As winter approaches in the KC area, this will be my first full winter where there actually is snow. Spent most of the time in Texas with a brief stint in Southeast Lower Alabama - neither of which has much cold let alone snow. This is also the first time in quite a while that I've had a rear wheel drive car (IS 350 C) versus a front or awd car. Any tips?

Should I invest in some snow tires? Will the snow mode be sufficient?

BTW, my Mini handled the winter fine last winter - only one day on one hill that it balked at.

 

i dont have any personal exp. but from reading alot of people experiences on this forum, i think with a good set of snow tires you should be fine. and yes set it in snow mode, i use snow mode anytime where the groups are slippery (ex: when it first starts to rain)

 

im gonna live dangerously this winter and drive around on my summer tires

 

sure, rub it in llamaboiz - but how do your summer tires work on lava there in the land of volcanos huh huh jk

 

rock on llamaboiz lol

 

im getting my snow tires put on tomorrow. costing me $900... i want all season tires but dont know how they would perform in the snow. does snow tires make your car slower than summer tires?

 

Definitely you will need winter tires and use snow mode. I was caught in a rare snow storm (happened maybe once a year in the Seattle area) and the OEM summer tires on my 06 IS350 were completely useless - sliding all over the place. Using snow mode, I just barely made it to a safe parking area to abandon ship - The roads/freeways were filled with abandon cars and closures so to continue would have made no sense.

 

No, they don't make the car slower (assuming they're the same size as stock) since they don't change the gearing or power output of the vehicle... they won't handle as well on dry, warm roads... but they'll actually make the car driveable in cold wet snowy roads.

And yes, get snow tires. (not all seasons, but SNOW tires.)

 

i have a question, why are you worried about slower performance in the snow? aren't you supposed to drive slower when its snowing in the first place?

 

he wants to snow rally like travis pastrana?

 

I am still running summer tires and its getting cooooldd here in seattle.

 

i drive my IS350 year round on nokian all-seasons in calgary. this includes 2 hours of mountain driving every weekend to get to the ski hill in the winter. i have never had a problem... in fact, i got rid of my x5 because the IS did so well.

 

just by relying on snow mode will still get u no where on snow. snow tire is a must.

 

Sorry to bring this back from a month of hibernation, but while everyone else in the north has been driving in some shaky weather, I'm still in the 85 degree weather of Florida. That wasn't an intentional statement made to rub in anyones face since I'll be joining the horrible weather in Pittsburgh within the next couple of weeks.

A couple of months ago, I bought an 09 IS250. In Florida, it's great to have summer tires..in Pennsylvania, you're an idiot [unless you only had summer tires on your summer wheels, which was my setup on my old car.] Unfortunately I only have the summer tires, from what the dealership told me, on my IS250 and I'll be making my way up to Pittsburgh soon. My last car was FWD, lowered pretty much on the ground, front and rear lips, and in the winter I had 16" winter wheel/tires on it. Granted the tread on the tires were not the best after a couple of seasons, I was still able to make it successfully around the mountains, in and out of the snow.

Driving a rear wheel drive vehicle in the snow is very different, and then if that wasnt enough, slap on the summer tires and I'm ready to crash right?

What exactly is the best way to go about this, I will only be up there for a couple of weeks, so winter tires don't even make sense to me. If it snows, should I just leave it and not even drive? Is it going to be possible to even maneuver around? Has anyone driven in the snow in this setup and has any suggestions? anything helps, really.

Also, is the snow 'option' button going to even do anything for a car with summer tires on it, even if they're all-seasons, its not like it can transform the tires to become skinnier..thatd be neat.

Thanks in advance!

 

two weeks, chances are you'll be fine. if the forecast is bad, don't drive. the best form of risk management in this case is risk avoidance.

i drive in chicago with all-season tires, and the rear end never comes out. i feel really safe. i have no idea what all the hubbub is about with snow tires. total waste of money in my opinion.

as to the snow button, i use it, but i don't really notice a difference

i drove for a few weeks with summer tires on in the winter. you're definitely slipping even going 15 mph. i only drove 10 miles on flat roads with about 2 inches of snow. i'll never do it again.