I know that Winter is long and gone (..Not necessarily in michigan, it was supposed to snow this weekend) but I am honestly curious. I'm interested in getting a Z in May and i'm fairly confident that the 05 5AT Lemans Sunset Enthusiast is the way to go for me (even though I don't like the rims too much). I will absolutely be driving this car daily, for work and everything. I'm selling my 03 Grand Am to get one.

My question is, with my Grand Am, i'd just switch to Blizzak's and have no problem. I was hoping to do the same with the Z, just throw on some Blizzaks and pray for the best. How was everyone's winter driving experience with the Z? I had an excellent experience for the past 3 winters now with the Blizzaks and wouldn't go any other route. Even if I wasn't driving the Z, i'd still be getting winter tires, but my curiousity is, just how much more difficult is it to drive in the snow?

Just some background:

1) Its my first RWD car, so I will be taking it easy in winter
2) I'm not necessarily sure if I'll be equipping the stock 17's with Winter tires, or see if I can find a cheap set of 16's to put them on (if 16's will even fit, I'm not exactly sure what does and does not fit on the Z yet)

Also another concern was how the windows automatically open/close a tad when you open and close the door, I'm sure this would be a problem if there was ice on the windows, right? I just don't want this to be absolute hell - I know i'm posting about this winter WAYYY to early, but I want to be prepared.

 

there's been a few threads on this but consensus from what I've seen is that the RWD in the Z makes it a handful in the snow. I only had to drive mine in a light dusting of snow once and I thought I was gonna die....and I grew up learning to drive in snow in Ohio. If I lived where it snowed I would only go FWD or AWD.

 

GO FOR IT!
Driving the Z this winter with snow tires on was the most fun I've had in a long time. Very good school for oversteer control also.
I had Continental Winter tires.

 

Wow, looks like you had a blast in that thing during winter! Anything to be careful for? Or were the winter tires all you needed? Cause thats all I needed with my Grand Am.

Low J. - I'm sure it would be a handful with the stock tires considering those are summer tires, but could you show me those threads? I tried searching and for whatever reason, didn't come up with anything good.

 

Hey Mike,

My experience during the winter was nothing but fun. I mean you can't drive it like you normally think of driving a z-- pedal to the floor hammering it thru turns! But if you take it nice and easy, it's great! I'm 16 and so have really no experience driving through the winters, but I didn't have any trouble. I had some blizzaks on the rear and those worked out great.

I have had trouble before. I drove an M3 a couple months before I got the Z. i tried driving that in the snow.... Not fun at all. I actually ended up spinning the car completely 360 twice. I figured out fast that it was too much power for me to handle, especially with the performance tires on it!

Good luck and happy driving. I say most def you can pull it off.

 

Wow really Jak? Thats great! How did the car hold up damage wise, any nasty salt chips? Or does MD not use Salt on the roads like Michigan does? I hate to bring back Winter in the mix of things, but i'm just trying to cover all bases.

 

All you need is winter tires, a bit of practice on empty car parks so you can feel how the car reacts on such slippery surfaces, and you'll want to have traction control off all the time!

The Z is great for winter, with the heated seats it was a real pleasure. The Cabin being so small, it gets warmer much quicker than say a Range Rover.

 

Yeah I always had traction control off on my car last winter, because if I needed to gun it lightly to get over a small snow pile, the traction control would kick in and get me stuck by cutting the power off.

I got real friendly with the e-brake too, using that to slide the *** end around if the front brakes locked up and just started sliding forward, so i'd like to think i've gotten the trick of a winter experience, but this will definately be new with RWD lol

 

My Z handled HORRIBLY in the snow. I've only had it in snow twice, both times I got caught off guard by it, but it was a chore getting the Z home. But, since I wasn't expecting or planning to drive it in snow, I still had the 275s on it, so that was probably a big part of the problem. I'd say leave it at home and get a beater to drive in the winter.

 

I haven't noticed any specific ware from the snow or salt. I mean, its nasty seeing your car with all the gunk on it, but after a nice wash you don't really notice. The traction system is REALLY nice. If you start slipping around a turn it grabs you right away. For a new driver like me the traction system was really important. It let me push my limits, then once I went past them, the traction control kicked in and taught me my lesson lol.

 

Do not try and use the stock tires, i know u said blizzaks so from what i've read on here it will handle ok. I tried driving with the stock tires and almost died i seriously thought of leaving it in a parking lot and calling someone to come pick me up. I had a rear wheel drive bmw and it was much better in the snow with its stock tires. Remember the car is very low too so it gets hard to drive when the snow gets deep.
Personally, i would get a beater for winter b/c the car will get really torn up from the salt and rocks.

 

I've gone through 2 winters now on 17" Blizzaks in the stock tire size. As long as you use common sense while you're driving, they should get you through without a problem.

Going to a good driver saftey course could be helpful here too..I attended the BMW advanced driver safety school last fall, and it taught me a lot about the limits of the Z's capabilities in lousy conditions.

 

It really depends on how well you can control the car

I live in Ontario, Canada...and I drove my Z thru about 2 months of winter on the stock tires and had no trouble at all. Next winter I'm going to get winter tires because I drive a lot tho.

I got my car near the end of winter and no one still had winter tires in my size in stock, so I was forced to drive it...and from reading the posts on the board about how bad it is with stock tires in winter, I thought I was going to die, but it really wasn't bad at all.

 

WI driver. 140 miles a day. Blizzak LM22s. No driving problems what so ever. Winter tires rule. lol

 

I drove mine through the winter in MI and Ont with Pirelli snow tires. I still have them on while waiting for my rims to come in. I had no problems. Just be careful, as you would be in the snow anyway.

 

I hear ya, thank you for all the responses everyone!

Today it so wonderfully snowed, and it sorta made me think a little bit more..do I want to put my car through all that cold and nastiness? It just makes me think extra this time around. Yeah winter tires would be fine, but I guess the question is "Do I have to?"

 

I drove one day when it snowed here in colorado... interesting to say the least... bascially had to start in 2nd gear all the time..even then the rear end wanted to jump out there and kiss the other cars

 

I've actually been thinking of what I should do to store my Z in the winter months. I would love to drive it on dry days because VA winters are mild, but I would consider garaging her from December to February.

 

The LM-22s work wonders in the snow and Ice. I went through the first winter with stock tires and holy ****. I love winters in Iowa but that was truly the first winter I wasn't sure I was going to make it through. Since the Z was new I couldn't find any freakin tires that winter so I just stuck it out and had to drive like a little old lady. With the Blizzaks I am asking the SUVs to get out of my way.

 

z sucks **** in the winter....sucks ****!