Am considering a G37 to drive full time except for part time winter use. Does anyone have experience driving these cars in icy conditions or light snow? Seems to be that the BMW 328xi would be a better choice for such driving.
maryz

 

well considering I don't think it's snowed/iced over anywhere in the past 2 months since the car was released... i'd say no, nobody has experience with the G37 yet.

get snow tires? that's what I plan on doing.

 

It hasn't even rained here since I got my car. Man do we need rain.

 

I had assumed (always a dangerous thing) that some users had a G35 and traded up, and thus might comment on how those cars performed in past years.
Also, this is supposed to be an international website, and someone somewhere must have had slick conditions in the past two months!
Thanks for any additional comments.

 

it did snow here in northeren Alberta 2 weeks ago. unfortunatly I still donot have my G. If you find out what you are doing for winter tires let me know. I am trying to find 18" rims to fit over the brakes. But I might just buy a beater truck for the winter.

 

Get winter tires and it'll do fine. People are always thinking it's about the car. With snow and ice, it's about the tires.

 

Without winter tires, it will be horrible in the snow. And of course the 328xi will be better for winter driving. It's AWD.

 

I'd take winter tires + RWD over all seasons/AWD.

Tirerack has several 18" wheel/tire options for winter - although their website has not been updated yet to reflect this. Just enter your car as a G37 Journey you can narrow it down from there. Here are the wheels that fit the G37 sport guaranteed:

18X8 Sport Edition A7 $119.00
18X8 MSW TYPE 12 $132.00
18X8 Sport Edition F10 $135.00
18X8 ASA JH3 $139.00
18X7.5 Borbet Type -CA $152.00
18X8.5 Kazera KZA $159.00
18X8 Kosei K1TS $189.0
18X8 OZ Ultraleggera $325.00

My dealer is offering the Sport Edition F10. They mounted one wheel on the front side, and I can confirm that it fits (although it's very close).

 

Yep, same with me. It's all about the tires.

 

Although I would have agreed with you a couple of days ago, this is untrue. I have indeed experienced what a G37 with the 19" summer tires would drive like in icy/snowy conditions. I was leaving work yesterday with a looming storm coming. As I made my way home sure enough what appeared to be snowballs started falling from the sky and exploding against my car (when I say snowballs I don't mean snowflakes, these were partially formed pieces of hail). Driving up the road a bit further for 2-3 mins the snow really started to fly, the road was covered in ice and slush within minutes and I could barely see since the windshield wipers were just huge gobs of packed snow. I decided I didn't want to risk driving since it seemed to only get worse. I pulled into a residential neighborhood and stopped on the side of the street, I slowly hit the brakes and the car careened forward with ABS on almost into a parked truck. This was all happening at probably 5-10km/h (2-5 mph).

Now I don't blame the car at all, the Bridgestones on this car have absolutely zero ice/snow performance (which is expected), I was just caught out in a freak storm. You can see this when you look at the tread, there are absolutely no jagged sipes or edges inside the tread blocks, I believe these were worse than the Michelin Pilot Sports on my old G35C. I am fully planning on buying snow tires for this car as with my previous G, that's a given. But for anyone who even receives remote amounts of snow, winter tires for sure or all seasons.

Now the car itself performed well, except for the braking experience, the car was very stable. As with my G35C, I fully expect dedicated winter tires to make this thing a tank in the winter. I drove that car year around for several years, and I had little to no problems in winter city driving. I would say if you live in a remote area get something with more clearance and AWD, in the city though with street services this car will get around as good as any FWD in the winter. Modern RWD cars come with so many electro nannies that with winter tires you would be hardpressed to get into trouble. The TCS and VDC worked wonders with the last G so I'm guessing it will be same here. Another good thing is that this G37 doesn't have the immediate on/off throttle of the sedan or previous G coupe so started off the line should not be as difficult *knock on wood*.

 

I have an 18x8 with the OEM tire sizes in the Winter Dunlop M3s on my current G35 coupe. Will these work on a G37 sport or will they be too narrow?

 

It depends on the specific rim. With 18x8, narrowness isn't necessary a problem - but high offset wheels that are cut out for bigger calipers are more likely to work. I think we are finding out that most 18" wheels do not fit, but there are certainly some that do. I think your best bet is to head to a dealer and just see if they can fit your wheel on the G37 for you to know for sure.

 

that's right ^ what he said.
The car has less to do with it than the tires. The summer tires are a no no for icy conditions. It will do better with all seasons but best with winter tires.
If the snow is deep then you need something higher up anyway.

 

You guys gonna run winter tires on the stock 19's?

 

No, I'm buying a dedicated set of 18x8 to replace my 17" winters that don't fit. I'd rather have the dedicated 18 for slightly better traction, better insulation, cheaper tires, and the ability to rotate them.