Mine has the 18-inch wheels with the stock Michelins.

I had thought that you couldn't get much stuck to the inside of the wheels, because it would get knocked off by the brake calipers. Is this not so?

 

If you are driving slow (< 5mph) and it is heavy and thick snow, it sticks to the inside of the rims just fine!

 

Stock 18" Michelins on mine.

 

yeah I was having the same problem...i knew everything was fine..but was just annoying to drive with that so i removed the snow from the wells and it was fine!

 

Got rid of the stock 18" Goodyear RSA's (which were bloody awful) and put on Michlin rubber. Have run our mountain passes several times this year and the Michlins have performed very well.

 

I have snow tires and an emergency kit because you just never know. We get strong west winds that picks up snow from farms and whiteouts/drifting with lake-effect snows on west side of Lake Huron can just happen.
My experience was driving Feb. 3rd north to Southampton at dusk.
There were places where others stuck in drifts already and most had cell phones and were waiting for help to arrive. I had promised my wife I'd call when I got home and this perhaps was a commitment I should not have made.
The whiteouts got so bad I was at a crawl with only peripheral brightness of HID's showing where plough lines were on either side. If anyone was coming south, it could have been an accident but there were patches when I could see and so kept going North. I got home, taking an extra hour, but we have long range forecasters saying lookout for more of these with climat change and warmer waters. Was I scared? Sure. Would I have done everything the same again. No, I should have headed into a farmhouse and stayed.
Have I become adamant about Lexus informing us about best practises getting unstuck, in light of VSC OFF button on newer 2008's? See my threads. The RX350 with winter tires was fully capable but I would have been upset had I tried rocking vehicle out of one of drifts I drove thru' that night and experienced depowering for first time. I might have been the 1 in a thousand that just did not have enough wheel power to get unstuck and removing the fuse might have been very significant info. for me.
I am enjoying vehicle.

 

If that feature was so important to you, why did you buy the car? Since it is available in 2wd only, there is probably a technical reason why you can not switch it off with awd, something like your tranny falling out.

 

To Biff44: The 4WD 2008 RX350 has this switch. I bought best vehicle prior to winter for my wife without being aware this improvement coming. It has been since my research into this that I applaud it's introduction. I just think it could have been communicated in a proactive fashion so that us snowbelt people are fully aware best practises.