I am due to take delivery of a new GS 450h next week. Although I'm very excited about my purchase, I am increasingly concerned about what I have been reading about run flat tires. What is your experience with rft and can they be replaced with non rft? Should I have the dealer replace them with all season radial non-rft? Does my rim accept non run flats? If so what tire would you recommend?
I am also interested in the experiences of GS 450h owners when driving in winter/ snow conditions. My previous LS430 was rear wheel drive but handled surprisingly well in the Chicago winters.
Finally, I am interested in getting XM radio for my GS and am wondering if it is very difficult to install since the car is pre-wired for it? Could I do this myself or should the dealer handle it? Are there installation instructions anywhere on the Internet?
Thanks in advance for your help. This site is such a great reference!

 

RFT's are one of the worst inventions EVER. It's kind of like communism.
It sounds good in practice, but in reality it is a fiasco. I can't wait to
get rid of the runflats on my winter setup. Even with 17'' they feel like
rocks going over bumps.

 

re xm. it's a fairly significant job but a do it yourselfer can do it if you are really motivated. tuner needs to be mounted (usually in the trunk but i dont know about your specific car) and wiring harness run to the stereo head. unless the prewiring has left an accessible hookup, you have to pull the head and attach the tuner lead. then run the antennae lead from the tuner to the location of your choice. some have climbed the mountain, it was way more than i wanted to handle. hiding the wire leads can be tricky and antennae location is key. I had best luck with it mounted outside, no surprise. you can check out this thread for some semi related info.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=204811

 

My 96 Corvette that I bought new has them and the 98 Vette that I had and sold also has them. The tires on the 96 need to be replaced and I am putting R/Fs on it. I even looked into putting them on others cars I owned but they weren’t available in that size. So I was pleased to learn the GS450H [today is my 2 week anniversary] had them.

I am a retired cop and was forced into retirement due to injuries on the job, I went through a few operations and still suffer every day so the fact I don't have to worry about changing a flat is very comforting to me. I don’t mean to imply I am helpless and can’t change a tire if I have to but I am in pain 24/7 and changing a tire will only put me in more pain and even though my cell is very reliable there are some areas between NY and SC with no signal, I even ran into long stretches of dead spots in est Texas and west Louisiana.. My car has some kind of emergency button that I pushed , I peeled off some protective plastic cover and someone asked me what my emergency was, it took a second to realize I pushed a help button by accident. I got my car in NY and towed it to SC [4 wheels off the pavement] . Right after I got it off the trailer I towed it to SC with I was checking out the car in my driveway, I didn’t have time for the salesman’s run through and didn’t read the book so I was shocked to hear someone talking to me. But more to the point I don’t know if it is standard on all GS450Hs or not have doubts how reliable it is, I assume if I can’t get a signal on my Sprint phone the Lexus help line won’t get a signal either. So calling roadside service may not always be an option.

A lot of people have them off their Vettes them and although the C5 Corvette does not have a spare tire they still take the chance of driving with non-runflats and no spare. They keep a can of flat fix in a can but if they use it, it will destroy the pressure sensors.

There is no doubt a regular tire will fix in the rim in place of a run flat but you will be giving up tire that are probably worth $500 to maybe $1,000 more than regular tires so I would expect the dealer to take off a couple hundred dollars. I guess the question about R/F you need to ask your self is are you physically ably to change a tie, do you mind getting dirty if you are all dress up on the way to an important business meeting, do you have a wife or girlfriend that doesn’t know how to change tires?

I once saw the aftereffects of a woman that didn’t know what to do with a flat tire, she drove a few miles on the flat and destroyed a tire that was repairable and totally destroyed a very expensive rim in the process

I don't think they degrade the comfort of the ride, I usually do 70 to 80 on the interstate when I take my trips between NY and SC, but I don't take corners real hard and I thing that is where people have the biggest complaint with handling. I guess if you like to corner hard you may not like R/Fs.

As far as R/Fs and snow my guess is that if you have been driving in the snow in Chicago you can probably handle the snow with the R/Fs. My experience from driving 20 winters as a cop in NY winters has taught me that usually an experienced snow driver that knows the proper technique for snow driving will probably do better in the snow than a bad driver with 4 wheel drive. I noticed there is a snow switch in the GS, I don’t know what it does or how it helps but clicking the switch may make it easier to drive in the snow even with the R/Fs

I don’t know much about the XM, I just picked up the only GS450H that the dealer had and it happened to have XM. Quite frankly the dealer gave me 3 months free but I didn’t bother to activate. I am guessing on this but if your car has the M/L radio it may already have the XM in it because it looks like the hook up for XM is included or pre-installed in the radio. I just looked at the Lexus web site and it lists 2 radio choices, but it says the car is satellite ready so I assume there is a plug in the factory radio that the XM plugs into. I bet if you are handy you can do it yourself.

If my car didn’t have the XM already installed I would wait to see what happens with the XM/Sirius merger. Once they merge there may be a plug in radio that receives both XM and Sirius

PS I only have about 140 miles on the car but so far I love it. I have wanted to drive Blue Ridge Parkway for a long time, my back is killing me from driving a Penske truck 800 miles so as soon as I rest up I am going to take some time off and drive up.

 

Silvervett,I must disagree with your saying that there's no difference in ride quality over regular type tires.
I replaced my new GS 350s RFs with Grand Touring model Bridgestone Turenza Serenity A/S tires and there's a night and day difference over small and large bumps and other road imperfections.

 

Well I guess you know more than I do, because you are the one that has rode in the cars with both tires and compared them. I really can't say anything about how it would be with non run-flats because I have noting to compare mine to. But I can honestly say that I am happy with the way the car rides and it's comfort. Granted I have only driven on short trips around town about 10 to 15 miles at a time, maybe after my next 800 mile drive to NY I may change my mind but I doubt it. If I need to give up some comfort in ride quality in order to not have the worry of dealing with flats with my back and knee problems it is well worth it to me. I guess the best option would be for the O/P to drive cars with both tires and decide if the R/Fs bother him. My personal feeling is that R/Fs are worth their weight in gold for anyone with problems like myself or some women that don't have the strength to do it. You should also consider that although some women are able to change a tire without a problem there is a safety issue. I would not want a wife or girlfriend [I am not married] to be changing a tire on a dark lonely road at night where someone could harm her. Maybe it is the Ex-cop in me that worries about that stuff, but even healthy people get run over on interstates while changing tires

PS I never drove my car till I drove it off the trailer 800 miles from where I bought it.

 

No doubt there are positives with RFs but a smoother ride is important to me and a grand touring tire works for me.
I've wondered why if RFs are so good,why aren't they available as stock equipped tires on the LS 460.
I would think it's the ride quality but I may be wrong.

 

Thanks for the info and your points of view. Joeb427, do you have 17 or 18 inch wheels? Do you have issues with tire damage on poor road surfaces? I used to have a Volvo C70 and its 18 inch wheels and Pirelli Pzeros suffered greatly on the Chicago streets. I am afraid that I might experience the same with the GS 450h.

 

I have stock 225/50-17 tires.
18s run with 40 series tire which because of less sidewall height have a bit stiffer ride and have issues with potholes and such more than a 50 series.
However,a 40 series tire will handle better because of a stiffer sidewall and usually a high performance catagory class tire.
A soft rubber summer tire like the Michelin Primacy or PS2's will produce a nice ride but can't be used in a winter climate without tire rubber hardening.
Summer tires have traction loss,wear fast,longer panic stops in temps under 45 degrees.
Forget about traction in any type of snow.

 

The funny thing about this is that my back is very sensitive to a hard ride and although I was warned against it I bought a Jeep Wrangler 6 or 8 years ago [I thought it would be fun to go off roading and take off the top]. It didn't take long until My back pain forced me to get rid of the Wrangler and get a more comfortable Jeep grand Cherokee. When I got the GC serviced sometimes they gave me a small loaner car if itwould take over night. But it didn't take many miles till my back started hurting from the hard ride, so now even when fly to NY and rent I get something mid to full sized. But even with the runflats in the GS my back does not suffer. Maybe the seats or the suspension makes up for the tires. I am convinced of one thing with runflats there is no in between, you either love them or hate them. People just have to decide what is most important to them in a tire

 

Really bad comparison. I bet you never lived under one, or did you? But still comment

 

Could you please explain, I know a bit about the subject because I have relatives who lived under communism

 

Regarding run flats: I detested them (Dunlops) when they came with my `02 and `04 SC430s, and replaced them with Michelin Pilots. However, I absolutely love them (Bridgestones) on my `07 650i. The important thing to remember about run flats is that when they sustain a puncture they cannot be plugged.

 

No, I never have nor would I want to... Granted some benefited from it,
but globally speaking, it has failed. Then again, capitalism may be collapsing
too cause we keep buying more tires than we need to

 

Ah, nevermind. It just caught my eye, so see how strong some beliefs are. It is just that communism is an economical theory, not much more than that. Never existed as reality in no country so far, despite what the 'official line' anywhere says. Hence it is hard to say whether it is successful or not. And your relatives could not have lived 'under' it.

I'm just amused since I'm one of the guys who in this terminology 'lived' under it and as the result I'm not as convinced that it is any worse than any other theory out there. But as I say, never mind, since this thread is actually about the runflats, which I do don't like