chad2

We had our first snow storm Tuesday night, and I just had to take my AWD IS250 out for a drive after about 5 fresh inches of snow have fallen – and what can I say... WOW!!! It just handled great, even with the original all season tires.

Funny thing happened, as I am driving very aggressively in this storm (but still cautious!!), trying to see how my AWD is handling snow, I see this car in front of me moving very aggressively too, so I catch up, and it’s a 325xi - I was a little disappointed as I thought it was a RWD drive 3-series and wanted to see how different it would move on the snow than an AWD

I have to say, it was a lot of fun driving in fresh snow; one thing I wanted to try is what happens when I floor the gas pedal (with gas being so low and all... lol), so I did it at a traffic light (right next to BMer) and I just moved without even any hesitation or swerving - the only indication that TCS was active was the light inside - the BMer must have not floored it because I was ahead of him, but eventually, I saw him right behind me

The only "complaint" I have about the car is the ground clearance, I was feeling a lot of the snow brushing against the bottom on side streets, but that's something I am welling to live with, otherwise I would have bought an SUV!!!

By the way, I don't plan to drive with my all-season in the winter, I am sure their handling will be much less impressive when temperatures drop much lower and on icy roads - my Blizzaks from Tirerack are arriving tomorrow and should be on the car by next week; this was just an early fluke storm that will be all melted by the weekend.

twofiddy

What part of Ontario are you from? In the GTA we only saw a light dusting which only remained on grassy areas not on the streets. In any event, hope you enjoy your IS. This is my first winter with my IS250 AWD as well. Can't wait to see how it will perform. How much did the Blizzaks run you? I've been shopping around for winters as well.

chad2

I am in Ottawa - and here it looked like a "real" winter blizzard on Tuesday night, started at around 5PM and by 10 we had serious accumulation. Yesterday morning's commute was very miserable, many roads were icy, they only cleaned the highways and major roads - all city contractors are still doing "summer" projects!!! lol

Today, roads are clear, except a few country open roads have wind drifting snow on them, but the grass is still fully covered and my laneway is partially covered. They "claim" that it will hit 12 c tomorrow and it will be fall again

I ordered the 215/55-16 WS-60 Blizzaks from Tirerack @110 each - I also got the $99ea alloys and the $92ea sensors too

twofiddy

ok gotcha. I had heard that out east they got more snow than what we did. And yeah I heard that its going up to 15 C tomorrow! What weird weather ...

I see you opted for the 'alternate' 16 inch package. Do you know of many people that have gone that route? Do many people go for the 16" winter tire as opposed to the 17"?

chad2

From what I hear, most people go with the 16" for winter. With the amount of snow we get here, I wanted the thinnest tire I can fit on the car. The Dealer says you can put 205/55-16 on the IS250, but I couldn't package that size online on Tirerack, and when I spoke with a technician, he recommended I don't go less than 215, so I went with that.

I will for sure provide feedback once I put them on the car next week.

SplyTek

I'm from Kingston and I'm getting the car delivered with the stock 16'' wheels precisely for snow tire purposes. I get home from Afghanistan in about 3 weeks so hopefully the car comes with the snow tires like I asked, otherwise, I might be scared of crashing my brand new car... bad.

I got the RWD so all-season tires are probably not a good move just about any time past October...

iKenn

iTrader: (1)

I wish it snowed here. I love to take out the ML when it ices.

Brian231

You will love the AWD in adverse weather, my AWD handled great last winter in Chicago with the record snowfall. Even the Dunlop all-season were fine. Much better when I swapped out to the Continental Extreme Contacts though.

Evil Teo

iTrader: (13)

yea those dunlops are pretty good in the snow but when summer or rain comes they just plain suck. thats why have my falkens will be switching to stock dunlops and rims this weekend.

Edz71

I have the stock 16" wheel's and the snows whent on last week. I was shopping around and here is what decided to go with in a 205/55/16.


http://www.toyo.com/docs/tires/tires...ategory=winter

llamaboiz

well... im gonna live dangerously this winter and not use Blizzaks on my 350

Batmobile

iTrader: (2)

lol... live dangerously huh? i don't even think you guys get snow do you?