SonyHome

I just order IS350 F Sport RWD but now I'm having second thoughts and contemplating to get the AWD instead. But just wondering since F Sport AWD also has 225/45/18 & 255/45/18 would that be a good winter driving car with all season tires? If I have to get new rims and snow tires for AWD than I might as well stick with RWD.

Let me know if you have any experice driving in winter conditions with these tires sizes in both AWD and RWD w/ snow tires.

Thank you.

carderoni

The AWD F Sports come with all season tires where I believe the RWD F Sports come with summer tires. There's a big difference between summer and all season/winter tires, regardless of drivetrain. If you're happy with your car now I'd recommend investing in an extra set of wheels with winter tires that you can swap in/out as the seasons change. In my experience with an SC400 and 735iL, both RWD, that extra set helped immensely. On my AWD Subaru I just left all season tires on it year round.

JGard18

In MN, I would invest in snow tires no matter what car I drove or what driveline layout it had. I would always get a second set of wheels and snow tires on my Subarus for New England winters and I'm damn glad I did.

Don't forget, AWD doesn't help you stop or turn, and that's the toughest part about driving in a lot of snow and ice. Snow tires are king.

For whatever it's worth, I've owned a few RX7s and a Miata and threw four snow tires on there and I never had any trouble getting anywhere through those NE winters.

SonyHome

Thanks for your input but I've been driving in MN for very long time and never had snow tires or AWD. I've only had FWD but with RWD I'm little more cautious so I may get set of snow tires.

I was just more curius if those wide tires in the back of F Sport would perform good in snow even with all season.

carderoni

They'll probably be fine in the winter - my Subaru was able to drive around in slow and slush pretty well with all season tires. Still have to be careful, of course. Summer tires, even on an AWD car, is asking for trouble in the winter.

mrraider

AWD can help you turn by torque vectoring. Power can be chanelled from slipping wheels to wheels with traction.

JGard18

RWD can do that, too. If your front tires have lost grip, they've lost grip. Nothing AWD can do to fix that.

sm1ke

iTrader: (5)

A RWD car can't transfer power to the front wheels. I thought that was obvious.

CtSFox

Indirectly responding to your question, we have two sedans with all wheel drive and all season tires. We have driven then through over a decade of New England winters and have never had any problems. Of course, once the depth of the snow exceeds your ground clearance, then you're in trouble, no matter what tires you have.

JGard18

How does power to the front wheels help when they have no grip?

sm1ke

iTrader: (5)

I'm talking about when you turn. RWD models put all power to the rear wheels. AWD is 30/70 normally, with the capability to go to 50/50 when necessary. When you're turning, and during acceleration the rear wheels slip, the car can split the power to the front wheels to reduce the amount of fishtailing that will occur. The traction control will also intervene if the traction loss is great enough. The RWD only has the traction control, which cuts power to the slipping rear wheel to regain traction. Basically, with all other factors being equal, an AWD model should be able to negotiate a turn a little more smoothly and maintain traction better than a RWD model.

This is how I understand it; if it's wrong, please correct me. I'd rather be wrong and learn than keep thinking it works that way, when in reality it doesn't.

corradoMR2

Had a 2IS AWD with 245/40/18 all seasons all around and I never had issues with traction. And we're talking Canadian winters. If you were comfortable with fwd and all seasons with past cars, you'll be in even better control with AWD.

SonyHome

So between RWD with Snow tires VS. AWD All-Season tires which do you think is better? Big difference?

jhs82

AWD with all-season will give better traction, but RWD with snow tires will give better braking. And the most important is to be able to stop fast.

However, AWD with snow tires will give you both.

mrraider

I disagree. I had an IS250 AWD, and the winter tires offered distinct improvement in winter driveability, particularly going uphill.

AWD can only redistribute power to wheels with traction. If wheels have no traction, AWD can't do squat.