johnnay

Had the same problem here in Victoria - couldn't go anywhere. Traction control kicking in with the OE tires was absolutely ridiculous - I am seriously considering trading the car, because even my old Supra with 300whp and summer tires fared better. Nice to see some folks getting better results with winter tires though.

I must say though, that the VDIM thingy is particularly bothersome - cutting throttle as you're trying to pull out in front of a semi (actually happened!!) just because there's a bit of slush on the road is not my idea of an "intelligent" car.. Had that sucker hit me, I would definitely be suing Lexus (I was out in the lane in plenty of time, straight and all, but the car just cut out). I'm just not a fan of the electronic throttle I guess - I know of numerous situations where additional throttle will get you out of trouble, and cutting throttle will get you in deeper.

Just my .02...

LexusNut13

They were about 400 CAD for the set. That was balanced and installed. I put them on plain steel wheels, so now I have the anoying red light until I get home and the car detects the stock tires being stored in the garage.

phatboyc

Wow great price! You went with 16" or 17" for your AWD?

Let us know how they are once we get some snow in Ontario. For a tire that cost 2.9 times less than the Nokian's, I wonder how they do it.

I spent the extra money for the TPMS sensors. Not worth the money for the security benefits. But definitely worth it to get rid of the annoying warnings signals.

LexusNut13

The steel rims were 200 on top of that price, the 400 was just for the rubber. I went with 205-55-16's So far I have not seen much performance loss on the dry pavement wich is very good. I was thinking of getting TPMS rims, but I will wait til next winter now that I already have the steel ones on the car. Hopfully I can find nice TMPS rims that will fit this tire.

Does anyone know off hand what the size of the 16" winter rims that Lexus ofers on the canadian site are? They seem a little expensive though.

pelucidor

I got my IS350 with 18" wheels a few days ago and was surprised to see that Lexus fits summer tires in December for the NorthEast region.

I recently moved to PA from TX and after reading this thread I bit the bullet and did the following:

1. Found a tire shop locally that stores summer tires/wheels over winter and vice versa for free - major benefit for me.
2. Ordered Dunlop Winter Sport 3D tires (225/45-17 front and 245/45-17 rear) and a set of boring but cheap Sport Edition E1 five spoke wheels from Tire Rack (neither the tires or wheels can be selected for the IS350 on their website but this is what the chap I spoke to at TireRack strongly recommended).
3. Total price $1200 for wheels, tires, installation and taxes - ordered through my tireshop (he quoted TireRack prices and didn't charge shipping which was nice). This includes moving TPMS from old wheels to new ones.

Hope the snow tires keep me on the road - should be all deleivered and installed by Tuesday.

VitB6

Finally got my winter tires put on the car today. I am running Vredestein Wintrac Extreme and supposedly they are better than the Nokian RSi's because they are much quiter, better wet handling and wear a lot better. Who knows. I report how the car handles in the snow when we get some more.

Pelucidor- while I am not an expert on this subject, from my investigations you need to run a staggered setup on the IS350. Your winter tires are not staggered so, from what I have heard, you will have control issues. You may want to be careful and perhaps change your order to a staggered setup before you take delivery of the tires. FWIW.

pelucidor

Thanks for the concern but I am getting:
Front: 225/45-17
Rear: 245/45-17

which are the standard tire sizes for th IS350 unless you get the optional 18s.

Both the person I spoke to at Tire Rack and the guy at my tire shop thought these would be the correct tire sizes for the IS350.
I initially wanted a winter package with better looking 18" wheels with 225/40-18 and 255/40-18 Blizzaks but it was too expensive (about $1800 total) and I was told smaller/narrower tires are probably better for cutting through snow.

IS350MD

Will be putting on winter shoes this weekend. Bought the 17" Sport E1 rims from Tirerack with Blizzaks AND tire pressure sensors to replace my 18" OEM rims and tires. I am very pleased with the appearance upon delivery, the rims look great considering they were only 'bout $100 apiece. The wheels came balanced, should be a piece of cake install in my garage. I know I spent more $ for the TP sensors but it'll be sooo easy to swap the tires.

SolaraToIS

Don't forget, that second set of sensors must be registered on the car.

G35TOIS350

been driving my LM25's with a 50 lb bag of salt in the trunk all week. zero problems in the snow so far

IS350MD

thanks for the reminder, I'm pretty sure the manual has instructions how to do this right?

I know the car can use 2 different sets of sensors.

Bichon

The manual tells how to switch between the two registered sets of sensors, but actually adding a new set requires both the numbers from the sensors and a factory scan tool.