Hey everyone,

I'm looking to put a set of Bridgestone Blizzak LM-25s on my 09 G37S Sedan. Has anyone had any experience with these? If so, what were your impressions, and do you know of any better choices for winter tires?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

I have LM-25's on my 08 G35XS (225-50-18) and they are great. I live in Chicago so AWD & Blizzaks are a dream.

The only problem you are going to have is that everyone else we be going so much slower.

 

Panda - Thanks for the info. I live in DC, but travel to NY a lot to see the family. Last year I totalled my 2007 G35S, mostly due to my stupidity in keeping my stock summer tires on in a DC icestorm.

I'm going to have to keep the stock sizes (Front) 225/50R18 & 245/45R18 (Rear) because of the rim width (7.5" F & 8.5" R), but am looking forward to some traction.

Thanks again.

 

Can you get cheaper wheels? You really don't need or want 245 in the back for the winter. The thinner they are, they better they will be in the snow (in general). If you can afford it, I'd suggest buying cheap rims and doing 225 on both front and rear. The sport brakes on the G37S won't accomodate 17 rims right?

To give you an example, I paid 300 for my 17" winter wheels for my '07 G35S. The tire savings on 245->225 on the rear alone paid for about half of the wheel cost. Two sets of winter tires and I'm about broken even AND the 225 are alot easier to navigate in snow.

Edit: Errr, I should be clear, i went from 18 to 17s, and that combined with the 245->225 paid for about 75% of my wheels . 50% was 245-18 -> 225-17.

 

dopey - that's a good point. The 245s are $199 and the 225s are $164, so it'd only be about a $70 savings. Also, I'm getting new 19s or 20s in the spring, so buying a 3rd set of wheels would be kind of a waste. The whole winter setup is going to run me around $900, so I'm already shelling out as much as I'd like. I'm probably going to run with the sizes as is; the LMs will be such a huge winter upgrade from the Potenzas anyways.

 

Any of these winter tires will do wonders for your vehicle in snow...
Blizzaks - You are already know about.
Nokian Hakkapeliitta - Awesome Snow Tire from Sweden. I have these on my 05 X and am unstopable in the snow.
Firestone Winterforce - Great snow tire at a budget price.

Yes you want a thin snow tire so it cuts through the snow instead of riding on top of it.

 

I would go with the 225 over 245, its better for transaction in snow to have the lower width. But, it just depends where you are with cost. If you dont want to fork over the dollars up front to have the other set of rims, I get keeping the 245.

Better to have 245 winter tires than to have 245 summer tires thats for sure.

I bought my tires and rims from tirerack. Nice part with tirerack is they come balanced, mounted, and filed. So all you have to do is take off the summer tires and put on the winters.

I wouldnt take the chance having my summer rims screwed up by taking on/off winter and summer tires.

 

Yeah, if it's not going to save you a whole bunch, and you're getting new wheels already, no sense in going nuts. Bet you could sell the 18s on ebay (or on here) easily though .

Just noticed you live in DC, yeah just going winters will be a huge benefit, even at the standard 225/245 sizes It's not like DC gets crazy snows, I remember school being cancelled with 2 inches of snow when I was a kid out there

 

Save yourself some bucks and get the 225/50-18 for both front and back. This size will fit on the 8.5 inch rear rim. 8.5 inch is the largest rim width that should be used with the 225/50. You can generally safely go up or down an inch from the ideal rim width. The slightly narrower section width and the slightly taller aspect ratio of the 225/50 will actually work better in the snow than the 245/45.

EDIT: Whoops! Sorry, this is incorrect! I just checked with the Bridgestone site and they listed the approved rims for this particular tire as being between 6.0 and 8.0 inches. The old rule of thumb about being able to go up or down an inch from the ideal rim width still applies, but in this case the ideal rim width is 7.0 inches not 7.5 inches.

 

FL - Thanks for the info. That settles my decision. Thanks for all the help everyone.