krookid

I got my wife a IS250 manual for christmas, it came with the 18's and while negotiating the deal ( my 3rd IS in 2006 ) I got them to throw in some Nokian Hakapilita winters for the 18's. I got to the dealership to pick up my (wifey's) car, and noticed that they did the staggered set up, I told them 225's all around but yeah the dealership was hard of hearing I guess. I drove home and at the time the streets were clear, well what we like to consider clear up here in a canadian winter on the praries, and it seemed to have great traction, so I called back and said I was satisfied. Then we got more snow, it seemed to snow day in and day out for a few days, I drove the ML350 around for the first few days, because my wife had the Lexus, I asked her how it was, and she replied, well rwd in winter, can't ask for much, it seems fine. The next day I told her I was going to take it to work, and I headed out, only to find out that all of these trac control systems things made it very hard to be sure footed, I would be crossing an intersection, and trying to give it more gas, and it just felt like the car was dying, and really it felt unsafe, because of how unsure I was about it capabilities. I tried snow mode, taking trac off, but it just kept intruding, and for what it seemed at the worst possible times. I would be going around a corner, slowly and then this "beep, beep, beep" hit and all power was lost, and it felt as if I was a sitting duck. I then came to the conclusion, that I should try the old pedal trick to take off the vdc, since this is a 06 it doesn't have the nice "off" button yet. I went out late last night to expieriment, and let me tell you it was perfect. I mean sure it is easy to get the rear end to swing out, but it also allows you to bring it back in control with out much effort. Crossing intersections, sure it spun the wheels at times, but since there was no loss in power, it allows you to cross with confidence that you will indeed make it. I went around corners, got a little squirley but so easy to correct, and allowed me to actually enjoy the driving expierience, and feel like I was in control, well in fact I was. To make this long story short(er) I will sum it up. Good winter tires, vdc/vdim off, half decent driving skills, and the IS is a very capable, and safe winter viehicle. I hope this helps some of you out since I see alot of the " The ISx50 is it good in winter? " threads all the time. Short answer is yes it is good, but the tools that are on the car to make you safer, also makes it hard, bordering on terrrible for winter driving, so take em off and drive responsibly and enjoy.

SolaraToIS

We are having an absolutlely horrible ice storm here the last three days
and the roads are a sheet of ice. Fortunately my IS has the OFF button
for the VDIM and this was needed to drive on the ice. On snow the VDIM
actually helped but not ice. I was grateful I ended up with an 07 model.
Just mash that button for three seconds and I've got full control