I'm looking at getting a G35S Sedan, and can't decide whether to go with the AWD sport model, or the RWD sport. I live in Maryland near Baltimore, and our winters aren't atrocious, although we do get some snow. I guess it comes down to this:

• Is there any signicant advantage to the RWD over the AWD for driving on the street. I mean, is there a pronounced difference in driving feel? Is the RWD noticeably quicker or nimble? Again, purely for street driving, as I wouldn't be taking the car to the track or anything.
• Would I be making an enormous mistake getting the RWD for a locale where it could possibly snow every so often? I saw a post on here saying that the traction wasn't all that bad since the car had an LSD. I guess one could always replace the summer tires with all season performance tires also.

Any thoughts? I guess tires would be more expensive for the RWD scenario since they are staggered widths and cannot be rotated?

 

I personally wouldn't get AWD for Baltimore. The main problem with RWD would be if you got the Sport Package, which I believe includes summer tires.

Up here in Michigan, I'd probably still get RWD, but with a second set of winter tires. But these would also make no sense in Baltimore.

 

You'd be fine with the Sport and a good set of winter tires......however you can't go wrong with the X either.

 

So my thoughts on AWD vs RWD...

With the 08 Sport package, the feel between an AWD and an RWD is bound to be minor at worst, with the added weight of the AWD being the drawback, but it is probably not going to be noticable on the street.

Like has been previously mentioned, the big drawback for winter performance is going to be the summer tires. AWD with summer tires is only going to be a minor improvement over a RWD/Summer tire car, and unlikely to be good enough for surefooted traction in the snow, which means AS tires (at least).

I don't know what winters are like in MD, but I had a Mazda Protege5 (with Toyo Proxes4 tires all around) as my beater car for my first two winters in Denver. The car went fine the first winter (up to about 6"), but when the tread was half way down the 2nd winter, I was getting stuck in 3" of snow. I put winter tires all round after I got stuck once.

Winter tires are going to be better on whatever you get. You are going to have more surefooted acceleration, handling and braking. All-in-all a much safer car. But if you rarely get more than a few inches of snow, a pair of good AS tires should be fine (especially if go the AWD route). You are just going to have to be more careful in the snow, but you will have much better performance when there is no snow on the road.

 

Yeah, the AWD is a bit heavier in the nose which will have a minor impact on handling and maybe a tad slower because of the added weight. The turning radius is a little wider as well because of the AWD mechanism.

 

There was an interesting article on the handling between the Sport and X (the AWD Sport might be even better). Long story short, the X actually went faster through the cones, because of the added grip.

 

Look at my signature tag. I'm just a few miles north of bmore (westminster). There's my opinion.

 

I'm in the same boat since I will be in the market for G35 shortly. My driveway is in the back of my house and my house sit on a hill. My first floor windows are parallel to my neighbors second floor windows. For me no AWD means having to park on the street. And while there's plenty of parking where I live my block only has parking on one side of the street. Which means on snow days with no AWD I will be parking on the street about 1 block away from the house. For me AWD makes more sense. I also like the added traction that AWD provides in the dry. The G35X's rear drive biased AWD should be a hoot to drive in the dry. It makes for better perfomance driving that the 50/50 split AWD systems.

The AWD is heavier and probably will not be as quick off the line. But I have no plan on drag racing anyone or taking my car to the track.
Funny thing the BMW 335xi while heavier than the 335I is actually faster to 60 MPH because of the added traction.
The EPA for the auto G35s is 17-24 for the Journey, and 17-23 for the X. Since the difference is only 1 MPG less and they have almost identical acceleration figures For me I'll take the added traction of the AWD and put it to good use in the summer and in the winter.

My biggest challenge for the G35 will be the color. Unfortunately IP is no longer available with the graphite interior. Take care.

 

I've owned FWD, RWD, and AWD and from a "fun-to-drive" point of view, nothing beats RWD. I'm in the MD area as well, a bit further South and have made do with RWD cars for years. I had an AWD car and actually autocrossed it fairly often (Saab 9-2X, aka WRX) and man it was boring compared to the RWD cars I have had. The extra understeer just ruined it for me and you couldn't really cure it with extra throttle, it just kept pushing.

 

Thanks for all the opinions.

One more caveat: I've got to admit to myself that I'm not the type of person that will be bothering to change tires twice a season for a separate set of winter tires - I'm waaay too lazy for that. I don't want the hassle. So the question becomes, are there all season options that actually fit the G35 Sport RWD? I checked Tire Rack and it looks like Goodyear makes some. Not a lot of choices, though.

 

Your right, not a lot of your choices for the 18's that come with the sport package. But a 306 HP rear wheel drive car in the snow with low profile all season tires will not be easy to control. If you are going to buy a RWD G35 swap the wheels. Buy a wheel and tire package from the Tirerack and put 17" wheels with dedicated snow tires.

 

I think the question is really - Why wouldn't you get the AWD? your dropping nearly 40K on a car, just splurge and get the X. it's like going out of your way to buy an Audi without quattro.... it just makes no sense. especially Infiniti's AWD which is rear-wheel bias and only transfers power to the front if necessary. IMO now that they have a sport AWD, the should do away with the RWD model all together, even for the 6MT.

 

I've got an AWD and drove a RWD as a loaner a couple of weeks ago. I noticed a significantly lighter steering that didn't feel quite so numb. The car seemed noticebly lighter especially in the front end. Bottom line I liked the feel better than my AWD. I live in Oklahoma so we only have snow on the ground a few days a year so I really don't need AWD. I kinda wished I hadn't got it. I doubt in an automatic that the extra traction really helps on dry roads when accelerating; I suspect the VSC will kick in before the AWD after the car reverts to RWD over about 30mph.

 

In my neck of the woods the X was my only consideration.

I spend my time in lots of rain and weekend trips over a snowy pass in the winter. Chains are generally never required on AWDs on this pass.

 

I think the only real reason would be if the RWD version had noticeably better road feel, i.e. lighter more responsive steering, better front/rear weight distribution, tighter turn radius, etc. Out in real world driving, I'm not sure I'd feel the difference. There's already one post in the this thread however that says I would feel it.