I am considering a 2010 GS 350 AWD. I was wondering how they are in snow. Also, does anyone have the smoky granite with the gray interior? Or has anyone ever seen it? I do not care for the red wood they put in the black interiors but then I;m not sure I actually like the gray wood either.
Thanks

 

Better than a non AWD in the snow, but anybody will tell you that your snow performance is mostly up to the tires you put on any car. AWD will help with certain traction situations and greatly reduce your chances of getting stuck in a ditch or sliding climbing steep icy hills.

AWD pretty much drives a lot like a RWD when traction is good, by default the car puts 70% of the power to the rear wheels and only adjusts that up to 50/50 based on traction at the four wheels.

 

^^^^^What he said .....^^^^^

 

tires tires tires

 

Yes, I know that the tires are extremely important and that they most likely will have to be changed out to a more aggressive tread but I was actually wondering if, with the proper tires, is the GS 350 good or adequate?

 

I think the maple colored wood is more common so I went with the birds eye maple ( grey wood). When I first saw it it looked like it was custom

 

The gray interior with the Dark BirdsEye Maple (dark gray wood) is a really nice finish. I think it is the best looking of the GS interiors.

It looks stunning on Gray and Dark Blue GSs.

 

They don't offer any maple wood other than gray in the 2010 gray interior of the GS 350. I think that is a huge mistake. Our RX350 has gray with maple and it is gorgeous. What were they thinking???

 

I've had no problems with my AWD even in really slick snowstorms (only had a few this year here) and I don't even have snow tires on this year. I'm just using some "average" Michelin Pilot MXM4s for the moment. I never felt like the car was out of control and only slid around slightly a few times and the trac/vsc light normally even stays off. Only times I slid a bit were making very sharp turns while accelerating.

Will probably bite the bullet and replace the Michelin's with snows next year if I can get over the "waste" of not wearing out the current tires. Not sure if I'll be able to sell them, I definitely don't really even have anywhere to store them right now but we might sell the condo and move into a house by next winter.

Overall I've been very happy with the snow traction I'm getting out of the GS AWD but I'm coming from a FWD Matrix XRS with no torque which required really spooling the engine up to get going (and I never had snow tires on that one either). The GS probably weighs a good 800lbs more than that Matrix did too. Snow mode does help in making the car more predictable when accelerating without having to baby the accelerator pedal.

Also for what it's worth I have the black interior with cherry wood and I think it looks great. I don't really like the two-toned interiors much. They grey wood doesn't even look like wood to me, it looks like a plastic approximation of it to my eyes.

 

Turning at 80mph on a snowy road, doesn't matter what tires you have U will end up in the ditch.

Mostly it's the driver and his/her decision make the most different, AWD helps a bit, and the tires helps a tiny more, and than the traction control help a very very tiny bit.

 

I beg to differ. Tires do make a difference. You can have decent all season tires like Michelins or put on some nice snow/winter tires. With winter tires, you can make a 90 degree turn to another road at an intersection with alot of snow at 35-40 mph and not skid into a ditch. Its proven and I have experience that before even on RWD cars. Tirerack has a good movie on how good a BMW can perform a quick turn with snow tires as opposed to a BMW with all season tires in the snow.

 

ZMC, I noticed you live in PA. I do too. I have had my GS for 2 winters and routinely drive from the Pittsburgh area through southern tip of the snow belt (up 79) and into Oil City. I also make occasional trips to Meadville, which is in the snow belt. In addition, I have what my friends call the "driveway from hell". It is steep and long and if you lose traction, you're in trouble. Long story short, my GS with Blizzaks has handled anything that I've come across yet. I suspect that if I was in Meadville for their more significant snowfalls, ground clearance would become an issue but if ground clearance isn't an issue, the GS is a fine winter car. My Subaru is more stable (also with Blizzaks) in the snow but I think that's to be expected.

 

Spoken like a true Floridian who has never driven on snow tires.

 

Tires and drivers make the most difference. Probably something like this:

AWD + snow tires >> RWD + snow tires > AWD + summer tires >> RWD + summer tires.

Good driver + RWD + summer tires >> Idiotic driver + AWD + snow tires

 

When U get into accident, the car doesn't get ticket, the tires doesn't get ticket... it's the driver that get ticket... guess why that is!

The snow tires does help but you don't know how far you can push before losing control. So it is down to the driver to drive slowly and safely, make the call that you cannot drive up that ramp and go a different route than try and lose control of the car.

FL is where I want to be... but I live in MD and this winter is my first time driving my GS in the snow. RWD too and the traction control pop up more than I would like but I know I won't lose control b/c I was going very slow.