Hi-I am fairly new, here. I have had the car since mid-April, my second Infiniti. As you know, the G37S comes with summer-only Potenza tires. They are mounted on 18 inch/7.5 on the front, 18 inch/8.5 on the rear. I am trying to decide what to do, but I don't think I want/need to spend a fortune on rims/tires that will be used for only about four months out of the year. Buying winter tires for the current OEM rims and having them swapped on/off each season will likely get expensive. The G37S has the extra large, brake package. Does anybody know if I can downgrade to 17 inch rims with this car for the winter? Will they fit, given the configuration and brakes that are on the car, now? I have seen some resales of Infiniti OEM 17inch rims with 225 tires on line-that could be a good way go to, so long as I can bolt them on. Thanks/Alex

 

usually it depends on the spoke design if the wheels will clear the BBK but you may be pushing it with a 17" wheel barrel. There are some 18" OEMs that do not clear the BBK. usually large wheel places (tireRack / DiscountTire) will be able to tell what wheels will clear the BBK.

Personally I got a new set of dedicated winter tires/wheels (18 x 8 all around) for about $1500. I ran them from Thanksgiving to Mid-March. Now I can change them at home in just minutes. Your other option may be to run all-season like the Conti DWS all year but I imagine the winters in NJ are worse than Cincy so that might be tricky.

 

Yes, winters here have changed, they can be much more severe than they were, a couple decades ago. But I am figuring I have to go with a pure, winter/snow tire, since I had to give up AWD in order to get the 6-speed manual. (Previous car was an Audi A6 AWD. And except for the fact that car needed a net to catch the falling parts, the quattro drive was exceptional in snow).

 

just go w/ just buying winter tires for the current OEM wheels.... they look great especially the difference in the 18x8.5" rears vs all the AWD sedans out there

 

The brakes on a sport are a bit too large for 17's (at least the one we carry) to fit over. An 18" is the smallest we've found to fit properly.