You can get 4 mounted tires in the back seat laying flat. I was also able to get 2 mounted tires in the trunk. It will of course depend on size tires and wheels, mine were 17". Of course I have a garage and just swap them myself so I don't have to go back and forth to the dealer and carry them in my car.

You can and the tire places will put them in plastice bags as well. You can also put a blanket down in the back seat. No truck is needed.

I can't speak where you live. If in an apartment then yes storing can be a hassle. I just store mine in the garage or shed. The winter tires and wheels don't have to be crappy. Mine aren't to bad looking.


Actually I drove a '93 corvette with stock tires a whole winter once. One of the worse I ever seen. Never got stuck, half the driving is the tires the other half is the driver.

 

Thanks for your input, Sedanman!

To respond and answer the other poster:

I have had no significant winter driving problems with the Goodyear RSAs all-season performace tires on my 2003 G35 6MT. Only issue is it can be difficult to climb a snowy/icy incline without a running start. I live and do business in the greater Detroit-Ann Arbor-Toledo area. We can get a lot of snow but it is intermittent and cleared pretty quickly so I rarely have to drive through deep snow for any length of time. Usually the worst places are the parking lot at my office or my residential street and driveway right after a heavy snow. But as long as I can get the car moving I can deal with it. I think I've been stuck in snow just once or twice with the G35 but was able to rock the car out.

Like sedanman says, half is the driver. I grew up in this part of the country driving RWD cars and have lived here except for a stint in Texas. I have never had or used a set of dedicated snow tires for any of my cars. Cars have included a Z28 Camaro (bias-ply, non-radial, non-snow), a 300ZX that I brought back from Texas with performance radials (not all-season), 2 Maximas with all-seasons, and the current G35 with all-seasons and some other RWD cars. I have always managed OK. So for me I am comfortable with all-seasons in the winters here and I want a car that I can drive year-around. Of all the cars, the G35 has probably been the best in the snow, probably due to its balanced weight distribution and traction control/VDC that the FWD Maximas didn't have.

But I am concerned about summer performance tires because of the impact of COLD on their traction - a too hard tire on a cold road surface doesn't work well. In fact, one of the options that I am considering is ordering a new 2007 and keeping my 2003 G35 as a winter car.

 

CostCo charges $20 per swap, so $40 a year, if you bought the tires from them. I don't know if this would be the case if only the winters were from them, though.

Even at that price, I probably would have gone with a second set of wheels if I knew I was keeping my current car for many more years.

 

This is somewhat like saying, "I've driven home from the bar after a few beers many times, and nothing has ever happened because I'm a careful driver."

There's definitely some truth to this. But in both cases the problem is that your ability to react quickly to an unexpected situation is severely reduced. As long as nothing unexpected happens, you'll be able to avoid hitting anything on all-seasons and even on summer tires. But if someone pulls out or walks into a snow-and-ice-covered street right in front of you, your chances of stopping quickly enough are much greater with winter tires. You can get by without winter tires, but your odds of an accident increase significantly.

I say this as someone who had snows for the first time last winter. I got by for years on tires unsuited for snowy roads without an accident. There were a few times when I did one of those ultra-long ultra-slow slides towards a curb, though. Got lucky, never even killed a rim, but the experience still was never pleasant. Now that I have the winters, I won't ever go back to all-seasons in the winter. They make a huge difference.

 

Very good points, you may think you are under control but it only takes that one time. I have myself over the years been in situations that I wish I had snows on.

One thing to understand why snows work better then summer tires is the type of rubber used. Summer tires are great in the summer because they stay sticky under the heat. However in the winter these same tires become very hard in the cold. Snows tires on the other hand stay soft in the cold and if you use them in the summer you'll noticed they will wear out very quickly as they can't take the heat. With all season tires they try to come up with a compound that stays kind of in the middle of summer and winter tires.

All I can say is be smart and not cheap.

 

My summer tries, which were gforce Sports, didn't seem to lose traction on cold days. But I didn't wait to find out what they'd be like in the snow.

The rubber in winter tires if formulated to even provide some grip on ice. Siping (thin cuts through the tread blocks) improves snow traction. All season tires have some siping, summer tires have none.

I have a FWD car, and with performance all-season tires (Dunlop 5000M) couldn't get up my driveway in an inch of snow. Got stuck a few times as well. No such problems with the winter tires.

I should add that tread depth matters. The all seasons had much better snow traction when they were nearly new than in their second year.

 

Other points to consider.

Vulcanization & Compounds:
Low profile tires with high, speed ratings tend to vulcanize rather rapidly. This occurs at about twice the rate of a 'regular' tire. There are several reasons for this; the first is the compounds that must be used in most of these tires, they have a finite number of heat cycles and harden with each heating and cooling. Also, they will vulcanize with age. That is, you don't have to drive the car much for the tire to vulcanize; just let the tire get old and it will get hard.

Heat Cycling (breaking in) New Tires
New tires are expensive and new performance tires are very expensive. As such, we thought that we would mention the correct way to ‘heat cycle’ your tires for both longer life and, more importantly, better traction over the lifetime of your tires.

When you buy new tires you should heat cycle them to insure long life and optimum traction. Heat cycling is quite simple and is imperative for performance tires but few have heard of this process yet alone know how to do it.

To heat cycle your tires you should do the following: Drive your car at about 55 to 65 mph for about 10 miles. Then drive the car slowly to let the tires cool for about 2 or 3 miles. At this point the car should be parked and the tires should be allowed to fully cool uniformly. Uniform cooling will require you to jack the car up off of the ground. If you cannot jack the car up off of the ground, then try to park the car on grass. The thing that you do not want to do is to park the car on concrete as this may cause a ‘cold set’ to occur at the site of the contact patch. This will result in a spot that will always be a little harder than the rest of the tire. All tires have a certain number of ‘heat cycles’ in their life; that is, before they become hard. Correctly heat cycling your tires the first time will greatly extend the useful life of your tires.

Having said this there is one caveat; heat cycling can only be effectively done in non-winter months in order for the tires to build the necessary heat. As such, try to avoid buying new tires in the winter.

 

^ Great info, thanks for sharing. You learn something new everyday!!

 

Hey, sedanman -
I don't think people have been listening to what I was saying. I have absolutely no dispute between the difference between summer tires and tires more suited to cold/snow conditions. My point is that for my driving conditions snow tires offer little advantage over good all-seasons and then only in isolated occasional situations that can be compensated for by intelligent anticipatory skillful driving (or not driving) but for most of the time in the winter here snow tires are less desirable to have on the car than a good set of all seasons.

The getting away with driving after a few beers that someone suggested seems to me an inappropriate analogy-one could argue that some drivers probably can drive better drunk than some drivers can sober-on the other hand, one can avoid driving on snow altogether just as one avoids driving after a few beers. Thats like saying "I have snow tires" or "I have an SUV" so I don't have to worry about winter conditions - which is why whenever we have icy conditions around here it is mostly SUVs spun out at the side of the road or in in the median while I am carefully albeit more slowly cruising along past them in my RWD sedan with all season tires. Like you said sedanman, half of it is how you drive.

That said, to avoid misunderstanding , let me emphasize again that I am NOT advocating winter driving on SUMMER tires - only that all-seasons work for me - that is why they offer all seasons - a snow tire only gives an advantage probably 10% of the time, but is less desirable the other 90%.

By the way, I really like your 2007. I'm still undecided between the Platinum Graphite and Liquid Platinum - you definitely have one of the best colors!
I like the Garnet Ember too, but don't want a "ticket me red" car.

 

Hi robertr,

No question you're right, each of us live in areas of the country/world that only he or she can decide if snows are really necessary. I did not mean that everyone who even sees snow should buy them. But for those that live in snow country and must drive on snow covered roads then a pure snow tire can make a difference. Otherwise all seasons can work perfectly fine as in your case.


So very true, it's about making the "right" decision like not driving after drinking and staying in when the weather is bad.


I know it's funny to watch some SUV drivers that think just becuase they have 4 -wheel drive they can go anywhere and drive at any speed. Again just like everyone else it's about the tires and the skill of the driver no matter what you drive. When I had my corvette I was actually passing SUV's.

Again agree 100% snows are not necessary for everyone. All seasons are fine for those conditions that don't warrant snows. Where I live we can get hit with rain or snow or freezing rain in just a moment of time. One minute you're at dinner and the next you come outside and there's 6" of snow on the ground.

Can't argue with you there! I like IP as well but I've had several silver cars so needed a change and wanted something darker. PG really stands out and a good choice if you go that way. Red is for the young. Or at least young at heart.

 

I will take that as a compliment!

 

Also, here is the link to TireRack.

http://www.tirerack.com/SelectAutoMo...iti/2007.shtml

 

I went to costco for my last set of summer tires on my IS300. They told me rotations were free. If I bought both my summers and winters from them they'd swap rims twice a year as part of the free rotations . But you have to have purchased both from them. I don't know if that's the "official" policy or just something they do to make customers happy at the local costco.

 

I was thinking of you when I said it.