Dr C

I'm hoping, perhaps naively, that my 250 AWD with OEM all season tires will be just fine in bad weather. Surely there is someone here who has already driven in crummy weather?

spwolf

normal tires get too hard under 45-50F, colder it is, worse they are. if you have harsh winter, you definetly need snow tires, no matter what car you have...

Dr C

Both my Audi A4 and BMW 325xi, with OEM all season tires, did fine in the winter here in Kansas City. Our Audi S4, due to performance tires and a lot more power, was useless on the OEM tires. But, it does fine on Blizzacks.

I just hope to avoid having to buy snow tires and wheels if I don't have to, particularly because the tire pressure sensors bump up the cost of the wheel/tire package at TireRack. Not to mention the mickey mouse of switching and storing two sets of wheels and tires.

shox

I can tell you in a couple days, haha, got to go pick up the car then and it just snowed here last night.

The dealership said, to me at least, that with the AWD, stock tires should be okay with no problem. If you were to get the RWD 250, then they recommend that you buy winter tires.

Dr C

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upbull340

I drive a 300 hp Volvo AWD with UPH all season Toyo tires on 18" wheels. 2 inches fell today before I got home from work. This is my 3rd winter with the car/tires and I do fine. You will do even better with the narrower 17's and a better awd traction system than I have. You just have to remember to give yourself time to stop and remember to start out slowely.

You will be fine.

shox

I just got my IS250 AWD yesterday, and it just snowed here the past weekend. The car drives pretty good in winter, it is kind of bumpy but I think it would be like that with all vehicles. Especially here we get gravel/sand for the roads. Overall, it's a good car for winter I think. But then again I drove slower cause I need to break the car in.

ShooExpert

AWD with all-season tires will work out fine. Snow tires would improve gripping, but all-season (with AWD will be fine).

I have an A4 quattro currently and live in Chicago. Have no problems at all with winter driving and can go through just about anything. Of course the Lexus AWD may not be (actually probably isn't) as good as Audi's Quattro, but you should be fine with all-seasons as long as you have AWD.

brewkp4

I am pretty confident that my AWD will do fine in Boulder, CO where I live. I am not too sure though how it will do if I take it into the mountains to the ski resorts. I don't think it is even worth trying if there are other ways of getting up there.

hashs99

I live in Chicago, drove mine in the snow and was very confident

ES3

Did you do the stock rims on your S4 when you added Blizzaks?
Would you have considered all-seasons on the S4?

Dr C

ES3: I purchased steel wheels from Tirerack -- bought the Blizzak on wheels package. So we have the OEM tires on OEM wheels and the snows on steel wheels. I suspect that the S4 would not do well on all season tires. Same thing was true on my Mitsu 3000GT VR4 (w/ Hennessey upgrades). - just too much power.

Robb: I just returned from running some errands -- no sign of rain, sleet, snow -- nothing.

Dr C

ES3

Thanks. Where your steel wheels smaller than the stock rim size your car came with?
Are you saying you tried all-seasons your VR4 and were not happy?

Dr C

ES3:

I drove the VR4 once in bad weather -- was certain I was going to kill myself so I put it in the garage and left it, only to drive it on nice days after that.. With the slightest amount of throttle it would go sideways and that was with AWD!

ES3

YIKES! That was with all-season tires too!? Again, were the steel wheels you used smaller than the stock rims?