I have a set of Blizzak LM25s in the stock sizes on my original 18" wheels. I have encountered snow twice this winter and had no problems at all. I actually felt quite confident.

 

What size tires would you recommend for 18"?

 

I concur. My Pirelli snows in the original 18" size are barely adequate, and that's in a storm that only dropped 2". Tire Rack doesn't have 16" or 17" winter packages, but the dealer outght to be able to put something together. With the right wheels, you could run 205/55-16s -- IS Lover from Ontario (where they get lots of snow) reports in the thread I started yesterday that Toyo snows in that size on his IS350 make the car handle snow like it's on rails.

 

I didnt say that I was expecting the RWD car to drive through mountains of snow. I said the car was practially undriveable with some slush of snow on the ground.

The Snow tires that you think will be a miracle is not a replacement for a more suitable drive type. I just dont want to get the OPs hopes up.

 

AWD or FWD will get you going, but it won't help you stop. I've been reading Audiworld for the past six years, and EVERY winter I read a couple of stories from people who thought they'd be okay with AWD and summer tires, but were now asking for recommendations on a good body shop.

 

Yes, that is true, but the Drive type will help sure you maintain control while accelerating and turning. Which are also pretty important.

I would never recommend summer tires in the snow, but I also wouldnt suggest that RWD with snow tires will be as good as FWD with all seasons.

I also wouldnt suggest that FWD with snow tires would be as good as AWD with all seasons.

Basically, I am saying. Dont get your hopes too high. I doubt that the IS350 with winter tires will be as good as an Accord or Camry with all seasons. If that is what the OP was wondering.

 

do NOT drive your IS350 if you have stock tire and no chain.. you will not get out.

i just go back from Tahoe yesterday and it was snowing.... i can not even move out of my driveway. i see civic drive by with regular m/s tires...

i got chain and make sure you practice them on first before you go up there...

i'll post some pic later this week of how the chain look on the car...

 

if you live at a place with snow all the time.. get the awd and some snow tires.. you'll be good

 

Not true. A taller sidewall is a big benefit in a winter tire. Narrow is correct but a stiff short sidewall won't help any. I doubt a 16" wheel will clear the rotor/caliper so a 17" is probably the best bet.

 

FWD snow traction is an outdated claim. In the early FWD cars they were heavily weight biased to the front. Modern FWD cars have the weight more enenly distributed so the traction benefit is gone. If anything a modern FWD will be worse in the slick stuff. Two hypothetical cars. Both with 50/50 weight distribution. One FWD and one RWD. With the FWD when the drive tires lose traction and begin to slip you also lose steering control.

 

According to IS Lover (post #3 in this thread: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=196168) he has 16" wheels on his car. So with the right 16" wheels they should at least clear on a base IS250. (A quick check of lexus.ca shows that 16" wheels are standard from the factory on RWD IS250s in Canada) Wouldn't be surprised if the IS250AWD and IS350 have bigger rotors, so what you say may be true for those models.

 

Hmmm, maybe things have changed since the 90s. But not so certain. I thought the advantage of FWD is that you are pulling the cars weight, instead of pushing the weight.

In your Hypothetical. Yes, it is bad to lose traction on your drive tires, but not as bad as losing traction to the front tires in an RWD car. In an FWD car, the Front tires Warm up quicker which makes them less likely to lose traction. Also, when you lose traction in your front tire in an FWD car, you dont ususally spin out.

You will probably continue in the direction your car was going.

An RWD car is much worse. If your front tires lose traction, but the Rear tires still have power, then you will likely spin out.

 

A quick Google of some recent FWD reviews leads me to believe that the average weight bias for front drive cars these days is more like 60/40, not 50/50. For example, in our own marque, the Lexus ES330 is front biased 61/39. For the Acura TSX, it's 60/40 for the manual, and 61/39 for the automatic.

On your other point, I think it is actually worse if the rear wheels lose traction than the front. When the rear wheels let go, the car will oversteer, which is far less intuitive for an untrained driver to correct than understeer.

 

Our LS with the optional tire size of 245/45/18 with michelin All seasons wasnt what I was hoping for in the snow. I swapped back to the orginal wheels with the standard Dunlop 225/55/17s and it was a little better (tried both within a few hours of eachother on the same snowfall).

If your concerned about really treking through the snow then consider a GX or LX. If you just need to get around in the winter when its snowing, a good set of thin(tire width) All season tires or winter tires is the ticket. With a little extra weight in the trunk, a dead body works great, and decent tires that are designed for snow should be able to get your IS350 around. I think you should buy the IS350, i mean they do have plows in chicago right?

Snow driving puts a smile on my face...its fun.

 

Dumb question, but why does extra weight in the trunk help in snow driving?