My wife is being transferred to Maryland and we will probably live in western Delaware. We currently have the summer blend tires on our vert, but I don't want to venture north on slippery tires. (my dealer here says the tires lose traction below 45). What do you all recommend we switch to? Does it snow much up there?

Rondog wrote:My wife is being transferred to Maryland and we will probably live in western Delaware. We currently have the summer blend tires on our vert, but I don't want to venture north on slippery tires. (my dealer here says the tires lose traction below 45). What do you all recommend we switch to? Does it snow much up there?

Hey Ron -

Congrats on your wife's new gig!

The summer tires are a firm compound so under about 40 degrees they are hard and therefore can be described as "slippery" so the perception is that they lose traction easily. In cold conditions, just drive cautiously and understand the dynamics and you will be fine - no issues.

Now, as for snow, that my friend is a different story. It doesnt snow frequently but, when it does and there is more than an inch or 2 accumulation, the Vert is essentially useless even with snow tires. The good news is that within a day, all of the slop is off the roads so if you are planning to drive the G daily in the winter you may have to stay home a couple of days each winter season to deal with the white stuff.
-B

What he said above is about right. Snow on the summer tires. Forget about it. Now in the cold, they will do fine after they warm up some on the road, but gotta watch when you first roll out.

Thanks, so does anyone have a recommendation on what tires to put on my beast?

Are you getting new rims, or going to use the same rims? If you get winter tires you will want a seperate set of rims. Be careful as teh vert has a different offset than the coupe. I bought stock rims and going with the pirelli Winter 240 sottozero 245/40/19 on fronts and rears.

I hadn't thought of that Fezzik. I was just going to put all season tires on the current rims and swap them again next summer to finish off the remaining tread on the current tires. The Infiniti Dealer in Newark, DE has recommended Yokahama Avid Envigor for driving up there. The feedback on the net is that they are great tires - just came out so there is no word on how they are in light snow, but dry and wet performance is terrific. Are winter tires usually good in snow? I understand that someimes dry pavement performance is not so good, but I haven't looked at the pirelli line. I am having trouble getting tire dealers that know much about winter or all season tires - of course that's because we're in Florida.

It really depends. Up in your area I would assume you get a lot of snow. If streets are not cleared a lot then you will want dedicated winter. NOW if you will be on mostly dry pavement or wet pavement and hardly any snow then all seasons may work well. The big question is how much is the G gonig to see snow on the road. If alot then winter, if barely any then all seasons should be good.
When I did research on winter tires, it was tough to get any good reviews. All the major places keep on wanting to sell the LM60s but I have heard some bad things about them. I read reviews from canadian sites and tire rack and finally decided on the sotozerro cause I know a few corvette guys in chicago that run them during the winter without any problems.

If you are planning to buy new tires & swap them seasonally, I would suggest dedicated snows and NOT all seasons. All season tires on your RWD car will be better than your current summer tires but not nearly as good as snow tires which are specifically designed for the temperature and traction required on snow & frozen slop. Additionally, as Fez suggested, a separate set of rims for the snow tires is preferrable so you can just swap them on & off each winter (be sure to label them when you take them off for balance & wear purposes). Further, I would suggest investing in a dedicated set of TPMS for the new winter rim/tire combo and have your dealership program them to your car. You will need the dealer to reprogram the TPMS each time you swap rims because the G can only have 1 set of TPMS reporting to the ECU at a time.

I purchased 225/50R18 Michelin X-Ice Xi2 winter tires from tirerack - mounted on 18x8 Machined w/Black Accent MSW Type 20 wheels. I didn't buy new tpms sensors. Total price mounted was a little over $1200 with a $90 delivery charge. Local tire store charges $100 to move over 4 19" tires. I'm very pleased with the appearance and performance has been great in bad weather - particularly during a trip to Lake Placid last weekend. Grip was great with an inch or two of unplowed snow/slush on the surface.

For those moving from stock infiniti rims to aftermarket you'll discover a "bolt"-like thing when you remove the front wheels - this is there to make sure you don't put the wrong size for the stock staggered wheels on the front as it fits into a custom recess on the front wheels. The "bolt" unbolts quite easily for aftermarket wheels.

My son (16) thinks the snow wheels look better than the stock 19 sport summer wheels - they do look good. I'm pleased with the handling in bad weather and highly recommend dedicated winter wheels and tires on a high power car rear wheel drive car.

By the way, turn off the electronic stability control and the car turns sideways very nicely.

Peter

I had a set of Hankook Ventus S4's on the G sedan and just yanked them due to poor snow performance (local Infiniti dealer sold them as a good all-season...he was wrong). Just installed a set of ContiExtreme DWS and so far so good in light snow. I'll know more once we have more than an inch on the ground.

I pulled the trigger on some Yokahama Avid Envigors recommended by the Newark and Orlando Infiniti dealers. They are all-season tires and have good reviews. If it snows real bad, my wife can take my Ridgeline to work. Thanks to all for the comments. If I was still working, I might have gone with the other options, but I retired a few months ago and Obama nixed the social security raises.

If you'll need to drive the car all year in all weather conditions, you'll want a set of dedicated snow tires and at times (like when there's 8-10 inches, before they plow), that won't be enough .

I've been swapping to dedicated snow tires (on spare wheels) for 4 winters and couldn't be happier.

I am from Sandusky ( a long time ago) and remember Ohio winters. I am told they don't get much snow where I am going. Last year was a fluke. I guess I may find out the hard way.

Usually we don't get more than a couple snow falls a year and the ones that cause issues always seem to be over a weekend. I support Cincy quite a bit so I'm always driving back-n-forth between there and Louisville. I think the most snow I've dealt with during the day on the highway was 2" at most. The worst experience I had was last year in the G sedan starting to drift sideways at 75mph over an iced up bridge.

I bet that was exciting. How did she handle it?

Luckily the bridge was short