Hello everyone!

I recently have moved back to New England after spending the past 9 years in the deserts around the world. I am originally from New England and have driven through many, many snow storms and long winters, just never in a RWD.

I would imaging the 1st thing you all will tell me is to but snow tires, and I am going to.

I am just looking for honest, experience based opinions from those who drive their RWD G all winter in the areas of handling.

Thanks in advance

 

i drive my 6mt G coupe all year around. without snow tires for my first 2 yrs of owning it. the car really doesnt go anywhere if there is any snow for me. i cant even count how many times i have gotten stuck. lol
i do advise snow tires and for your own sake. go to a empty parking lot at night and mess around, "drift" and practice losing control and regaining it back. its saved me a numerous amount of times just out of instinct to just gas it and countersteer out of it. instead of what most people do, freeze up and jam on the brakes and slide out of control.

 

I drive my 03 Sedan AT in the snow. I live in MN and winter tires are a must. All seasons dont get the job done. I usually turn off VDC, i almost got tboned crossing an intersection because that damn thing slows down your rpms if your tires spin. +1 to practicing regaining control

 

I too, drive my G year round. I do have a set of winter tires that I put on for the winter months. I personally think driving a RWD car is more predicatable in the snow for me. I would have to agree with DEMON, go to an empty parking lot and try inducing slides to see how the car reacts. I can't tell you how many times VDC has saved me from spinning out or losing control of my car. I haven't been stuck in a snow storm with the G yet and thats after 3 winter seasons.

 

Thanks for the replies guys!

djkace, I am right up the road from you in Belchertown.

Pretty much what I am hearing is that the RWD G35 is capable but not confident. I have a 4wd Tahoe as well so I am not to concern about being home-locked in a bad storm. I am just in the fence about getting rid of the G35 altogether. I plan on staying put in New England for awhile, and really LOVE driving. I dont want winter to be a downer....

 

It works, definatly better with snow tires. I am selling mine though for an AWD as the extra 1-2k to change to a RWD is worth it to me to have that extra confidence up in Fargo as the winters can get pretty brutal up here and i like driving in snow.

AWD G with snow tires=Unmatched.

 

Make sure to have a mini shovel, pieces of wood or rubber mat (which ever can get traction) and lots and lots of weight in the trunk.

There are far better AWD system than the ones used in the Infiniti

 

^The nissan AWD system is pretty damn good, regardless of what you say. It is pretty unmatched in its class.

 

what class...

all the other AWD systems out there are GREAT for snow driving. most are more bias on the FWD side and give power to the rears ONLY if needed. Ours on the other hand is primary RWD so yea that great for performance, dry weather.

But think about this. You have to slip in order for the front wheels to drive and honestly sometimes its too late. The ONLY this awd is good for is up to 12mph where its 50/50. The car can launch in snow and pull you out of parking spots but it will help you at all once you loose control anymore then a RWD. I've learned last year that a g35x acts very much like a RWD in every single case where the tail kicked out on my way to the ski resorts in WI.

Snow tires will save you before then AWD does. Price of snow tires $600-800 VS cost of adding on AWD as a option is like $2-3k(in new car terms) The ATESSA has performance as #1 and safety/traction as #2.

 

I'd say Subaru and Audi rank near the top in terms of AWD systems. Suraru makes a damn good AWD system in a "cheap" platform.


But honestly the Infiniti system is not that bad. I loved mine last winter. Much better than my '07 IS250's AWD system. FWIW, i beleive in snow mode the threshold is 19MPH and not 12MPH. Not that 7MPH makes much of a difference. But to be honest, in heavy snowstorms and blizzards, you aren't doing much more than 10MPH. I've been on the highway where making 20MPH was near impossible and I was the only car on the road too at 2AM. It wasn't for lack of traction..but just staying at a reasonable speed for conditions.

I was nothing but confident with my G35x last winter..and i was using all-seasons. I'm going to buy snow tires this season within a few weeks, so i'm sure i'll be out in the worst storms again this winter having fun.

I've driven 10 years with RWD (manual trans) and snow tires. WHile the snow tires make the car much more capable, my stress level went way down with AWD + all-seasons (soon to be AWD+ snow tires) vs RWD + snow tires. It's the only reason I didn't buy a coupe. I was VERY close to purchasing an '06 Coupe 6MT NEW back in '06, but didn't want to drive another RWD car in New england winters when i have a 30-mile commute to my work. I fully intend for all my future cars to be AWD as well for this reason. Not having to stress out when the weather is NASTY is worth the extra expense of snow tires and the AWD system. It's not even that I can't drive RWD in the snow...i have, for 10 years. I also autocross RWD in the summer and used to go out on DR's in the snow for fun...so my ability is there. Its just that i reached a certain age where I want to hop in my car and drive carefree wile sipping my hot chocolate, having my bunz roasted by the seat heater even with 8" of snow on the roads. It was great. Just my opinion

 

Thanks Mustang5L5, thats the advice I was looking for.

Did you ever try putting sand bags in the trunk for some extra weight?

 

^This is the exact reason i'm switching over. Its not that the G is bad with RWD, i just would prefer to be carefree and have a car that is effortless in the snow.

 

Yup, sandbags, and spare crappy floormats to put under tires when i got stuck. Even carried a small shovel to dig myself out. Had to use it a few times.

A manual trans made things easier. Put it in 2nd and rock the car using the clutch and you could usually free yourself. And driving an open diff or Limited slip diff each had it's own set of probs. The open diff would get stuck easily if you hung one tire up, while the LSD would walk to the side and want to come around if it lost traction in any way. Some of my cars had 300 ft-lbs of torque at the rear wheels alone...so snow tires or not..the wheels spun easily.

The big difference are the little things. Parking for instance. They would never plow close to the curb, so if you needed to park, you had to put half the car into a snow bang or risk getting sideswiped. With RWD it was a pain as you were basically diggint one wheel into the snow. If you have an open diff, you were screwed. LSD was somewhat easier here, but there were times i had to rock the car out of the space.

Not trying to dissude you as I managed fine for 10 years, but you just need to think logically and plan your moves ahead. If you are fine with dealing with some hassle, then you will have no probs. My tolerance for hassel has just lowered over the years otherwise i'd be driving a 6MT right now.

In fact, my company might relocate to San Diego in a year..in which the X will be getting sold and i'll try and pick up an 08/09 6-spd Sedan!

To be honest, seeing a RWD G35 sedan is a pretty rare sight in new england.

 

buy a beater, that what i did with my RWD. (not to mention it was boosted! that just means less driveability!)

 

Yeah I am leaning towards a beater or dumping the G for a 3.0R Legacy