lexi90

Hello CL community,

Today we had a bit of snow in CT and other states in the Northeast, so I had the chance to try the snow button for the first time. I was at one of my client's home and the driveway isn't paved (dirt only), so I tried the snow button to get out.

My review:

It makes the IS a snow bear! I didn't slipper around corners or turns. I kept decent acceleration 20-25 MPH. Went up a steep hill to get to my street - went up like nothing! I thought I'd be in trouble with the Bridgestones because of other owners' complaints/reviews about these tires, but they did the job

Share your thoughts about the Snow traction

Akrkwk

Take that snow drive feature out of my IS and put some better speakers or something else thats worth it for me ( reside in CA)

lexi90

Yeah, you don't need that in CA!

Lindenlea

We just had about 25 cm of snow here and so tried out the snow button today for the first time. You can't miss the amber Snow warning on your center cluster, and it seemed to work as it was supposed to- giving an even more sure footened feeling to the car. I am running Michelin PA4 snow tires,so that also helps when the white stuff is piling up. A nice feature that anyone in the snow zone will appreciate.

NebulaIS

are you guys using this at freeway speeds or just around the city? we get plenty of snow here but i haven't used this button much at all yet. have snow tires and haven't had any issues yet but if it's worth keeping in snow mode i'll check it out

Lindenlea

Just used it around town, where the streets have not been plowed yet.I can't see using it on the highway or roads that are cleared of fresh snow.

lexi90

Only on side streets and main roads. I don't think it's appropriate for the highway as I believe it's designed to be used under 30 MPH. I may be wrong on this - have to re-read the manual!

IFRPilot

Where in CT are you from? Am from the danbury area. Car did ok in the weather yesterday, did slip and slide as a result of my foot .Used to use the snow mode on my IS300 years back.. seemed to help a bit

lexi90

I'm in the East Haven/New Haven area. Is your car AWD? How did it slip and slide? You must have a heavy foot

IFRPilot

My better half lives up in torrington, temperature dropped a bit pretty quickly so it was turning to ice. Could feel it slippin around, Felt like it was biasing more towards RWD lol. Then again i had it in sport +

lexi90

Huh? What were you doing in Sport+ during snow time???

theoryguy3

I've used it two time last year never really seen it slip, however I felt the AWD system was competent enough on it's own. It came especially handy when I traveling on a some streets in NYC that hadn't been plowed in a a few days. I agree with Bloomberg when they call the IS my little luxury snow plow

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...ow-review.html

Aeromotive

RWD here on Blizzak WS80's and I barely needed snow mode. The Stability Control/Traction Control system does a great job at avoiding wheel spin and skidding.
I'd say take off the Snow Mode and give me electric sunshades for the back... For some reason I love those!

Antnie2418

I am from the Danbury as well. Me personally I had snow mode on the 2 gen and I hated it so much that I never even tried it on 3rd gen. Matter of fact if I am in a tough spot I take off traction control and lay the hammer down!!!

akshunj

I'm south of Boston. I found my 350 AWD to be a tank in the snow. Very stable with little slippage. The traction control only steps in if I get in the gas too hard from a dead stop even with the factory Turanzas. I just switched out my tires and the slippage is a little better.