yon

I just ordered my '02 ES300, and while in the showroom got a first look at the IS. My wife likes the small car zip-around-town feel, so it seemed like the IS would be a fun car for her. I've been steadily trying to talk her into upgrading from her 98 Neon to something better, and this would certainly be a step up!

Miracle of miracles I convinced her to stop in the dealership to kick the tires. Turns out that was good timing, since there's no friendlier dealership than the one you're waiting for delivery on the car you just bought.

Well, she had a blast tooling around in the IS---very fun car. The problem is we'll be moving to NH next year. One thing that we don't need as an unpleasant surprise is for her to spin off the road in the first snowfall of the year.

So... what's the scoop? Anyone driven a winter in the IS? Would doing the summer/snow tire thing help matters? Or is this car simply a mistake in the snow belt?

RysBURNER

i bought my 01 IS300 in Dec (wen it wasnt snowing) then wen it did started 2 snow i decided 2 try my IS to see how good it is. It turns out that the IS really suckz in tha snow!. i couldnt even drive straight really. i had a the most difficult time getting it bak in the garage which is on a hill. it took my like 5 tries b4 i got it up there. If u r thinking about purchasing an IS in tha winter i suggest really good snow tires and 500lbs sand bags or sumthing in the trunk

Marley

The car really stinks in the snow with the 17 inch tires. I did a 360 on the highway. Most people said that the winter tires were great but I bought a beater to drive in the winter.

ducati

I don't have practical experience with the IS in the snow (yet, snow is on the way), but I can say with great certainty that OF COURSE it doesn't handle well in the snow with the summer-only tires. A Front-Wheel-Drive car with summer only tires won't handle any better. The tires are just that--summer only.

Rear-wheel drive cars are fine in the snow; you just have to be more careful with tire selection. It is important to have tires well-matched to the area you live in. I'd suspect that would be a full snow in NH. Here in OH I get away with all-season's, as we have so few days of snow per year.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy my wife a RWD car. Toss the proper tires on, and it will be fine.

If you want an extra margin of safety for her, buy a 2002 auto with the stability control. It helps a newbie RWD driver stay in control in the slippry stuff. And make sure to buy the LSD.

Mercedes and BMW's have been selling RWD cars for YEARS in the US... You see them out in the winter, don't you?

yon

Yes, but they tend to be larger, heavier cars with more weight over the rear wheels, no? My concern isn't so much rear-wheel drive, but rather RWD combined with a small car. You can get away with that easier with FWD since the engine weight helps give you traction.

So you've had good luck with light, high-torque, RWD cars (such as the IS300) in snow? I would like to think that throwing on snow tires will cure the problem, but at the moment I'm a bit dubious.

ducati

Sure, some of the Teutons are heavier; but cars like the Mercedes C-Class, the older E-Class, and of course the BMW 3's and older 3's and 5's are similar in weight to the IS300.

I have driven a C280, an older 3, and an (early 90's) 525, and they all were fine.

The thing to remember is that RWD cars handle DIFFERENTLY than FWD cars. For instance.. You're in a turn and you plant your foot. If it's slick, a RWD car will tend to oversteer. A FWD will tend to understeer.

Now, if you understeer you pretty much go right off the road in a left-hander, or right into traffic in a right hander.

If you oversteer, the same will happen but you'll do it while spinning.

Of course, this is not preferable. But modern RWD cars are entering the mainstream again because of electronic doodads such as TRAC and spin control. These electronic doodads, when combined with good all season or snow tires, will help the car behave as benignly as a FWD car. The BMW DSC (Dynamic Stability Control), with which I have firsthand experience, is a great example of that. When faced with the situation above, DSC will not only prevent oversteer but it will actually cut the gas and tell you that you're a bonehead for planting the throttle in a slippry turn

I have no doubt the Lexus stability control would work similarly. I have a 5-speed, upon which the spin control is not available, so I'm on my own. TRAC *does* provide some benefit in that it will stop the tires from spinning; on wet roads this pretty much keeps the bonehead manuevers out of the question. But since it can't respond to yaw, you can still spin the car if you're trying.

So no, snow tires aren't a cure all. But coupled with electronic aids, AND a level head, your wife will be just fine!!

moxie311

Hi Yon,

I actually live in NH and just bought a set of 16" rims and snow tires (Bridgestone Blizzack) for my IS. I also plan on adding some additional weight in my trunk (couple of sand bags or cement blocks).

Like the previous post said, RWD cars today are better equipped to handle in the snow than they used to be, (i.e. the IS with LSD, snow mode, etc). I have family and friends who currently drive RWD cars up here and they don't have any problems, so long as they have a good set of snow tires, additional weight, and don't drive like maniacs on the road.

I honestly wouldn't drive my car in the winter if I didn't have to, but I don't really have that option. I'd also be just as concerned about the car getting paints nicks, etc. from sand and stuff on the roads. Definetely get XPEL (www.xpel.com) installed. My Lexus dealer was able to get this done for me.

Good luck!!

PS ~ All accidents I've witnessed during the winter up here in NH seemed to be the result of people driving too fast.

yon

Hmm... I just checked this out. How do you like it so far? My 98 ES300's black hood is stone chip hell from all the highway driving I did for the past 3-4 years and it would be nice to avoid that on the new one. I'm getting the Blue Onyx ES, any idea how invisible the plastic is on dark colors?

I'd also like to think that I could safely remove it after the plastic starts to look ratty or if I decided I didn't like the looks. I know the web site claims up and down that it's removable, but I'm still nervous.

Any thoughts?

moxie311

Hey Yon,

I love it! I wish I got it when I first bought my IS (late March'01). Definetely worth the investment. It cost me $346 for the parts and labor at the Manchester, NH Lexus dealer. They had a certified installer come up from a company called AutoBahn (I think that's right) to install it and the person did an excellent job. It took two hours for the install.

My car color is silver, which is a good color to have with XPEL. Dark colors are supposed to be pretty good as well. From what I've heard, the only bad color to have XPEL put on is white.

XPEL really does blend in with the car, but you can notice the line where the film ends upon close inspection (2 to 3 feet). But anything beyond that distance, and you honestly can not tell that anything is even there. It doesn't look tacky or anything either, and is certainly more effective than a car bra, because dirt can't get trapped in it, mold won't form, and you don't have to take it off everytime you wash the car. I don't have any experience with removing it, so I can't say if there are problems there. The value of the product seems to outweight the risk (just my opinion).

It's a strange investment, because after you put it on, you'll never know just how many dents and scratches you would have gotten with out it. I just know that in the time I didn't have it on my car (6 months) my hood could use a new paint job from all the nicks and gashes I got from driving.

Do a search on this site for XPEL and you'll see tons of recommendations for this product.

Hope this helps!

Riceboy77

Hey, just had our first snowfall in Toronto yesterday (4 inches). I thought that since this was Canada, the tires that came with my car would be All-season tires. But noooo, I had to find that out the hard way! Big thanks to my local Lexus dealership for conveniently forgetting to point that out to me. I'm sure there were a lot of unhappy IS owners here yesterday.

After work, I got in my car and could not even drive out of the parking lot. The tires just kept spinning on the spot. Right then, I knew they were summer tires, so instead of risking my life (and more importantly, the IS) I parked it there overnight. I took the subway back and waited until the snow melted today to drive it back home and get some winter tires on her.

So I just purchased and installed a new set of alloys with Toyo Gerit HT winter tires (205/55/16). I took it for a spin tonight to test them out. I took some icy corners hard and tested my breaking on icy surfaces (on empty roads of course) and I was pretty satisfied. This is my first set of snow tires, so I can only compare them to all-seasons that I've owned in the past on other cars. It was actually pretty fun.

I had great control of the car on the turns and was able to perform some controlled skids for fun. At times, the traction warning light did light up on my dash, but overall it was fairly controllable. I've yet to take these tires through deep snow though. You should be fine as long as you get good tires and drive safely in traffic. As far as black ice goes, I did drive over a patch with my new tires today and felt a little bit of sway, but I think that would be the same with any tire wouldn't it? Black ice is black ice - unpredictable, no tire is invinceable at certain speeds.

Bottom line, if you own an IS anywhere where it even gets frosty and you don't have winters - get used to the subway/bus, cause you'll need it when you're car gets wrecked!

jroosh

I don't know about the rest of you but I don't consider a 3300 lb. car to be a LIGHT car.

The IS with winter tires is fine. With the Z-rated tires it comes with on the 17" wheels it is downright dangerous.

Let's not forget that going is only half the battle. Stopping and steering are much more important concerns in the winter. A real-wheel drive car with winter tires will stop and steer much better than a front-drive car with all-season tires.

Also, one of the benefits of a rear-drive car is better front/rear weight balance which aids in steering and stopping as well.

Here in MN the IS does just fine with Winter tires - in fact better overall than my old ES with all-seaons.