GregCanada

I just took out the AWD GS for spin in the fluffy stuff with 225/50/17 Blizzak WS80's installed. It TEARS. I floored it without an ounce of wheel spin. Tried snow mode, it basically depressed the accelerator slower, (not needed with these tires, i could see it useful on RWD). Braking and turning was fantastic (low speeds), by far the best car I've driven in light snow. They inspire confidence. More planted than my old celica alltrac with michelin X-ice2's. Better braking performance than goodyear ice WRT's as well.

Now on dry road, there is definitely more noise than the stock MXM4's - but it isn't terrible. Still leagues quieter than the runflats in my boss' jaguar. They just give a slight hum. Low speed handling is still good (the sticky compound must help) but high speed maneuvering felt more "floaty" / not nearly as sharp. Nonetheless, I will take that compromise for the snow/ice traction the tires produce.

BTW i did not get TPMS installed - they did not have them in stock. After 20 minutes of driving the light in the dash flashes for a minute and then stays lit. It's about as annoying as the headlight indicator. I will just drive it as-is and check tire pressure like the good ol' days. Since i store the stock tires near the GS, it reads them and puts the light out.

tknx

There is a ton of research on this but basically this seems to be about how it pans out:

Best
AWD with winters
FWD with winters
AWD with all-seasons roughly equal to RWD with winters
FWD with all-seasons
RWD with all-seasons
Worst

GregCanada

I will just change one thing, because an AWD with all-seasons will not brake or steer like a RWD with winters. acceleration will likely be similar though.

ZbynekZ

Exactly!

Afrosheen

Naw, absolute worst is RWD with summer tires. They harden up and are terrifyingly slippery. I remember last winter, it snowed and iced here for a few days. I ventured out once with probably 2 inches of snow on the ground. Barely creeping in snow mode, car just decides to pirouette 90 degrees to the right for fun as I carefully steer into a left turn. This was maybe 3mph. I did countersteer and it straightened up but it scared the bejeezus out of me for 5 seconds.

tknx

I didn't include summer tires since well... Let's just say I am glad you aren't up for a Darwin award

FishBike

The good thing about using summer tires in the winter is you will never hear any tire noise. The screams of the driver will drown it out.

zicogold

So I am in the market for winter tires and will take the collective advice, here and look for Blizzak LM-32s.

flippd

So what exactly does snow mode do?

bclexus

The transmission starts the car moving in 2nd gear instead of 1st gear. The higher gear reduces the torque to the rear wheels to reduce wheel spin.

99alta

Excuse my ignorance but can't you just hit the TPS reset button under the dash when you change to your winter gear?

I learned the hard way the stock Michelins are terrible on icy roads.
Just drove my brand new GS AWD after a snow storm. Going slow around a corner, touched the gas and the *** end promptly kicked out and into a curb! Costing me a new wheel and bearing

Bought a new set of wheels and mounted Michelin Ice-X 3's. WOW what a difference! Now VSC actually has a chance of keeping that back end planted.

Having driven FWD's and true AWD's or 4x4 most of my life, I find Lexus's implementation to be poor choice for winter driving. Main reason being the 70/30 rear/front split drive characteristics. I realize the implenation allows for a temporary 50/50 split via a clutch pack, but in my limted experience the *** end still wants to kick out. Sure in a straight line it's going to help a lot. But otherwise it's best to drive it like a RWD during winter conditions.

Oh and snow mode really does work well when driving around town!

FishBike

Sadly not. While it has 'auto-locate' meaning it figures out which sensor is at which corner of the car, it doesn't have 'auto-learn' where it will pick up entirely new sensors on its own. If you get a second set of wheels with TPMS sensors, the codes for them must be manually programmed with TechStream or equivalent. Older GSes could remember two sets of TPMS sensor codes but the 4GS only has memory for 1 set.

99alta

Thanks for the clear explanation!

So you MUST go to the Lexus dealer to rotate your tires due to the TPMS sensors?

Or is the TechStream tool ( or some other ) available to all tire shops? And are most tire dealers apt to have one available?

FishBike

The equipment for programming TPMS sensor codes isn't limited to the Lexus dealers. Anyone can buy the TechStream hardware and software directly from Toyota (for a lot of $$$) or get the hardware from eBay and the software from... let's just say "the Internet". There are also non-Toyota programming tools that I think should be able to do it, intended mainly for tire shops to buy (though there was one that was marketed towards consumers even). I think recently somebody even asked the Carista guys if they could add that feature to their app.

Another option is TPMS sensors that support cloning the existing ones, so that they use the exact same codes and you don't have to reprogram anything. Not sure how well those work, nor what happens if you leave the other set of wheels in your garage within receiving range.

Anyway there are options besides going to the Lexus dealer twice a year. I'm still figuring out what I want to do as far as a second set of wheels, so don't have that problem to solve just yet. I likely will this spring though.

Edit: and of course there's also the option of Toyota/Lexus warning light reset tool ETB-25MM (also known as 1 inch of electrical tape, black, covering up the warning light).

SNiiP3R

iTrader: (3)

GS and Lexus in general does not have a good AWD system. It does ok in the snow, but nothing to rave about. RWD with winter tires gets through the snow just as good. Which is why I'm not too sure why Lexus is trying to shove their AWD down our throats here in the East or folks up North. I sure did not buy a Lexus for their AWD, If I wanted a good snowmobile I would probably get an Acura or Audi.