jeffw

Hello,

I have my eyes on a 2004 or 2005 CPO RX 330 and was doing a bit of research on Winter tires and possible replacement tires for the OEMs (17") at the Tire Rack.

Seems like the choices are more limited than with passenger car tires that are thinner and have a different aspect ratio. I would like to have all seasons that do well in the rain, and also have a set of dedicated winter performance tires.

Any tire recommendations? Thanks in advance.

jfelbab

Visit TireRack.com.

Check out the Bridgestone Dueler Alenza. They are head and shoulders ahead in the ratings and have a $75 rebate on a set of 4 right now.

The Goodyear Fortera TripleTred also looks interesting but they are unrated so far.

tfischer

I don't know what "winter performance tires" are; that sounds like a contradiction in terms to me.

I just bought an '04 RX330 CPO, and the dealer replaced the original (18") tires with Michelin 4 season M&S, which seems to be a pretty widly used tire for this car. With 4 wheel drive I would not think you would need dedicated winter tires, unless you live up in the mountains.

I had a brief chance to drive the car in a few inches of snow, and it performed like my old Jeep Wrangler, so I am quite confident that I can deal with any winter weather that we get in Southern Ohio.

I'd look at some basic four season tires. The car is too big for "performance tires" because, although it handles nicely (much more nicely than I thought it would), it's not something you want to throw around corners, and with AWD, for most uses you would not need full fledged "winter tires."

darksparkz

iTrader: (1)

Driving with dedicated snow tires is quite a noticeable difference then regular all season ones. You do feel quite a bit of grip, almost feels perfect with awd on your RX. By having dedicated winter tires, you can get dedicated summer tires too, that way you'd have the best tires for each season.

But on the other hand, that is quite annoying and space consuming to switch tires out twice a year. I've looked at tire rack and there aren't that many good tires for the size of tire for the RX330, I'd recommend the Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza.

tfischer

With dedicated winter tires you have more grip in the snow due to the deep grooves in the tires, (I had this on a Jeep Wrangler for a few years, and it's quite the blast going through the snow), but they provide less grip on dry pavement due to less rubber touching the road. For this reason, dedicated snow tires make the most sense for areas where there is snow on the ground for a good part of the winter.

Since I have far more dry days than snow days, and since AWD does a great job in anything up to a couple inches of snow, I'd rather have the safety of more grip during the 98% of the year when there is no snow actually on the pavement, especially as the AWD gets me through the 2% as well. (Actually, FWD gets most people through average snow without a lot of problems.)

If I lived in Aspen or Lake Placid, I'd get snow tires, even on an AWD vehicle.

For this reason also, Lexus sells almost no FWD RXs in the North and Northeast, and sells fewer AWDs in the south part of the country. I've had two dealers tell me that in Ohio almost all of their RXs in the last 6 years have been AWD.

DakotaRX

I have the RX330 TC AWD that came with 18" Michelin tires and after going thru a ND winter I found no real traction problems with them. I had a 98 GS300 that I put Blizzaks on but that is a RWD. The ones I had were the WS-50 which are just the standard Blizzak and not a performance winter tire. The WS-50 was the recommended tire for the the GS300 by both my Bridgestone dealer and Tire Rack. The tire size on that was 215R60-16 and the performance ones also came in that size, but higher priced of course. I think the tread pattern was a little different but I think it also had to due with speed rating. The WS is like a Q rated which is just for standard highway driving at normal speeds and not like the S & T rated higher speeds. But back to the standard all season on the RX which has the M&S marking on the sidewall, that will work for most winter weather. If you have heavy snows and have a lot of compacted snow and ice conditions on the road then maybe a true winter tire would be the way to go as winter tires are made to grip the ice and compacted snow much better than a conventional all season M&S tire. When we get the really bad winter conditions with heavy snow (4-8 inches at one shot) with blowing snow and poor visibility I go with my SportTrac which is a true 4 wheel drive and has Wrangler RT/S tires with much more grip for heavy snow. But at the same time get them on compacted snow and icy roads and they probably don't work as well as the RX AWD with regular M&S tires. Also if you go with winter tires you will want to have them on their own rims which by the time you do that you can easily spend over a $1000. for tires and rims. But having them on their own rim saves mounting and balancing charges, wear and tear on the rims with changes all the time and you can just change them over yourself at home.

jeffw

Good responses guys. The "Winter Performance" type tire I was thinking about was something like the Bridgestone Blizzak LM-18. I believe that the term "Performance" refers to better handling on dry roads (at the expense of some ice/snow capabilities).

Most of the time I would be driving in Reno, NV (moving there next year) which has about 24" per year of snowfall and probably a little ice. However, driving the mountain pass to California takes one through the Donner pass, which gets many feet of snow, though they keep the roads clear pretty well. In CA, nothing but rain and dry pavement.

Sounds like I might get by fine with all seasons. Snows would allow me to cruise through the pass without chaining up - nice not to have to. Anyway, your experiences provide some good insights since I only have experience with sedans and this would be my first SUV type vehicle. My driving style in the snow is conservative/defensive. Too many yahoos out there speeding around.

Tammy

It's best to keep the tire sizing matching with the AWD.
I mean that if you pick up a nail in a sidewall and the tire needs replacing, you will need to consider replacing all four to maintain the exact diameter of all four.

This was my consideration when purchasing the Goodyears at $75 each or the Michelin at $150 each. I treat the tires as expendables, and four are replaced at one time.

One additional consideration, chains won't fit the rear. The base of the strut is too close to tire. Only the front tires have clearance.

Todd

I started out looking at low mileage CPO's. I quiclly came to the realization that for just a little more, and I mean less than $1000, I could get a brand new one which is what I did. I was able to get an 06 at invoice. At least on a new one you have an easier time coming up with the "value", on a CPO there is more haggling to do. Also, many people just walk in and assume that a CPO is cheaper and take the bait.

The key to what i said was that I was shopping for a low mileage (16,000 miles or less) CPO, higher mileage vehicles obviously change the situation. Another opinion which I think is supported by all the posts on this board is that you should only consider an 05 or above. Transmissions are an issue on pre 04's, 04 was a new year with a few issues therefore 05 and above seems to be a safer bet.

Just my two cents worth.

tfischer

The "pre-'04s" were RX300s.
The 04, 05 and 06 models are RX330s, with a different engine and different transmission.
The '07s are 350s with a slightly different (larger) engine and I don't know if the transmission is different (both are 5 speed, but the 04 has a different final drive ratio from the 07).

I started out looking for a nice used 300, but liked the 330 much better, and wound up with an 04 CPO, but not with very low miles (about 40,000 after 3 years). I have not noticed any transmission problems yet -- it shifts pretty smoothly, both from a stop and during speed shifts.

The '04s with some miles brought the cost down for me, plus the NAV system, which I wanted (and which is fairly rare on the '04), uses the same data disc as my '02 SC, so that's a bit of a savings for me also (the '05 and beyond use a different data disc), and I still have one more year of full warranty, and two after that of the less comprehensive COP warranty.

I have not driven a 350 yet, but I hear that it's a little bit peppier and a little bit quieter. For the time being, I'm quite happy with my 330, upon which I do not put many miles. I anticipate that it will last many years for me.

As for the tires, which is the point here, the dealer put on new Michelins M&S (this car has the 18" wheels), and they seem just right for this car. In the one day (few hours, actually) of snow since I got the car, it handled the snow very, very well, and it holds the dry road very well also.