New to the forum just purchased an 2008 3.5 SE

[ABRB228]

Just a brief intro here, I'm a first time Nissan owner - loved the look of the car and so far after 2 weeks, still lovin' the car! I haven't done a thorough search yet, but am curious in 2 areas. What are the odds of finding a set of steel rims for winter use only (i.e. is there much interchangabilty with previous years or other makes/models? and if so, is it possible to accept 16" steel rims when it came with 17" alloys) Also curious about the reliability and service/repair history of the CVT - but I'm sure I'll find a lot of discussion somewhere on that subject.

See you around....

[SHIFT_2.5S]

Congrats on the purchase.

Nissan's CVT is relatively new, so I'm not sure that you'll find news about long-term reliability. However, it has been rated as one of the best automatic transitions on the market and I don't think it will disappoint.

[nismofool]

welcome!

you'll love your new baby! but good point in bringing up that CVT question, I am a bit curious myself but as Shift_2.5s has mentioned i am quite confident it will all be good!

[generic808]

Welcome to NICO!

As far as wheels go, 5x114.3 is your size. An offset of between +35 and +45 will give you enough clearance. So anything within those specs should fit.

CVT's are not new, they've been around for quite some time now. They've been used primarily in buses, but recently made an apperance in regular vehicles. I'm sure they'll handle their own.

[SHIFT_2.5S]

They've been used primarily in buses, but recently made an apperance in regular vehicles.

That's what I meant. I mean, we're not driving buses...

[ABRB228]

Welcome to NICO!

As far as wheels go, 5x114.3 is your size. An offset of between +35 and +45 will give you enough clearance. So anything within those specs should fit.

CVT's are not new, they've been around for quite some time now. They've been used primarily in buses, but recently made an apperance in regular vehicles. I'm sure they'll handle their own.

Thanks to everyone for the welcome comments - seems like a decent group on this forum (I'm a Corvette owner too, and enjoy sharing info on a great corvette owners' forum)

Good to hear that there isn't much being said about the CVT's - I'll take that as a good sign!

A little more about the rims -- (and I can appreciate that the folks from California might not identify too well with my interest in winter rims/winter tires - we get a lot of snow here but worst of all is all the salt that is put on the highways to melt the snow - it's hard on alloy rims.) My curiousity about the rims is mostly about interchangability of steel rims with other makes/models, specifically if the bolt pattern might be the same as some older Nissans, domestic vehicles or other Japanese vehicles. There are a lot of people selling sets of winter rim/tires with very low KMs because they have sold the car that they had purchased these rims for. Or, am I pretty much going to have to go to the dealership and pay a lot more for 'Nissan' steel rims? Anybody have any experience in this area?Thanks

[SHIFT_COUPE]

Welcome aboard!

[jdshift]

Welcome, and Congrats!!

[generic808]

Thanks to everyone for the welcome comments - seems like a decent group on this forum (I'm a Corvette owner too, and enjoy sharing info on a great corvette owners' forum)

Good to hear that there isn't much being said about the CVT's - I'll take that as a good sign!

A little more about the rims -- (and I can appreciate that the folks from California might not identify too well with my interest in winter rims/winter tires - we get a lot of snow here but worst of all is all the salt that is put on the highways to melt the snow - it's hard on alloy rims.) My curiousity about the rims is mostly about interchangability of steel rims with other makes/models, specifically if the bolt pattern might be the same as some older Nissans, domestic vehicles or other Japanese vehicles. There are a lot of people selling sets of winter rim/tires with very low KMs because they have sold the car that they had purchased these rims for. Or, am I pretty much going to have to go to the dealership and pay a lot more for 'Nissan' steel rims? Anybody have any experience in this area?Thanks

Whatever you do, don't buy wheels from the dealership?! They'll charge you an arm and a leg for something that can be found used for a fraction of the price. A good place to start is your local craiglist and newspaper classified ads. I know the older model Altima's from I believe 2002 and up have the same bolt pattern. The Maxima's, newer (03+) Accord's, Camry's, Mazda 6, and a bunch of other cars have the same 5x114.3 pattern. The G35 and 350Z also uses the same bolt pattern, but most use a staggered wheel set-up so that's something you have to take into consideration.

I'm too lazy to look up every model, but I'm sure you could find out with a quick google search.

[ABRB228]

Whatever you do, don't buy wheels from the dealership?! They'll charge you an arm and a leg for something that can be found used for a fraction of the price. A good place to start is your local craiglist and newspaper classified ads. I know the older model Altima's from I believe 2002 and up have the same bolt pattern. The Maxima's, newer (03+) Accord's, Camry's, Mazda 6, and a bunch of other cars have the same 5x114.3 pattern. The G35 and 350Z also uses the same bolt pattern, but most use a staggered wheel set-up so that's something you have to take into consideration.

I'm too lazy to look up every model, but I'm sure you could find out with a quick google search.

Great! - Thanks Generic...that was exactly the kind of info I was looking for; you've definitely pointed me in the right direction.