So i'm planning to go to vegas next week in my IS350, and they've had the most snow in history. if i take it easy, will this be okay on my bridgestone summer tires?

also, the following week, i'm going to Big Bear mountain, which has a ton of snow and might require chains... has anyone tried this and is it doable as long as i drive slowly? i've never driven any car in snow before...

 

summer tires + snow = bad idea but can be done with precision driving. im sure by next week the wierd snow in LV will be gone.

 

i moved here from fl over a year ago and just this morning i wouldnt drive on it my car skid on ice and snowso i had to park on the side of the road . i live in seattle maybe its just my car but the snow and ice here even traction or the snow pwr switch kinda work and its very bad weather in downtown seattle the worst weather in 8 years

 

i have seasonal tires bought it couple months ago still good and with about 2 inches of ice they barly did anthing until i reach a cub and park it there . so i would use chains .

 

so it's sounding like ice is the really bad thing? if i'm only going to be on main highways, do you think i can do it? i will drive really slowly if necessary, but i just want to make sure i don't have to cancel my trips

 

Actually, it was the most snow they've had in I think 2 decades

 

Nope you CA guys have no idea Ice and snow is bad specially on summer tires, if you hit a small patch of ice during even the smallest maneuvers such as lane change you will spin out even doing like 40mph.

Also during large bank turns as well, some times ice are in large thin "invisible" sheets that spans the entire road surface and the result is you sliding across the whole road. This happened today by my school and some poor soul slid from 3 lanes across the road and into a concrete wall.

The thing with snow and ice is, it doesn't matter how slow you drive, even at 2 mph you can potentially slide out and crash.

You will need good tires, cuz when the car lets go, it lets go!

 

Rent a car! Don't even bother with it. You will definitely get stuck going up the mountain if you have summers.

 

You can you drive to big bear in your is350? Yes
Will you get their safely? depends.

RWD is terrible on rain. I just got my first rwd car and i lost traction 2 times, of course i got control back in less then 1 sec. Oh ya, did i mention i am from michigan and have a LOT of experience driving in snow and rain.

In short my advice, is try to find a different car. But if you cant find a different car, then i guess you have no choice but to go.

Also a big piece of advice is do not only drive slowly, but break slowly. Apply gentle pressure onto the breaks. IDK why but i see a lot of people here in california pump their brakes when its raining. DONT DO THAT. Gentle pressure. AND I MEAN GENTLE.

Not crashing your car is all about being able to stop and not losing traction

EDIT: thats for vages. I've never been to bear myself but if your going uphill, then ya your gonna be screwed.

 

Don't worry about Vegas now... All of the road around town are dry, but I can't speak for once you get out of the major areas.

 

rear wheel drive is fine if you know what you're doing and if you have the right tread and tire compound. people don't realize that you HAVE to have dedicated winter tires if you have a rwd car. hell i have dedicated winter tires on my evo (blizzak lm-22's) and it's clearly all wheel drive and made for crappy weather. but you should see the evo perform in snow with winter tires. it's awesome.. same thing with the is350...

i just drove my is350 through 50 miles of snow here in new jersey (you can check the weather channel to see how bad it is up here), and i didn't have much problem. sure it's slippery and you have to be cautious, but the traction control on the is350 is very good and cuts power quickly if it senses slippage. i even got it to beep at me today for the first time. only if you're going too fast into a turn can i see you sliding off the road with the is350. and you'd have to be going fast enough that it wouldn't matter what car you were in to crash.. even an evo or similar awd'er. rubber is rubber no matter what kind of cool electronics you have on the car like yaw control, vdim, etc.. just make sure not to go into a turn fast enough to make you lean in your seat and you should be fine. it's hard to explain, but make sure that you can't "feel" any g's when you drive around turns in the snow and you should be fine. brake before the turn and make sure you're slowed down enough before a turn. that's where it's probably most dangerous. straight lining it is easy because the is350 has a decent wheelbase.

do NOT even get close to snow in summer tires. just don't. i've laughed at people for doing that but it's not a laughing matter. it's very dangerous. you (not "you", but people in general) should assume that if you have a car that is "cool" enough to have summer tires in the first place, and you're in cold climate, you should just buy a performance winter set and chalk it up as the price of doing business. (or wait until it's not snowy in vegas anymore) i don't need to explain why because it should be fairly obvious with tire compounds and all. just look at f1 cars. they switch just for simple rain... now think about road cars not even switching for snow or ice which is much worse. quite dangerous... an extreme analogy is that it's like walking on ice with tennis shoes.. not really the right tool for the job. this is why im not a fan of all-season tires at all. i often say i'd rather drive a rear wheel drive car in the snow with performance winter tires than i would drive any 4x4 suv with all-seasons. i really mean that.

i've driven porsche 911's, which i consider to be one of the hardest cars to drive in the dry, in the snow... with dunlop winter sport m3's. no traction control. short wheelbase. 600 pound engine behind the rear axle to give it pendulum effect. i never had a problem. it was just a slightly stressful drive and i had to pay a lot of attention.

but it makes for a better driver..

be safe!

 

Depends on your tires. If you have the Dunlops... forget it!

Bridgestones Potenza's are better... but still not that great.

 

Not directly related to the OP's post, but I have a question.

Has any1 try Nokian WRG2 "all weather" tires? I am considering these for all-year-round tires. I am from Quebec, and had had good experience with Nokians.

I'd love to not swap the tires twice a year with excellent "all-weather" tires.

Is there any significant reason why IS350s have staggered tires other than the fact they help with surface area at the rear(more traction)? If there's no apparent reason other than that, I will be getting 4 225-40-18 tires, so that I can swap from and rear ones. When the time comes, I'd like to have those four tires wear out at a similar rate so that I can change them at the same time.

 

Ive had my 350 for two weeks now and can CONFIRM that depending on the temperatures you should/can not drive on summer tires in the snow... Depending on the temperature, its possible, but hella dangerous and nerve racking... If the temperature is below freezing, the compound which the summer tires is made of will technically freeze and you might as well be driving on slicks or steel blades...

I have Dunlop Sport Maxx "Max performance" summer tires and live in Colorado. We have experienced record lows the past week or so and my 350 was stranded in a church parking lot for the first part of the week because the side streets were snow packed and it was and average of 12 degrees...

Hope this helps...

 

I just got home from work. When I walked out to the parking lot, my IS350 was covered in thick snow, about 20cm of snow came down today. The lot was hardly shoveled, so I thought I can back out of my spot quickly if I give some gas. Boy was I wrong! The car didn't go anywhere! So I put on the snow mode and thought that should do it, right? Wrong again! The throttle wouldn't even go. Finally, when everything seemed to have failed, I decided to turn my VDIM off, just to see what would happen. So the car finally started to rev hard, and I was able to swerve in reverse out of my spot diagonally. All this happened with Bridgestone Blizzak LM-25 winter tires on!

Lesson: Don't go anywhere in the snow with your IS350 if you don't have to. Take another car if you can.