BMW 330xi and MB C350 4 matic offer staggered tires. Since they, like the IS are rear wheel drive biased, why does Lexus not allow staggering the AWD version? I think I have decided to play it safe and not stagger or upsize the wheel but I am still baffled as to why MB and BMW are OK with it and Lexus does not allow it. Anyone know why?

 

im guessing it has to do something with the act that it is a AWD

 

you can have a staggered setup on AWD as long as OD of tires is same in front and back. do a search on AWD staggered and you'll get answers. i just got 19s 8.5 front and 9.5 in rears and its running fine. another CL member, chickenboy, also has AWD staggered.

 

you are going to induce more understeer by having more grip on the back, AWD systems already have some understeer

 

Most cars wear out their tires unevenly from front to back. By not staggering, the owner will most likely rotate their tires more often and more effectively (cross, x, front to back) if the tires aren't uni directional.

 

but un direconal tires have a better ride imo

 

I would get unidirectional performance tires w/or w/o stagger.

What do you mean by better ride? Handling, comfort or noise?

 

I have seen those posts. Obviously people are free to put anything on their cars, even cartwheels if they so choose. However, lack of any obvious or perceived short-term effect does not mean that it is a workable solution. You don't know what it does to the drivetrain over thousands of miles. You don't know about emergency handling etc. and you won't until you run into an extreme problem.

My guess is Lexus has a technical concern that may not be immediately obvious to the "staggering public". So my question is why Lexus does not allow staggered setup on AWD IS as an OE option? I doubt it is to allow for rotating the tires because obviously they are not concerned about lack of that in the RWD version. What could possibly be the technical concern about this setup that MB and BMW doesn't seem to share in their AWD sedans? I think the understeer issue could be one possibleexplanation. Any other thoughts?

 

the amuse acura RL is all wheel drive but they have different rim size from and back. But they do run all four the same size tires.

 

Four identical snow tires seems to make more sense to me.