MattyG

I put on my winter tires and rims today. It's going to be my first winter with this car. The rims and tires came with it. AST 17's and Toyo Garrits. Noisy tires, but one thing I've learned is you need good winter tires for any fwd/rwd car.

Ava92

iTrader: (3)

Looking good. Hey I am in AB too! Didn't put my OEM wheels back on yet though. I think i left it too late. Be careful and watch out for people sliding into you.

DosyBoy

iTrader: (1)

I took my 19" off already...My stocks got new tires and I plasti dipped them to protect them this winter, I daily my car so about twice a week I wash it to get the salt off...

MattyG

Cool ride Ava92. You might be okay for a couple of weekends, but you know how it works with the tire shops right? They get slammed the minute we get the "big one". I actually wanted to slap these on a week ago but couldn't get to it. Had to wait 4 hours just to get them on today.

Ava92

iTrader: (3)

I hate salt man!


Debating just storing it for the winter.. so scared of the Calgary drivers! Your paint really is flawless your car looks brand new. I haven't seen many rolling around in that colour here that I can recall.

MattyG

It's funny I actually bought it in Calgary this summer, from someone who was likely the third owner. It's a U.S. import that came up in 2006. Has the usual nose pitting on top of the grill from being driven around these parts.

I don't blame you Ava92. Those Calgary drivers are complete idiots. That's why these cars are good for flicking a tailgater off your back end fairly quickly.

I think in the worse of the winter, I probably won't risk running it. Park it and use my company awd.

egs21

Matty, do you break off the regular tires off those same wheels? Or are those winter tires on an extra set of wheels? I'm considering getting winter tires for my GS (this year will be my first winter with the car). Wondering if it is worth it to buy an extra set of wheels for the winter tires....?

DosyBoy

iTrader: (1)

I run high performance all weathers and never got stuck, just take vsc off if u do and gun it lol

MattyG

I got lucky because my previous owner actually had a separate winter wheel/tire setup.

I think he made a mistake because these AST's look better than the factory chrome bling. They make the car look smaller and fill the wheel well better.

But anyway, I prefer to have separate winter/summer wheel tire packages. Otherwise you gotta keep going back to the tire shop and redo all the mounting balancing stuff and that's just trouble waiting, when a shop screws it up.

It cost me just 33 bucks to get the winter setup mounted and for the summer wheels/tires to come off and that included dismounting the front two tires because they were worn.

tn96dc

iTrader: (7)

The first wheels look like LS meshes.... A Honda person will know what I'm talking about :-P

Lolrax

What's up Calgarians!! I am here too, just bought a used GX460 and threw some blizzak dm-v1s on it. I never ever risk it in winter. Do any of you know a good place for service outside of the dealer that focuses on Lexus?

AirRideFan

iTrader: (1)

OP ...MattyG! Car looks nice man... We have the EXACT same (appearance-wise, at least) GS, except you have the Gold Package, and mine doesn't. I just got a set of Sport Edition (KV5's!) whees & wrapped them with some Blizzak's- Size is 225/40/19! hahah... Now I can run 19's in the summer AND the winter. ; )

Also- Ava92....You car looks AMAZING! How's it lowered? Drop springs? Funny enough, my summer wheels are ALSO AME's! (I have the Shallen CX!) Yours are another variation of the "Shallen" rims, by AME, or Schrift, right? LOOKS DOPE though man!

As soon as I get a change to jack my car up and remove the stockers and put the new winter 19's on- I'll add a pic !

MattyG

That's an interesting setup AirRide. Can you update us when you get the 19's mounted? I want to find out if the bigger wheels affect ride significantly. And yeah, I'd love to see "my car' with your 19's

Next year I might go to 19's for the summer setup because they definitely give you a handling and appearance upgrade.

Ava92

iTrader: (3)

TYTY, it is on coilovers, the wheels are Rays Lexion which i believe is another name for the AME shallen. Or the design is shared anyway.

Winter 19s? That sounds cool, and expensive. that will stand out for sure

I have seen "my car" on this forum as well LOL, it's funny to see a clone of your car in different surroundings.

MattyG

Finally got a chance to update my GS. These pics are from two weeks ago. A lot of this melted already.

So it hasn't had much of a winter test, but what little I've seen of the GS has been great! Snow mode definitely works. It does dull the fun but it gets you started and after that the car just goes fine.

I love the fact that you can slide this car around a little bit. Nose going to the outside of the turn? Let off the gas and the tail comes around and tucks everything back in. But don't do any of this at high speed.

Back end getting a little out of control? Either let off the gas or add some throttle depending on what's happening. Way more controllable than a lot of fwd/awd vehicles I've driven.

Off the line in wet/slushy but non-ice/snow conditions this car definitely takes off quickly. You can switch off the VSC briefly to do this and switch it back on.

I would have chosen Blizzaks or X-ice tires myself, but the previous owner threw in Garritts when I bought it, which I'm impressed with - they are just noisy, noisy and noisy.