kurleedadd

Subaru or any AWD vehicle is still dependent on the right tires. I have owned 2 modded WRX's and I can tell you from experience, summer tires do not work very well in even light snow.

Lexus makes cars/vehicles for the normal consumer. Not for the adventurous or sport enthusiast. I was very surprised that my RX did much better in the snow than I had read on regular M+S tires.

lexus114

i find all of this sort of amusing. we had 32" of snow in january and i can tell you i had no trouble at all getting around town. however, i did get stuck in my driveway when i got home because it was not plowed yet. and the roads probably had 8" to 10" of snow on them. all i did was lock the rear diff, and turn off the traction control so i had all wheels pulling. and i plowed right through to my garage. and the snow was above the front lip of the grill too. and did it all on the factory michelins... i will admit one thing though, i have had all generations of the rx so far (except the current one). and the most sure footed one in high snow was my 2001 rx awd. my 15 did well, but i had to DRIVE it if you know what i mean. still, i was impressed how she did.

lexus114

my 2001 rx had the vicious coupling. where as the 2nd and 3rd gen rely completely on sensors. i would assume they pretty much kept it the same way in the 16`s.

PETERPHAN8

I been driving Lexus all of my life from 1999 ES300, 2001 ES300, 2006 RX330 and last one is 2013 RX350 AWD. I have to trade in my 2013 RX350 yesterday for 2016 BMW X5. I have to say this. RX350 AWD can't handle 5 inches of snow or more on the road. I love the RX a lot, but it kept sliding left to right when we had a snow storm in MA over the weekend. The X5 handle the snows much better. I will buy another Lexus when I live somewhere that doesn't have snow.

vlad_a

You could have also bought a Lexus GX, which has proper AWD hardware. And nothing helps as much as snow tires. Those are a must regardless of the vehicle and drive-train.

allendsup2

Sorry as I don't have much knowledge on AWD systems. What do you mean by real hardware here? Does RX 350 not have a real AWD system? What about other cars such as RAV4, CRV, RDX, X3?

PETERPHAN8

I just replace 4 brand new Bridgestone all season tires.

gregjhonda

Almost all the wet road, snow and ice capability is in the tires! My RX came with cheap tires but does pretty good on ice, slush, light and heavy snow. The RX is basically front wheel drive which under 25 mph engages the rear wheels momentarily if slip is detected.

vlad_a

Here's a recent post I put together on the topic:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ml#post9725700

In short, RX350 simply connects the rear wheels to get the car moving from a standstill. Once on the way, the AWD hardware is a dead weight, that's all.
RAV4 has the same hardware as RX350.
CRV is a similar implementation.
Not sure about RDX. It might feature SH-AWD flavor, which is slightly more advanced.
All of the above are not capable of driving rear wheels full time because the engine is transverse-mounted, which requires the rotational transfer of power to go through a 90 degree bend twice to reach the rear wheels.

X3 is more capable in that regard, as it was based on RWD platform and therefore has the engine mounted longitudinally. X-Drive has its own quirks and I believe keeps the front wheels disengaged or partially engaged under normal conditions. Not sure what the deal with the center diff is.

mjeds

garbage tires. Firestone/Bridgestone are the worst tires made, consumer reports, road and track, car and driver, and several other reports have all given Bridgestone All Season tires the lowest rating they have for the past dozen years.

best all seasons out there are BFGoodrich and Goodyear, highest ratings, longest life. Michelin and Pirelli come in 3rd/4th, while they are equal in grip and slip ratings in snow their life span is 1/3 less than BFGoodrich or Goodyear.

I have BFGoodrich on my 1995 4runner 4x4, they have over 30K miles on them and still have no issue in the snow, don't need chains or 4x4 mode in 8"-10" fresh powder, and only chains in packed snow.. I haven't used 4x4 mode going to mammoth or big bear yet this year, the 4runner runs like a champ and the tires hold their own.

JDR76

I'm surprised you had such a hard time. Our RX did great in 5 inches of snow. Huge variability with tires.

JDR76

I recently had a new RX350 loaner while my GS was in for service. The display screen had a cool little diagram that showed you how much power was going to the front wheels versus the rear wheels. I was quite surprised to see it applying power to the rear wheels in excess of 60mph. I'll have to read up on that.

vlad_a

That's interesting... Was it under when coasting, by any chance?

JDR76

Interesting indeed. And no, I was accelerating. I was at 50 mph, pulled up that display, and punched it up to about 65 mph, and watched it applying power in the display during that time.

I thought the 4RX AWD system was the same as the 3RX. Perhaps not?

vlad_a

Hmm... It has no performance advantage at that point, and a negative impact on gas consumption. That would be an odd strategy for the RX.