Spent 6 hours at The Tire Rack today in South Bend Indiana. Let me state from the start that this place is car geek heaven! The building is huge-10 acres under roof. I have never seen so many tires and wheels in my life.
As I stated yesterday I took my girlfriends 2007 G35 Sport to them to get a winter tire and wheel package. They took computer measurements of the brakes, rotors, and calipers. I can't emphasize how professional and thorough these people are. The owner of the plant even came down to introduce himself and thank me for my business.
I asked many of their tech staff what they thought of using the stock tires in the snow. They got a good laugh out of that. They do not advise using the stock tires in snow or ice-period.
What I decided to buy was Kazera KZ-C wheels www.kazera.com/wheels/detail/kzc_silver.html Hope the link works. These wheels are simular to the stock wheels.
For tires, I went with the new Bridgestone Blizzak WS-50 in size 215/55QR17.
Just touching the tread on these tires; compared to the Potenza's is amazing. They are so much softer; a huge difference. The ride is also much softer than stock.
Sorry I can't disclose my price; but The Tire Rack will be posting a winter package for the 07 G35 very soon.
One helpful hint I learned today also. On the front rotors of the 2007 G35; there is a locating bolt and bushing between 2 wheel studs. This bolt is used to keep the rotor assembled centered during production before the brake calipers are installed. We had to remove this bolt and bushing to get the wheel to fit the hub properly. Do not worry; it does not hurt anything, it is just a simple bolt and bushing used during production. By removing this; I think many of the 2006 G35 winter wheels may fit the 2007 model.
To summarize; I could not be more pleased with The Tire Rack. I had a great time. In the future; when I need 4 tires to be mounted and balanced; I will go there. It is worth it to me to drive 120 miles to get it done right.

 

I had called them about a week ago about wheels for my '07 but like you said they had nothing in the computer yet so I went down to a local tire/wheel shop who took my car in and tried a few different wheels. Found a set I like and got my tires mounted. I think many of the 17" wheels should work fine on our cars.

 

Excellent info Casey, and looks like a beautiful winter wheel set-up.
Post some pics with the set-ip installed, they will look great.

One thing though, the bolt on the front hub is there to prevent people from putting the rear wheels on the front because of the staggered wheel set-up on the Sport or G35s with the 18" rims. The front wheel has an extra hole in it so it will fit over this pin where the rear larger wheels has no extra hole so it will not mount on the front. You are correct though, it does not hurt anything to remove that locating pin (bolt).

 

Did you have their TPS sensors installed, or did you have the one's off your original rims installed?

 

I bought 4 TPMS sensors at Tire Rack. This way I just rotate tires and not have to switch sensors. My Infiniti dealer wanted $130.00 per sensor; Tire Rack charged $61.50 each with the purchase of tire and wheel. I will have to take the G35 to the dealer to program the new sensors that are installed. Otherwise, the warning light is "on" all the time.

 

Good info on the aftermarket sensors, keep us up to date on how they work out after the dealer sets them up.
Thanks

 

In addition to tirerack.....
I've heard that *another* source for sensors will be available soon (Feb,Mar)

 

Good stuff Ian.
I'm not sure if I would even go with another set of sensors if the dealer had to re-program each spring and fall . Last year they quoted me $40 Can. to re-program the sensors. I will probably go without in one set of wheels.

 

Didn't realize they wouldn't work right out of the gate and/or you can't program them yourself. The cost and time of the sensor purchase and program of the sensors sort of off sets the mount-dismount benefit to going with a single set of Rims. Unless there's a way to program the sensors on our own, like with my Jeep Liberty, it came with a magnetic ring that you put on each wheel to signal which one's being registered and you can execute the programing yourself by following the manual.

Thinking this through.

Stock rims and swap tires - Cost of tires, swap cost, mounting cost, balancing cost.
Separate set of complete wheels - cost of tires, cost of wheels, cost of TPS sensors, wheel swap costs, shipping costs, TPS programming, wheel swap costs.

crossing out common tasks to each your left with

Mounting costs + Balancing Costs VS. Wheels, TPS sensors, shipping, TPS programming, wheel swapping cost

putting some guesstimates to this (r after number means reoccurring)

$30r + $30r VS. $550 + $260 + $100 + $40r + $30r = It cost $910 more to have separate wheels. And I'm going on the low end here for the wheel cost.

Annual reoccurring costs are $120/yr (2x $30+$30) VS. $140/yr (2x $40 + $30). The difference is $20.00 a year in MORE.

Taking the initial $910 outlay of expense, and a higher annual cost, there's no point to doing this. Even if you swap out sets yourself instead of paying for the service, ($80/yr) it would still take it would take over 22 years to offset the inital cost....

I'd like some feedback on my thoughts because it's a no brainer to me to just swap out the tires and not go with another set of wheels and TPS's.

I know there's potential to damage a wheel in bad weather, however, if I do damage one, I have about $900 I didn't spend to buy an OEM replacement. but I really don't believe that the risk is that much higher.

To keep apples to apples, you can't eliminate the TPS sensors, so I don't see that as a valid argument to offset the cost.

Am I missing something?

 

kring...in the past I would say the majority of people have not run the tire sensors in their winter wheels in their 1st gen G35 as I have done. It is really no biggie to go without them. I will very likely not run sensors in my summer wheels and tires with my 07.

 

For arguments sake, even if you run without the TPS sensors and don't mind the constant light on your instrument panel and loss of this safty feature, the initial costs still takes 12 years to offset, and even if you swap wheels yourself, it would still take 6 years to offset the cost.

I'm just looking for what I'm missing here, because I hear a great deal about going with a separate set of wheels as being a clear benefit over the swapping of tires.

 

I'm only about an hour and a half away from South Bend. I might check it out next summer.

 

I have my winter tires on separate wheels with no sensors and I swap them myself in the driveway. Recurring annual cost - $0.00.
The winters have been on the car for a month now and the TPMS warning/light has not triggered even once.
It's not a safety issue since I check my own cold pressures weekly, whether I have the sensors on or not.
You have to consider the wear and tear on wheels and tires from all the mounting/demounting if you swap tires but not wheels.
No waiting at the tire shop twice a year, and your lugs are properly torqued in the proper sequence - not cranked on by some kid with a 150 ft./lb. impact driver.

 

I totally agree with usual suspect.

I have driven for over 30 years without tire pressure sensors, and I have never considered it a safety issue. When I ran without sensors in my 05 the light only came on once in a while and it resets when you restart the car.

The winter plays havoc on a nice set of wheels, with the salt and sand in my area that they put on the roads the wheels start corroding after a couple of seasons, if you don't have a problem with these conditions it's a plus for you.

It is better to run a tire with a taller shoulder and a narrower tread for snow conditions as compared to what I like to run in the summer as do many others who prefer to run wider 18" to 20" rims and tires in the summer that would not accept the narower winter tires and also the 17" winters are more available with more selection and cheaper prices.

If you are happy with running your stock rims year around and changing the tires spring and fall then that is definitely the way to go for you.

 

My light for the 05 only comes on after 45 minutes. So unless I'm on a roadtrip, I rearly see it.