I had my first oppurtunity to drive in the snow today. I have the rear drive not awd. My impression are that the car was very controlled. I do have winter tires on the car though. There was about 3 inchs on the ground. My tires would not spin unless I tried to get out of control. The traction control system on this car works great. Much better than my previous Mustang Cobra. When I tried to spin the tires, the traction control instantly cut in and the tires gripped the road. I wish I was able to test the all season tires prior to the snow tires, but i'm very pleased with the Dunlop Winter Sport M3s. I was worried that I should have bought the AWD because where I live we usually get hit hard with snow. But I would now recommend the rwd with snow tires.

 

^^ I agree; the G is not your RWD of old.
Setup with snows, it does a great job in the winter

 

i'm just surprised how well it performed in the snow. I would actually say it was better than front drive.

 

Really, that was a concern of mine as well. So far I have not driven the car in the snow but I have the M3's. I guess living in the snow belt I really wanted a car to do the "dry" driving really well, but I have to face the reality of snow.

 

Believe me i'm just as surprised. The M3s seemed to perform really well.

 

I agree, I drove my G35x today for the first time in the snow. The traction controll when my "snow" switch was on is great. I tried sliding out on turns and every time the front wheels caught and put me where I wanted to go. Even with the snow function shut off the traction controll on rear wheel drive would not allow me to accelerate when the back end was sliding out. The ABS is a bit touchy but not as noisy as my previous honda.

 

My 6MT sedan on snow tires is far better in the snow than my previous FWD maxima was on all season tires. I compared it vs our AWD Subaru outback (all season tires) 2 years ago back to back and while the Subaru could get moving from a stop easier, it took more than twice the distance to stop and was much more likely to slide out through turns than the G. I have been using my 6MT sedan as the ski car for the past 2 seasons.

 

Good feedback, guys. Do not underestimate the value of a good tire on a RWD vehicle. Makes all the difference.....

 

I hate snow and I sort of can't wait for the first storm to try out my Dunlop M3s on my 6mt as this will be my first winter with the car. I used to have a 95 BMW 540i 6spd which I had all seasons on and I put 120 lbs of salt in the trunk. The car handled OK in the snow except going up incline could be a problem without a good start. My long driveway has a fairly big incline and I got my fingers crossed with the M3s.

 

Took the G ('06 5AT) to an empty parking lot to play with before the snow tires go on.

Woooo hoooo.

It's controllable enough in a slow speed drift. Videos + forums + video games + articles = you sorta know what to expect when the rear breaks loose intentionally.

I'm actually surprised at the VDC. You can sorta get some neutral steer out of it.

 

I miss the snow. Use to get 300+ inches a year! Now in Dallas/Ft worth get jack squat.

 

On my way home last night, I had a really good chance to test the VDC. Man does it really kick in when you start to slip. It makes snow driving really easy.

 

I was really worried with how my 2003.5 6MT would handle the snow. It snowed 2 inches the other day here in Chicago. I still havent gotten winter tires and still am riding on the stock Turenzas. The VDC is amazing. I can get the car to lose control but I have to really try. I think I just may go with some decent all seasons for this car.

Same here, very surprised with how the car handled in the snow.. even with the horrible turenzas. I am very pleased

 

I have '05 6MT sedan with the summer performance tires (Goodyear NTC5)and live in Minneapolis. The roads here have been pretty bad this week. These tires SUCK in the snow. The back end would swing out without even trying. If I start the car on an any kind of incline, it's hopeless...the car just moves laterally. I'm getting the Dunlop M3's put on tonight. I'm excited to see the difference. I hate driving without confidence.

 

MH, not sure if I'm not reading your post right, or you aren't understanding how the SNOW mode works. Or maybe we have different years.

In my '04, SNOW mode causes the AWD to shift the power 50% front and 50% rear, but ONLY below 15 MPH. Above 15 MPH, the AWD acts just the same as always. If you start to slip it will progressively shift up to 50% of the torque to the front, SNOW mode or not.

For practice, I go to a parking lot and turn the VDC off. WOOHOO!