Just a comment: It was asked earlier if brand new summer tires would make a difference, and I have some personal experience. Less than 1 week old tires on my S2000 (Bridgestone Potenza RE-050, same as on the IS350) we had a "freak" snowstorm. Going 15mph, in a straight line, in gear with no throttle jerkiness, gust of wind hits the car and suddenly I've slid off the road, no damage and no harm done, but lesson learned. Never again.

 

keep summer new tires in the garage and put on the snow tires, then after winter put on the summer tires

 

I've got all-seasons on mine (Contis), and they make it drivable in the snow if you take things SLOW. I can only imagine how bad it is with the summer tires.

 

The only time I've had trouble driving in snow on my Contis was in the middle of a snow storm, going up an unplowed, steep hill. I couldn't make it and had to reverse down the hill (it was a divided highway, so I couldn't pull into the other lane, but fortunately there was a shoulder I could back down). Otherwise, my VDIM has kicked in a few times, but nothing I couldn't manage. It's still not a great drive in the snow, but it's decent, as long as you don't go too fast.

 

i was pretty much forced to put my winter tires on just the other day, seeing how long i could hold out. there were two days of misery with the summer tires but i do have to say the car has everything in place to try to help you get by with summer tires in the winter snow, it's just simply not enough and you get....stuck. snow tires make all the difference in the world.

 

I finally tried the car in snow today (I took the train during the real storm yesterday) and it was great.

The alley behind my garage was all frozen over this morning. The car backed out fine, and rolled right up the hill to the street without any slipping.

Out on the road, the side roads ranged from having a mushy cover to full cover. The best experience I had was taking a 90 degree right turn up hill. There was full snow cover and the car did not slide a bit. There was a Toyota 4wd pick up behind me that had a tough time staying on a line.

The LM 25 snow tires make a big difference and the VDIM stuff really does the job in snow.

My 17 year old took the car yesterday during the storm and mentioned that the car never lost any grip. He just noticed that a few times the friendly symbol lit up on the dash to remind him who was in control.

 

Diablo1...why did you sell your stock tires? winter=winter tires, summer=summer tires. If you buy your car in the winter, save your summer tires for the summer...don't sell them to someone on craigslist.

am i missing something?

i bought my car a week ago and i'm in MA. we got a snow storm today, but fortunately my family has an extra Tahoe lying around (Extra car due to grandfather passing) that i used today. I would not even attempt to use my 350 in the snow. I knew i would have to get winter tires. summer tires are horrible in the snow because they're not designed for it, and especially 255/40r/18's!!! the wider the tire, the worse in the snow. I'm planning on getting a whole new set of rims and winter tires next year. then i can just switch rims and not have the $100 change over fee before and after winter year in year out. and you can usually get almost the same price on a rim/tire package than just tires alone.

 

take off vdim

 

Had Ice Storm yesterday in MD.. and was happy enough to really test my IS250 AWD.. and I have nothing but good things to say... was really happy to see car back out from my parking lot in a split second when the rests were merely trying to get their RWD or FWD out..

Guess this is the only time you would wish you had a AWD...

BTW- I had to spend freaking 1hr to get my ES330 out from the lot this morning ... I had practically use a phlips screw driver and a hammer to cut break the hardened ice surrouding my rims and tires.. was in MI for over 5 years and have never did this..

Oh yeah .. just a tip.. if you guys are having problem getting your car out... Try this (turn off you VSC).. for some reason when I had my VSC on and the tires was slipping... it locks all the tires thus I am losing the energy.. so I turned it off and after a few more ice breaks.. I was good to go with the total spin power..

 

Same here, yesterday and today. No problems at all, even pulling out of a parking space over a mound of icy snow that a plow had piled behind my car. Playing around in an empty parking lot, I had no problem swinging the tail around (VDIM took notice with a beep-beep-beep), but driving sensibly all was good. (This is with Pirelli SnowSports on the stock 18" rims)

 

does anyone here use studded tires for the winter, with the is350?

I live in alaska where about 6-7 months is nothing but snow, im looking to buy a is350 and right now i have a 2001 mercedes c320 with studded tires and i get from (destination) A to B fine on main roads/neigborhoods driving in most cases under 50mph.... im asking this because i know that the is350 has more HP ... and i cant imagine any car faster than mine with rear wheel drive driving around in blizzards ?

Id say for about every 10 cars you see here on the highway, 6 are suv's/trucks/awd's .... which makes sense but **** i love rear wheel drive sedans/coups in the summers ................. im in the wrong damn state ...lol

Im not much of an suv/truck person, so it kinda sux, i mean the is250awd has like 204hp ? pshhhh hell no i cant do that =P lol

Can anyone tell me if there is350 in the winter when braking hard in neighborhoods or what not feel something dig into the ground to help stop ? Maybe theres a word for this feature, but i feel this on my benz and it helps a lot ?

 

Well........weather down here in KY has been pretty crazy. I mean, the other day we had about 3/4" of ICE on the streets. I got outside and thought I'd leave my IS350 w/ stock All-season tires home and drive my FWD Honda! BUT when I got outside, I could not open my Door because there was about 1/4" of ICE all over the car!

Finally, got into my IS350 and drove off to work! Safely reached work with just stock 17" All-season tires while crusing at about 65mph!

 

Careful... That symbol often times lights up to tell you who is OUT of control as well

 

Blizzaks really make a difference.

The drifting is also relatively controllable.
When u make a turn, turn the steering wheel first and pump some gas, the
tail should to slide to where you are turning. Although it beeps if you do this,but it gets the job done.

I am driving faster than 80% of the people here in western NY

 

I've slid a few times myself, I want to get snow tires but hell I don't really drive that much to care....plus the noise level would rise from the tires on those non snow days......(still knocking on wood)........