How well do these cars get around in winter? I have driven rwd cars in winter before and know how to get around however I'm a little nervous with the is350 its open differential.

 

after many winters in the midwest and mid atlantic, the choice in tires is far more important than the type of driveline you have... I run dedicated winter tires during those months and never have an issue arriving to work on time and getting where I need to go. well worth the investment IMO. An extra set of full wheels and tires can be a pain to store, but is easy to swap over when its time.

 

Winter tire is a much and snow mode if needed. For me when winter hit my IS350 will be park in garage.

 

I drove my is350 daily this past winter in chicago. At the time i had nearly new all season tires and they worked fine. As long as you're experienced with rwd in the snow then youll be fine.

 

Confident and dedicated snow tires you should be fine. If you have an 06 pedal dance to turn traction off to drive when snow on the ground not need if roads are plowed. If you have 07-up hold traction button for 5sec till traction light and vsc are disabled. I've driven 5 winter season with little to no issues. You just can't come to a dead stop on steep hill as it rwd and moments stop. This past January Boston area got hit with over 100 inches of snow and 350 did just fine with snow tires.

 

Agreed. I drove my 07 with all seasons for 1.5 winters and they worked out well. Just have to get used to it.

 

set of good snow tires and traction control fully off will do wonders... even if there is no snow, snow tires will perform better than summers or all seasons because it was design for cold temperature.. i have Blizzak LM32 they grip good in the cold and in the snow...
http://www.bridgestonetire.ca/tire/blizzak-lm-32

 

The car is nearly undrivable with standard summer performance tires in the snow. I found this out after my first year. The 2006 model also requires a pedal dance every time you get in the car to disable traction control. (or the car will shut off when it sees any slip, causing a very dangerous situation)

You will definitely want a good set of snow tires. After I picked up Blizzaks and learned the pedal dance, the car gets through the snow pretty well.

Source: Illinois driver with an 06 IS350

 

I drove my IS350 in Chicago on Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 tires and they were awful. Could barely move and was my rear-end was always slipping. When I got to Minneapolis I put on Bridgestone Blizzak LM-32 and handling was like 10x better.

I still struggled to move occasionally when my rear tires were on ice but it was way better than my all seasons.

 

Thanks. I had already planned on getting a set of winter tires for the car I just wasn't sure about the open diff and how the traction control behaves. Id prefer to use 17" rims for my winter tires, are there any special considerations when picking a set of 17" rims?

 

IS350 hav the bigger brakes so u might want to consider if the 17" will fit over your brake caliper...

 

Many, but not all 17" rims fit over the brakes on an IS350. The easiest way to get a set of 17" wheels that fit is to grab a set of OEM 17" from Craigslist/junkyard/ebay etc. That's what I did.

 

Traction off and stability off with winter tires

Did a Canadian winter with no problems

 

It is all on the type of tire for sure. My wife had issues with driving her 350 around and spun out in the middle of the intersection. she replaced them and has no problem now. of course if its black ice, that's just never going to work lol.