When I bought my G a few weeks ago, I was a bit concerned as to performance in the snow. We live in New Hampshire so it's likely to be snowing for the next few months. My previous car was an A4 Quattro so I've not been too bothered about the winters.

Anyway, after doing the research, it seemed that a properly equiped RWD G35 would be fine so I went ahead. We had a little bit of snow over Thanksgiving which was enough to make very clear the limitations of the stock tyres.

So yesterday I had Dunlop M3s fitted and today it was snowing - great, over to the empty supermarket parking lot first thing in the morning for some testing.

We live on a hillside and I saw two cars (a little Toyota and an Explorer) off the road in the first half mile - there was only just over an inch of snow for crying out loud.

I must say, I'm impressed. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the car to spin with the VDC turned on, great fun with it switched off. Driving home, I cruised past the wheel spinning FWD guys trying to get up the hill. These tyres also seem to be pretty good on dry roads as well.

My winter tyres are installed on the stock 18 inch wheels. I had TireRack ship them to a local Goodyear place for me.

For any other new guys unsure of whether to make this investment - just do it. Amazing improvement in the winter drivability.

Cheers!
David

 

David,

I asked someone else this as well, I had my M3's put on last tuesday and they shimmy at anything above 60 or so. I can understand if they do it cold but once warmed up shoudl be fine. Im dropping it off tomorrow to have them re-balance. Were yours fine from the get go? Nice and smooth? Do you happen to know how they balanced them? Was it standard spin or Road Force?

I live in Manchester NH and do like the grip. They arent as good as a much chunkier tire, but the tradeoff for dry grip is better.


Thanks
Mike

 

I have the M3's that I purchased from TR with some 17" wheels. Not sure how they balance over there, but I don't notice any shimmy or shake above 60.

 

Mike, Mine were installed at the Goodyear place on Main Street, Nashua.

The guy told me that the tyres were a real pain to balance. Said he had to do each wheel several times to get it right. I'm not sure of the technique, but he said he used "dynamic balancing".

They are very smooth, didn't feel any different to the stock Goodyear tyres. I haven't had the chance to drive at any speed so far. I have to drive down to CT in the morning, so that will be a better test.

David

 

Are they mounted on aftermarket rims or the stock ones? If they are on aftermarket rims, you may need hubcentric rings.

 

does anyone know the difference from m3s and dunlop Graspics? I got the graspics because they were alot less money but i am very happy with the snow performance on them so far. I also got to test them out today with the little mini storm in NH and love them compared to all-season.

 

The Graspics (Q rated) provide better snow perfermance at the cost of handling, whereas the M3's (H rated) offer better handling with reduced snow performance. I had Blizzak WS-50's on the G last year and HATED them! Went w/M3's this year and put the Blizzaks on my wife's Outback (OE equipped w/ RE92's which are God-awful in snow).

 

Thanks! I think Ill be getting a set of m3's

 

I'm lazy so I just did the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires. Last winter was awesome with them and they're great on dry, warm road. This year, I notice a bit of slip but it's been really slick even with my GF's FWD car. What I remember from last year is how well this car plows through deep, thick snow (3"+ on the street). You'd be surprised how well it does.

 

I used to have Blizzaks on a previous car and liked them alot. But these M3s seem to be a great choice for our Gs. Right now, I just have the OEM Goodyear RS-As on the car for the winter and they seem to do fine. Oh wait...I have AWD

 

alright thanks. Yeah dry traction isnt too good with these tires but ill just have to take it easy till i get my summers back on.

 

Car still vibrates and shimmy's to some degree after second round of balancing...very frustrating. So much work to drop car off again and have them try to re-balance. The guy there told me they dont normally do much road force balancing because 90% of the tires usually fail and not all tires are bad...what a load of crap....

I could take them to the dealer and pay more to have the dealer try to balance as I think they might take better care trying to get them right, and may have better balancers? Thoughts? It's not that the tire place wont try again, but how many times do you have to go back somewhere to get something done right. Makes me hate the tires even though they get great reviews. Is it just our wheels that are hard to balance or something?