Inclimate Weather Experiences?

[third_shift|studios]

How are the GT's holding up in bad weather? If you don't drive yours in bad weather, don't post. Thanks. :windy:

[Chewy]

How are the GT's holding up in bad weather? If you don't drive yours in bad weather, don't post. Thanks. :windy:

We got ice and snow yesterday and it was 4º on the way to work today... Is that inclimate?

The Blizzak WS-60's performed AMAZINGLY! You definitely get what you pay for.

Target parking lot was ice yesterday so I thought "hell I might as well push it" So I was coasting at probably 15 to 20mph and whipped the wheel to the right. Most cars I've owner would under steer BIG time and it just tracked to the right with VERY LITTLE if any slipping. Traction and stability control work great. :) I'm not going to have ANY issues with this car this winter.

My driveway was covered with maybe 2 inches last night. It's probably a 30º angle and it climbed it with NO issues and I have to go into it slow as I have a curb before my drive.

So for all those naysayers... PISS OFF! :flame::wacko:

lol

[jnak]

Stock 18" RS-As are shit on ice.

[Chewy]

Stock 18" RS-As are shit on ice.

Anything other than a full on Ice and Snow tire will be!

[third_shift|studios]

We got ice and snow yesterday and it was 4º on the way to work today... Is that inclimate?

The Blizzak WS-60's performed AMAZINGLY! You definitely get what you pay for.

Target parking lot was ice yesterday so I thought "hell I might as well push it" So I was coasting at probably 15 to 20mph and whipped the wheel to the right. Most cars I've owner would under steer BIG time and it just tracked to the right with VERY LITTLE if any slipping. Traction and stability control work great. :) I'm not going to have ANY issues with this car this winter.

My driveway was covered with maybe 2 inches last night. It's probably a 30º angle and it climbed it with NO issues and I have to go into it slow as I have a curb before my drive.

So for all those naysayers... PISS OFF! :flame::wacko:

lol

did you get rims and tires or just tires for snow? that's a great testimonial!

[Chewy]

did you get rims and tires or just tires for snow? that's a great testimonial!

It was the same price to get either tires for the stock 19" wheels or 17" wheels and tires strictly for the snow.

So I got wheels and tires without TPMS.

WS-60's aren't available in 19" only LM-25's are and they are inferior to the WS-60's. WAY more tires to pick from in the 17" sizes.

Chris

[Splat]

I drove mine (08 G8 GT) in 5 inches of fresh snow earlier this week with Hankook icebears. The car is very capable in snow. The only possible shortcoming is going to be ground clearance, but that's to be expected. Any remaining issue could probably have been resolved with a better winter tire.

I prefer WS-60's as well, but I got the Hankook's because the car had summer-only tires on it as delivered, and the dealer offered to put winter tires on it if I would take what was in stock and would fit on the stock 18" rim. It's pretty much winter here in Michigan, and I wasn't too keen on driving on RE050's in the snow, and I really wanted to drive the car right away, so I took what I could get.

At any rate, I have a 74 mile round trip work commute, and I've driven it every day since Thanksgiving, and anyone in SE MI will tell you that the weather has pretty much been shit lately. I live on a dirt road that is last to be plowed, I have scraped the bottom a once or twice, but have not been stuck. Had some slow going on a hill with some black ice the other night before the county came and salted. Traction control could not deal with it, but second and third in manual mode got us up & down ok. Only way to improve would be better tires or studs (not allowed in Mi).

This car is my new daily driver, we turned in my wife's leased Trailblazer early, and bought the G8 for my Christmas present this year. My two primary concerns were whether the car was capable year-round in Michigan, and whether it was of sufficient size to haul my family (wife, 2 kids) and our associated crap. Putting my kid's seats in the back and a stroller and miscellaneous bs in the trunk answered the first concern. A few test drives, with some purposely taking place in crap weather, answered my second concern. I would not have bought it if it could not deal with crappy weather/road conditions, as we have a lot of weird weather here.

I won't go nuts and say that it's as capable as the Trailblazer was in snow, or my 04 Explorer (now the wife's), but the G8 is very capable for a car it's size and configuration, and very manageable & predictable for a RWD vehicle. The traction control works well and the weight distribution is correct. You can also drive it a bit with the throttle (power oversteer) and e-brake (induced oversteer) without fighting it if you are familiar with it.

A lot of people are too hung up on the idea that if it's not FWD or AWD it's somehow unsafe to drive in snow. I don't know how we survived all those RWD cars and trucks back in the day, lol. You just need good tires and some common sense.

Best snow car I've owned recently was an 02 Suby WRX with Nokian Hakkapelitta's. That's my benchmark I guess. That car was fun, but just a little too small once we started having babies.

Worst was my 76 Monte Carlo. Driving that thing in snow was an adventure. Crap weight bias, 350, open diff, crap BFGoodrich tires. You didn't really drive it, it was more like you defeated it's attempts to kill you.

I'd put the G8 in the upper third of cars I've owned. With decent winter tires, it's at least as capable as any FWD we've owned, the best of our FWD's being my wifes 02 Saab 9-3, it was a good winter driver as well.

[third_shift|studios]

hey 4gasem, Splat just one-upped your reply. This is all great stuff...seriously many of you should write in to pontiac so they can use this as sales junk. Thanks for all the heart-felt replies!

[G8GTlawride]

How are the GT's holding up in bad weather? If you don't drive yours in bad weather, don't post. Thanks. :windy:

Post

[Chewy]

hey 4gasem, Splat just one-upped your reply. This is all great stuff...seriously many of you should write in to pontiac so they can use this as sales junk. Thanks for all the heart-felt replies!

Yeah well what can I say? I'm not that big into writing novels... lol

I think he's (unfortunately for him) had more experience in the snow. We didn't get nearly that mucho!

[jnak]

Anything other than a full on Ice and Snow tire will be!

The RS-As are extra shitty. I've had all season tires that worked reasonably well on ice. The RS-As don't grip at all on ice.

[DolomiteG8]

The Goodyear RS-A's on these G8's are indeed shit on ice. My apartment garage faces a down hill slope to parked cars. I have maybe 20 feet at best. Usually I have to do a 3 point turn in reverse to get it into the stall. I noticed when the snow melts around here and freezes, that shit turns into a glazed donut! The run-off from the roof doesn't help, and they don't salt or sand anything in this lot.

First time out I turned the wheel to the left, the fookin' idle kept surging the car forward. Once the front wheels made contact with the ice, it was game over. With the wheels hooked hard to the left, I slid probably 3 feet in a straight line toward the parked cars in front of me.

If my rear wheels were not still on the garage concrete pad, I'd been screwed. I had to back it up. Park it in the garage. Run out with the Subaru and get some damn salt! Thank God I park in my garage in reverse!

Next year I am definately buying some Blizzak's on 17" wheels. If had the money this year, I wouldn't be typing this.

[Chewy]

OK so yesterday I drove to work with literally 3/4" thick ice on the highway at about 50mph in a 65. The Blizzaks performed AMAZINGLY. Last night the G/F and I went to the grocery store to get some stuff and when we came back out the parking lot presented itself as the perfect play ground. So I took traction control off and decided to play.

NO FUN! The tires get THAT good of traction on packed snow! My G/F was still rolling her eyes but I couldn't believe how well the tires stuck.

I also chock a lot of this up to the damn near perfect weight distribution.


Chris

[mtolivecracker]

I drove my g8gt through some ridiculous weather back in October. For some reason, Northern NJ got hit real hard without warning and my area got a foot of snow. My commute is about 25 minutes which took over an hour and a half that day.

there was no sand/salt preparation by the towns since no one expected it, and there was almost no plowing going on either. it was ice/ packed sludge with a couple inches of snow on top of it on my way home that night.

The car was fine 90% of the time. but the other 10% was a disaster. When trucks and cars stopped ontop of hills(lots of hills in my area) i was cursing up a storm since i know rear wheel drive in that situation(drove a camaro for 6 years). i got stuck about 3 times on the way home. had to back up and get speed for the hills, which is very typical.

The car is Rearwheeldrive, there are inherent issues with that, mainly, DONT STOP, especially going up hills, cause youll never get going again. With no surprise, that was the only problem i came across. im sure itll be fine for all other snow storms, like were supposed to get today, well see how it is
:windy:

[GXPaycheck]

If it's slick out you can always start in 2nd gear (manual mode). It helps>

[66goat]

Blizzaks AWESOME!!!

[Chewy]

Drove home in 5 inches of snow and the plows (for what ever reason) hadn't been out yet. The car did amazing. I had a little less than 3/4 of a tank and NO weight in the trunk. NONE!

It even went up my driveway. Now it's NO AWD car and if I would have stopped on a hill I think I would have been toast but the snow was just MUSH and was VERY slimy and NOT packed. I just drew out my route before starting and had no issues!:)

Blizzak WS60'S!

[jnak]

I'm finding that the car is OK in regular snow, it's ice and hard packed snow that causes issues.

After seeing how the RS-As perform in the snow, I've decided to bite the bullet. My winter tires are supposed to come in on Monday.

[confused2much]

We got a bunch more snow here yesterday and the temps have been single digits all week. I went with the cheapest combo I could, and I couldnt be any more pleased with it all. These tires are amaizing on the snow and even "okay" on the ice if you drive with common sense.

My setup is:

Rims: MSW Type 15 (17x8) $112.00 each
Tires: Firestone Winterforce (225/55R17) $82.00 each
No TPMS
Total Before Tax + Shipping = $776.00

Pics of my dirty car from our snow a couple weeks ago. We have gotten lots more since then:

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2503/1208081321jq8.jpg

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/719/1208081319hy6.jpg

[Chewy]

We got a bunch more snow here yesterday and the temps have been single digits all week. I went with the cheapest combo I could, and I couldnt be any more pleased with it all. These tires are amaizing on the snow and even "okay" on the ice if you drive with common sense.

My setup is:

Rims: MSW Type 15 (17x8) $112.00 each
Tires: Firestone Winterforce (225/55R17) $82.00 each
No TPMS
Total Before Tax + Shipping = $776.00

Pics of my dirty car from our snow a couple weeks ago. We have gotten lots more since then:





I went with a slightly different wheel which was 126.00 and I bit the bullet and went with the top rated Blizzaks which cost about 40-50 bucks more each and came out at 1078.00 shipped.

[confused2much]

I wanted the Blizzaks, the wife wanted cheap....look who won.

[Chewy]

I wanted the Blizzaks, the wife wanted cheap....look who won.

I just went with what Tire Rack said was best. They said 17" wheels and higher profile tires are best and that the WS60's were rated JUST above the XiceII's from Michelin and I don't buy French stuff if I have a choice...:wacko:

[third_shift|studios]

i just went with what tire rack said was best. They said 17" wheels and higher profile tires are best and that the ws60's were rated just above the xiceii's from michelin and i don't buy french stuff if i have a choice...:wacko:

bwahahahaha