Well, last night we got about 2" of snow, so I finally got a chance to see how my snow tires do on the white stuff.

The verdict: barely adequate. Since the snow fall was rather light, many of the back roads had not been plowed. Going around corners at anything approaching normal speed, the tail would swing wide and the VDIM would make its presence known with a bleep bleep bleep. Backing out of a parking space, traction control reduced power to almost nothing, felt like a Yugo motor. Braking was the only bright spot, I only noticed the ABS kicking in on intentionally hard stops.

Don't get me wrong, when keeping my speed down I felt safe and in control, but this setup is nothing like what I had with my Audi. It's probably sufficient for New Jersey, where we only get a handful of significant storms each year.

The snow tires on my IS350 are Pirelli SnowSports in the stock size on the factory 18" rims. If I had it to drive this car in snow country, I'd definitely do the "-1" or even "-2" size tires on smaller winter wheels. It's not clear from reading the owners manual whether 205/55-16s would work. That's the size of the winter wheels/tires I had on my Audi S4, where the Pilot Alpins had traction like an SUV. I guess that on the Lexus, even with dedicated snows, 255mm is just too wide for first rate snow traction.

 

Well, like you've already figured out, the tires on the 350 are way too wide for really dealing with snow. That, and an AWD audi, even on all seasons, would eat it for breakfast.

My WRX rides on regular old all-seasons, and it's a monster. That being said, if you put the stock summer tires back on you wouldn't move at all. So overall, I'd say a RWD car with fat snow tires on it is probably performing about as I'd expect. Keep the speeds sane and you'll be ok.

I really wish I could keep my WRX around just for winters... it's a blast

 

I live in Canada and I have the base model IS.
Comes with 205/16/55 and I have snow tires on it toyos. And we get lots of snow. I have no problems and I have a very heavy foot. This car handels like its on rails. Very surprised for a rwd car. Anyways Im sure if you go a smaller tire you will be fine Iam.

 

I'm so happy with my 250AWD; it handles like it's on rails.

 

Same here. The little snow we did get, a couple inches, the 250 AWD handled just fine.

Cheers,
Kermee

 

If it ever gets here, my IS350 shouldn't ever have to trudge out in the cold snow.
I have the winter Jeep wrangler option, or the Dodge Ram 2500 4wd option , and the Mitsubishi Montero LS4wd option. Ol' IS will just watch the flakes fall. If it ever arrives.

 

Wow, I found the 350 sure-footed in the snow (18" LM 22s). In fact, it might be one of the most stable RWD cars that I have owned.

 

I think you're on the right track suspecting that tire width might be an issue. Might be time for some sand bags in the trunk.

Do people normally report good snow performance with this tire? I have Michelin PA2s on my FWD Mazda. They're somewhere in between a hardcore snow and an all-season, good for my needs. I actually went wider than stock, 205, because I'm not sure how much longer I'll have the car and didn't want to buy dedicated wheels. And they didn't offer my size. But I have no doubt that a narrower tire would also be much better in the snow in my case.

Of course, the most important thing is how the tires handle and brake, not how they accelerate.

 

It's the width. Any dedicated snow tire should deliver reasonable performance. But also keep in mind that people in different areas of the country are going to associate different things with "snow". In Michigan, you're probably talking about a nice thick white covering. What you want in those conditions is a narrow tire to get down towards the pavement where the grip is. The wider the tire, the more you're spreading the load of the car across the top of the snow where there's less grip.

 

As to the tires, you are right. Acceleration is not the key, it's the handling and the braking. I have the Blizzak LM-25's on the 18" wheels that came with the car and it handles fine, except when taking turns. Those have to be navigated very carefully.

Perhaps a smaller wheel/tire size would have been great, but I didn't want to go through the hassle of new wheels, moving the tire sensors, etc... In retrospect, it might have been worth it...

PS, Michael, you have a great site (www.truedelta.com)

 

Customer reviews on snow traction on Tire Rack site are mixed. The Pirellis weren't my first choice: I didn't get my IS until December and at that time the Tire Rack had sold out of Blizzaks and Dunlops for the season -- these were the only snows they had left in the stock size. The tires are "V" speed rated, quieter than any snow tire I've ever owned, and handle surprisingly well in the dry. No doubt this is one of those snow tires that trades some snow and ice grip for better performance in the dry. (Not necessarily a bad compromise for driving in this state)

Agreed, and thankfully braking performance wasn't that bad. I believe heffergm was on the mark when he said, "Keep the speeds sane and you'll be ok." However if I planned to take this car up to Vermont, New Hampshire and the Laurentians for skiing on a regular basis, I'd definitely be selling these and buying skinnier Blizzaks or Nokians on 16" wheels.

 

I was about to post a similar story, except worse. This Saturday, I drove up to Woodbury Common, an outlet shopping center about 45 miles north of NYC. The drive up there was no problem, but while I was there, a huge blizzard started. When it was time to leave, it had probably been snowing for 3-4 hrs. I used my navigation to locate the closest gas station, since I was almost out of gas. The route had me going up a fairly steep road, maybe 15 degrees, that hadn't been plowed, but had been driven over a lot.

Well, maybe a mile up the road, I started skidding out, so I braked and came to a complete stop. After that, I simply couldn't get the car going again. I tried turning TRAC on and off, using SNOW ECT and regular. Nothing would work. At this point I was nervous because my trip computer said I only had 8 miles range. What's worse, I couldn't just do a u-turn into the other lane and go back down the hill, because there was a barricade in the middle of the road.

So, what I ended up doing was backing down the road, on the shoulder, until the place where the barricade started. Meanwhile, tons and tons of cars are going up the hill with no problems. Everything from sedans to pick-ups to SUVs. A couple people stopped to ask if I needed a hand. I ended up backing to the end of the barricade, doing a u-turn in reverse into the other lane, and then driving down the rest of the hill, and finding another gas station.

I was extremely disappointed in the car and the tires. I have Continental ContiExtremeContact all-season tires. There was honestly not that much snow on the road. Maybe 2-3". Not one other car had a problem on this road.

After that, I drove home on the highway, and there I had no problems. In fact, I was able to go faster than a lot of the traffic on the road, and still feel in control. I think it was just the combination of the hill + not being plowed that did me in. But at the time, I was definitely thinking that I should have gone for that Audi S4 I almost got... Either that or the 250 AWD!

 

This last Saturday was the worst or should I say best test of the cars.
It started out as hail and then turned into sleet and later into snow.
A friend of ours came by our house and didn't know it was going to snow that day.
Around 9pm she tried to leave after it had been coming down for about 2 hours.
She had a Nissan Maxima with Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 (I believe).
There was a little incline in front of our house (about 5 degrees) and she couldn't move the car up the hill at all.
I suggested that she waits a little to either have the road plowed or have some more snow fall on the ground (instead of slush).
In about an hour the road still wasn't plowed but I decided to try to get her car up the hill.
I took it really slow and was barely able to get the car up.
We decided to follow her in my wife's VW Passat with Conti tires and while VW was able to make it up that hill, on the way back, we almost got stuck on the 15 degree incline. Again, the issue was slush. I finally made it back home by accelerating more at the bottom of the hill and using inertia and the little traction to take me to the top.
But I'm sure a lot of cars would have issues in slush...even snow tires.

 

all i can say is

even with snow chain it still feel really slippy. do not drive your ISrwd on snow if you don't

have snow tires or chains with you, period.

 

Here in Canada we usually see a fair bit of snow. I have the IS350 with Sport Pkg (18"), so for the winter I went with 17" rims and 225/45 on the front and 245/45 on the rear - Bliz. LM-25. Car handles great in the snow - better then my 2001 330ci that's for sure.