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Does anyone have experience with the ES 350 F Sport in snow? I currently have a RX 350 AWD and it is flawless in snow. The ES 350 F Sport is FW drive and has the lower profile tires. Wondering what to expect.
Having only owned an ES for a couple of months, I cannot directly answer your question. My comments here are opinion rather than observation, but I believe you should be more concerned with snow depth than traction. I believe you will find the traction to be adequate, however I also know Minnesota winters can be pretty harsh so I might still have a set of winter wheels/tires in my gameplan. I would also make sure you have an alternate vehicle with more ground clearance should the snow depth become an issue, or you risk damage to the front of your car. Two years ago, for the first time in my memory, the snow in our region was deeper than the ground clearance on the front of our 2015 ES. Had we continued driving we would have been plowing snow with the front of the car. I should point out that our city plows main roads but not residential streets, so while the ES would have handled the main roads reasonably well, it would have been difficult getting to them. So we switched to our SUV for several weeks.
Having only owned an ES for a couple of months, I cannot directly answer your question. My comments here are opinion rather than observation, but I believe you should be more concerned with snow depth than traction. I believe you will find the traction to be adequate, however I also know Minnesota winters can be pretty harsh so I might still have a set of winter wheels/tires in my gameplan. I would also make sure you have an alternate vehicle with more ground clearance should the snow depth become an issue, or you risk damage to the front of your car. Two years ago, for the first time in my memory, the snow in our region was deeper than the ground clearance on the front of our 2015 ES. Had we continued driving we would have been plowing snow with the front of the car. I should point out that our city plows main roads but not residential streets, so while the ES would have handled the main roads reasonably well, it would have been difficult getting to them. So we switched to our SUV for several weeks.
Agree 100%. My old Camry would go through snow (Banff, Lake Louise, the "Highway thru Hell")like nobody's business as long as I had good WINTER tires on it (not 4 season). However, this will be my first winter also and am concerned that all of those underbody shields on the ES will act like a big snowshoe in deeper/heavy snow and cause "high centering" in which case we'll just switch over to the wife's RAV.
ps..we have snow in the forecast for this coming weekend! Snow tires are scheduled for next Tuesday.
I drove the ES all last winter with no issues but the winter in northern NJ wasn't that terrible. No snow tires for me - I'm not driving if there's truly a need for them.
I have relatives, including daughter and grandaughters, living on Vancouver Island. To get there I must drive over several mountain passes where snow tires are required by law November-April (chains on an ES? So not happening). . In any case I find the improved traction of the softer compound in low ambient temperatures highly significant even on dry pavement to be worth the cost.
My 2 cents. Although I've only driven mine in the snow once, I wasn't impressed. To be fair, it was one of those late spring snows that was mostly of slush (which is awful to drive in), and the Michelin tires weren't dissipating the water very well. Maybe it's the width of the tires, but they lost contact with the road really easily. It was really surprising a couple of times, and I was going pretty slow on surface. I hope the tire do better in normal snow!
Plus, I have yet to drive a Lexus (We're on our 6th) that doesn't understeer pretty badly in good conditions, and it's worse in poor conditions. They just REALLY want to go straight. Even my wife notices it!
I don't drive the 7ES; rather, I drive the 6ES which should not be that much different, being that both are large FWD vehicles.
I live in Southern Ontario which does get some occasional heavy snowfalls but more wet snowfalls. The province of Ontario does not require winter (snow) tires and I do not switch to dedicated winter tires, but I generally do not have a problem in the winter, despite staying on all-season tires.
But I can say that the choice of tires does help.
My 2015 ES Hybrid came with original equipment, low-rolling resistance Michelin Primacy MXV4 tires. On wet (rain or wet snow) roads, those tires would easily slip. But because roads here in urban Ontario are quickly cleared after a snowfall and because I was familiar with the characteristics of those tires, I seldom had a problem.
Prior to last winter's snowfalls, I switched to Michelin Premier A/S tires. With the different tire compound (not dedicated low-rolling resistance compound), these tires do not slip as easily as the Primacy MXV4 tires. I find these tires to be more predictable on wet roads.
If I lived in a different area, with more winter snowfall, I would seriously consider dedicated winter / snow tires.
Whoa - it's only Sept 30th. I guess Canada is a different world. It's supposed to hit 90 here in NJ this Weds.
Yeah, you might tell your pres he really doesn't want us; the golfing sucks right now. 50cm on the picnic table. The RAV was cleared off yesterday afternoon...that's an overnight accumulation. However, what's to do but laugh at it.
09-24-19, 07:19 AM
2019 7ES 350 in Snow?
