I live in Minneapolis and am very happy with my X and the 17" Dunlop Winter Sports. Sometimes I feel that I have a little too much confidence. For all of you that live in snowy area, I highly recommend some snow tires. You paid $35k+ for the car so I think $700 is easily justified.

My previous car was an '05 G35 REAR WHEEL DRIVE mated with a 6 spd. I used these same tires and drove with confidence in the snow. The only place I had a hard time driving was going up an incline from a stop.

So go get some snow tires! They will pay for themselves. Even if you can avoid one stupid accident, it will be money well spent.

 

Absolutely! You can roll up to a light at 100 mph and just stab the brakes on glare ice. You can take turns faster than you can on racing tires and dry pavement. You'll never have to worry about throttle or steering inputs again. Road banked in the wrong direction on a downhill? No worries mate! Motor on. Wanna ride grandma's bumper in six inches of snow? Go ahead, it's perfectly safe. Wanna chow down on that Big Mac, have some fries, and catch up on those phone calls to friends you've been neglecting while driving on black ice? It's all possible with these tires.

Of course there's no guarantee! Dumb questions deserve dumb responses. But in response to your assertion that there's nothing you can do about black ice, these tires will give you much better control in a wider range of winter surface conditions. And yes, they will improve grip massively even on ice. They can be the difference between a huge repair bill and zero damage. Or, life and death.

I was out again today with slush and ice on the roads @ 21 degrees farenheit in the aftermath of a foot of snow yesterday. We had the Volvo because well.....my wife won't take the G35 to a mall parking lot at Christmas time. I was purposely trying to break the tires loose whenever I had a clear road. I tried on corners, stopping, accelerating uphill from a near standstill. The Blizzak DMZ3's on the Volvo are in their third and probably last season. It was actually pretty hard to get them to break traction even when doing stupid things. The car just tracked around corners at near full throttle. When it did drift, it was very easy to catch.

Guarantee? No! Good bet? Yes!

 

Yeah, running dedicated summer tires in the snow is going to be pretty rough.

I have an 08' G35 S I picked up this spring and I live in the Minneapolis area. This fall I ordered dedicated a winter tire/wheel package. I downsized to 17's and got Blizzaks (I think WS60). Today we got a half a foot or whatever and the roads were a mess. But with the mechanical LSD, stability control, and the good winter rubber, running errands (aka last minute Xmas shopping) wasn't half bad. Sure starting off from a dead stop isn't as solid as my buddy's 07x, but with the winter tires I have better traction for things like handling and stopping. You know the things that keep you out of the ditch.

I considered the G35xS, but I love shifting for myself too much. No regrets. Enjoy running dedicated summer/winter tires, best way to go.

 

I ran a/s tires on my 02 WRX (the stock Bridgestones, later Proxes 4s and then Avon Tech 550 A/S, never used snow tires). My RWD G with Goodyear Ultragrip snow tires is much more competent in the snow than the AWD Subie with A/S tires, and handles better than my wifes pathfinder with A/S tires in the snow.

The moral of the story is get snow tires.

 

For you guy running dedicated winter tires, did you mount them in the same wheels???
Or did you gus buy a seperate winter tire and wheel package like the ones the Tirerack sells???

If ever do go tothe dedicated winters I'll probably do a tire and wheel package and go to 17"s.

By the I'm currently being hit by frozen rain right now. We got a little more snow over night.

 

I mounted my blizzaks on the OEM wheels and left the tire sensors in them.
I purchased nicer wheels and tires for summer.

 

I bought cheap $75 rims. Paid $300 for the rims. I went with 17" wheels and 225/50/17 dedicated winter tires. I opted not to get TPMS sensors. I have eyes . The saving's difference going from 18" to 17" sizes paid for roughly 75% of the cost of my rims. Factor in free swapping twice a year vs having to pay for remounting and rebalancing, i've already saved money on my winter tires.

So before you think about the extra cost, remember a couple of things
a) you're riding on two different tires, effectively extending the lifespan (in terms of time) of both sets of tires.
b) the winter set will likely be much cheaper than the summer
c) it's alot safer for only an initial investment and will save you money
long term

 

I thought about just getting winter tires for the OEM wheels. However, I have the 6mt so the tires are staggered. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but when I was browsing tires I believe there were very few winter tires for the rims and most(all?) were winter performance tires and I wanted the nice soft winter tire. I believe it is also not the best for the tires (or wheels) to continually mount and unmount them. Plus, if it's on a dedicated wheel, I can change them out in 15 minutes in my garage versus having to take the car somewhere twice a year to have someone else change the wheels. Plus, downsizing to a 17 allowed me to get a skinnier tire (225 vs 245) with a taller sidewall which helps for winter traction.

So I did a tire/wheel package from tirerack. As a side, I did not order an extra set tire pressure sensors. I was planning on it at first but after doing some research it looks like the car can only recognize one set at a time. So I'd still have to take my car to the dealership twice a year to have it reprogrammed when I swapped tires. So I drive around with the TPMS indicator light on now, surprising, not annoying as I thought it might be. I figure it replaces the "VDC Off" light which I see during the summer.

Little different for your as your OEM rims are the same size all the way around. You have a few more tire choices, but if I were in your shoes I'd still get dedicated wheels which it sounds like you're thinking.

 

I bought some 17" rims off of ebay for a really good price ($80 each plus shipping) and mounted the Dunlop Winter Sports on them...see the picture. Then every spring and fall, I just switch the sets myself.

Keep in mind that if you buy winter tires through Discount Tire Store, they will change your tires twice a year for free....meaning change from winter to summer tires in the spring and summer to winter tires in the fall. I'm sure other places do that too. Tires Plus used to but stopped.

To all...please send some warm weather up to Minneapolis. Right now it's -9F with a -31F windchill.

 

Order Number: xxxxxxx Order Date: 10/19/08 Via: UPS GROUND From: Delaware

Qty Size and Description Availability Price Each Total Price

4 17x7.5 Sport Edition SE-14 Bright Sil In Stock $115.00 $460.00
4 Required centering ring In Stock N/C N/C
20 Required lugnut for vehicle In Stock N/C N/C
4 Retaining clip for al-p ring + In Stock N/C N/C
4 225/55R-17 Bridgestone Blizzak WS-60 In Stock $119.00 $476.00
4 Mount and Balance (No Charge) N/C N/C
1 Griot's wheel care sample kit In Stock N/C N/C

Some products above selected for the following vehicle(s):
Vehicle: 08 Infiniti G35X Sedan

Shipping: $98.76
Tax: $.00
Excise Tax: $.00
State Waste Tire Fund Fee: $.00
Order Total Including Shipping: $1,034.76


Tire Rack recommended 215's for the G35 but offered the OEM tire size as an alternative. Based on experience so far, I think the 215's would be a better choice for winter. The 225's do seem to float a bit on the G35 in deep snow. I went with the 225's thinking I could improve dry road handling. That is the tradeoff you make with Blizzaks. Snow and Ice grip is improved but dry road handling suffers because of the soft compound and deep tread. The tires are "squirmy" on dry roads. You can't drive like you do on summer tires.

 

just bought my g35x on 12/6. im in upstate, ny where the snow has just been coming and coming. i have got to say that i am very satisified with my purchase. since i just bought the car i still have the stock tires on, and while there is definitely some slip w/them, if you dont drive like a maniac, the car handles great! no issues with turning / going up hills or anything. loving it so far! can't wait to venture out in todays storm to get alittle more used to it.

 

I live in Indy and about two weeks ago mounted the "performance" oriented Blizzack tire, LM-25, on my '08 G35xS. Running stock 18" OEM wheels, and didn't want to buy new alloys, so had to go with the LM-25 vs. the multi-cell WS-60 tire. No problems in the snow/slush whatsoever, and dry weather handling/ride quality hasn't been sacrificed much, if at all, compared to the OEM all seasons. My prior daily driver was an '04 R32 with Haldex and I went -1 to a 17" Blizzack on winter alloys. That car was a beast in the snow with that setup. I'm a real advocate of dedicated winter tires.

 

+1. I have some Michelin snows and had to drive from the airport to home on Friday night in varying conditions (snow, ice, drifts, plow banks, etc.). At no time did I feel worried or stressed, a good thing after an 11 hour flight. I'm thinking of putting snows on the van now, even though it is front wheel drive with decent all seasons on.

 

Now people can see why I love my X so much. First I had my 05X and now my 07X.

Don't waste your time with All Seasons, go all the way and get the full potential from your X and get winters. It is like you are on rails. Love it

 

What exactly does the Snow mode do - just keep the RPMs low?

I'm leasing a G35xS for 2 years in NYC (which doesn't get as much snow as WI I'm sure), so I figure it's probably not worth investing in dedicated snow tires... do you think the all seasons will be good enough for the first 24k miles?