I currently own a rwd g37, DC metro/ Northern Virgina(ie fairfax) is one place that I've consider moving in the future. How will the car handle the winters? Will winter wheels be necessary or can all-seson be sufficent?

 

I haven't had mine during the winter, but I've had plenty of rear wheel drive cars. It's just like any region that gets some snow. Summer tires and rwd can be treacherous. Decent all season tires help a lot. My personal opinion is that the region doesn't get enough snow to dictate what car to buy. However, this region seems to sell a ton of the awd models and very few rwd.

 

I bought the RWD car here in the DC area last November and decided after spending all that money to wait until next year to get snow tires. We really only get a major snowstorm about once every 5 years or more. I also have the summer performance tires that come with the sport model.

Big mistake. This past year was the worst snow we've had in the area's history with several major snowstorms, and one with more than 30" in my town plus an additional foot 2 days later.

Usually it melts pretty quick. The problem wasn't so much driving on the roads (I didn't go out with it until they were plowed). But mostly getting out of my street -- I live in a townhouse development with a semi-private street/parking lot entrance that wasn't plowed very well. I got stuck and someone had to help push me out to get moving again.

So this fall I'm buying a second set of cheap rims with real snow tires. We probably won't get snow like that again for a long time, but it was stupid driving summer tires during the winter anyway. I initially was planning on switching to All-season, but the more I thought about it, I'd rather keep summer performance tires and keep this car handling the way it was meant to handle for 3 seasons out of the year. And real snow tires will be much better for the winter anyway.

 

I traded in an 08xS for an 09S. I had no issues at all in the snow. The G37S sedan is my every day car and my Blizzak LM-60's had no problems at all handling the snow. I was out in every storm we had this year except for the first one that was over a weekend. And I'm in NJ and we got some significant snow this past season.

Compared to my 08xS, which had the all season stock tires, my RWD G37S sedan was more predictable to drive in the snow. It drove better, stopped, steered, and I never fishtailed once. Did that a few times in my 08xS.

The only place where the xS had an advantage was starting on a incline. But once under way the car with the winter tires, without a doubt, was better. And I have not moved or changed job in years so both cars were driven on the same exact roads.

Just make sure you use winter tires, not all season tires, and you will be fine.
Also to keep cost down I mounted my winter tires on the sport stock rims.

 

Well, first of all, what they have down in Northern VA/DC isn't really winter.

I have a RWD G37S Sedan, and live in upstate NY and drive to VT a lot. Just got the car in May, when winter hits, I'll let you know how it does (with snow tires on of course).

 

Yeah, having grown up mostly in this area and also lived in northeastern PA for many years I can agree with that. But this past winter rivaled anything I've ever experienced in the PA hills. Nevertheless, if you get the summer tires, it turns out they really mean it when they say not to drive on them in the winter.

But generally it melts within a day or two after it snows here.

 

The MD/NoVA region rarely gets any accumulation of snow during the winter, it's usually very mild around the area (I'm from Upstate NY and know snow). This last winter was pretty freak and there was two big back to back storms as others had mentioned. Everything pretty much shut down around here for several days, but I wasn't complaining that I purchased the X with all seasons, car handled very well.

At a minimum I would definitely recommend running a decent set of all seasons to handle any light snow. Don't run summers in the snow since they are a death wish. Initially when I was looking to purchase a G I wanted a RWD car, but they are very hard to find around the region, which is why I ended up going AWD, but I don't regret it. Bottom line, if you already have all seasons you'll be fine. If you have summers, might consider getting a set of snows unless you're going to switch back to all seasons full time.

 

It was really quite the freak winter down there this year. But in reality, that probably only happens once every 5+ yrs. And even that might be pushing it.

DO NOT DRIVE SUMMER TIRES IN THE WINTER. They basically turn to glass. They are meant for warm temps. As it gets close to freezing, they harden up (glass transition temp) and become rock hard and lose grip. Trying to drive summer tires in the snow is like

 

Yeah, I know, I know. Basically I didn't want to drop another $1000 after I just bought the car so I was just white-knuckling it until the next year. Out of all years to do that, I picked the worst. Murphy's law can be a bitch. I'm just trying to maybe help someone else learn from my stupidity.

 

I have a 2009 G37 sedan RWD Journey Premium AT and live in Iowa. We had a gruesome long winter this year. Record snow and ice. I have dedicated snow tires and rims. The vehicle was stuck once on glaze ice in a parking lot. I had a heck of a time finding a RWD G37. One was finally shipped here from AZ. Anything north of I-70 Infiniti doesn't sell anything but AWD vehicles. They weigh 200 lbs. more and all the weight is in the front end.

 

That's funny, I moved from Fairfax down to the ATL area almost 5 years ago. There were a few times over the years up there when I would be at work or a friend's house and it would snow while I was there, so I would have to drive home in it - on Summers! I always made it, but it was a white-knuckle experience each time. You should be fine on all seasons.

 

all seasons suck, there a jack of all trades kind of tire. spending the money on snows to get maximum winter traction is cheaper then getting into an accident

 

You will be fine.

I grew up in PA. It doesnt really snow here. We get maybe a few inches every year, and then get that freak 10 year storm every 10 years...... or the freak 100 year storm like we got here this past year.


In this area, we get more icy conditions than we do snow. And it tends to melt pretty fast and its not that frequent. I dont even own a pair of snow tires. If we get a freak snowstorm, I just take my wife's car. But other than this past year where we got feet of snow, its usually on the magniture of inches for the entire season.

Id say 99% of the time you will be more than fine with all seasons. Just dont plan on driving when we get that freak 10 year snowstorm.

 

I have a 09S model I bought last winter and drove it all through DC's winter after having just moved here from Chicago. I've driven plenty of RWD cars in Chicago as well, right past people with AWD or SUVs who were in a ditch. It's all about using your brains and not doing stupid things when the snow is on the ground. Buy the car you want and take it easy the first winter and see how it goes.