would have trouble with. The X just dug right in and went up the hill. I'm very happy we spent the extra money for it. Because as I mentioned before, I'll bet that with a set of Blizzacks, the G35X will be nearly unstoppable.

Steve

 

steve... thanks for the great description on your experience with the attessa system. a friend of mine is looking at the g35x (and audi) and now i have something to show her. oh yeah, didn't the old skyline GT-Rs have it, too?

<font color=purple>.g35girl.</font color=purple>

 

Cool, thanks for the detailed explanation...it sounds like that squirmy feeling is only for a split second...so no big deal. Take it easy.

John
03.5 G35 14.6 @ 95
02 Maxima SE 14.5 @ 95 (Wife's)
87 Mustang GT 13.2 @ 107

 

Yes the this is the same system that all the awd skylines have been using. It suppose to be a very capable awd system for performance in the GT-R not sure about the G35 tho?

 

the FXs use this system as well...
it's been getting great reviews from the users as far as I can tell...

 

I too was truly impressed at how well the car drove in the snow. The snow button made a big difference.

And I said this in another thread, but my X came with Bridgestones....did everyone else get Goodyears?

2004 G35X/Briiliant Silver/Graphite/Premium/Nav

 

Mine came with Goodyears.

Went to get the plates from the dealer last night. My salesman said he took one out in the snow and it performs better than the FX.


2004 G35x/Brilliant Silver/Graphite/Premium

 

I need to go read the description of the US spec ATTESSA-ETS again, but I believe we're getting a slightly altered form of the system as opposed to the version found on the GT-Rs...That's what I was reading when I was selling Nissans, and that was months ago...At any rate, it's one very capable system...Klayfish, keep us posted as the miles start adding up

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