actually, i just did a search, this topic has been covered. sorry. I racked up 700 miles on my IS350 just today and now i'm flooring it left and right, well not really, but something like that. So i was just wondering about the POWER and SNOW modes.
I read the manual, but it didn't really go into the specifics of what these modes do. Does anyone know what the car really does when we Switch the POWER ECT on and switch the SNOW mode on? thanks

 

I run in power mode and I know for sure that it is a lot more aggressive with the gears. It keeps you at higher RPM by shifting a lot sooner during accel and braking.

 

And snow mode starts you in higher gear (second in the RX, not sure if it is second or third in the IS) and keeps RPMs low to avoid unnecessary wheel spin.

 

Did you mean it shifts later to keep you in a higher RPM?

 

don't you mean shifting later?

 

I think he ment when you are cruising along and step on the gas the car downshifts faster.

 

when you turn those on, it is telling your car to eat more gas.

 

That's right in the RX, SNOW puts you in second.

When I run my RX at the track (check my homepage if you don't believe me), I leave the PWR button on. That PWR button is good for at least .1 to.2 faster in the 1/4 mile.

 

I noticed when you have it on POWER, it seems to let the engine rev a little higher before shifting. The downshifts are a lot more noticable as well when you have it in this setting. It shifts (at least downshifts) a lot more aggressively.

 

I´ve seen the snow-button in an IS 250 with manual transmission, in´t that a bit strange?

 

No, it's not. The SNOW setting affects traction control as well as, on the automatic, shifting.

 

From what I can tell on my wife's SportCross, a big part of what Snow Mode does is adjust the throttle characteristics, which would be completely independent of the transmission. I.e., you have to press the pedal down a lot more to get the equivalent amount of throttle. This gives you a lot more control in how much torque gets applied to the wheels, which is critical in low traction situations.