I just had this experience, running a 2006 X with snow tires. Unbelievable feeling actually. Woke up to 10-12" of heavy snow, cleared off the car, and drove right out of my driveway and across the plow line. The car felt like it was any regular day, never an issue with traction for my 30mile commute. I'm geeked up still, I even had to exit across a major plow line that blocked the off-ramp and had no issue. I'll take my AWD+snow tire combo over any SUV I've ever driven in terms of handling. The only disadvantage is the ground clearance IMO. And I hate getting my leather seats wet

 

I would agree on taking this car over any in SUVs I have driven, though I do have to admit without vdc on this car is much harder to handle than awd SUVs since they are all fwd biased and fairly predictable in turns. Yeah ground clearance is crazy..lol. Every little chunk of snow on the road clunks underneath my car.

 

The vdc is actually very effitive in the snow. Take it off and the car handles much differently.


Saw some g37x coupes today plowing through the snow with ease. Been seeing more of them lately. I like em.

 

RWD here. Have taller snow tires mounted on Z wheels. No problem with snow whatsoever. Whereas Imprezas with all season tires get stuck, I don't.

 

If I could have gotten a coupe with AWD in '09, that's what I'd be driving today. My G35x has been awsome the last week with all the snow we've gotten. I love passing stuck Hondas, minivans and people that just don't know enough to have snow tires.

 

My 06x with Conti ExtremeContact DWS is a blast in the snow. 8"+ with no problems whatsoever. Very very impressive.

 

just to give some info to the the original poster: i drove into a very deep mound of soft snow and had someone notice which wheels were spinning when i couldn't go any further and all four wheels spin

 

Hey AlexNY, did you ever get a good answer to this? I also have an '06 G35x and had a similar problem recently. I was in in the mountains for a ski trip and while the AWD generally performed admirably, I did get into a situation where I was stuck spinning my rear wheels. It was on a snowed-over sloped driveway and my rear wheels had dug out holes for themselves (from spinning) and so had _no_ traction. I had snow mode on but my buddy told me that the front wheels weren't moving - only the rears were spinning.

I was initially worried that my AWD system was broken, but I'm wondering if this is just a design limitation of the ATTESA system. The center differential (transfer case, actually) locks the torque split at 50/50 in snow mode, but that isn't the same thing as locking the differential in a conventional 4x4 (which forces the wheels to turn together as if on a solid axle). With a torque splitter, it seems plausible that the torque sent to the front would be limited by the torque sent to the back - and if the rear wheels have _no_ traction then they might not be able to absorb any meaningful torque. Now I don't understand the system well enough to say, but it certainly seems plausible.

Could someone who actually understands the transfer-case design weigh in on this? Is it designed to send power to the front even if the rear has _zero_ traction?