Evil Teo

iTrader: (13)

This is my daily car for now, I am planning on purchasing another car to be my daily, like VJ said up top. If you have no choice but to drive it, I recommend getting winter tires if there is snow on the ground. However if you have a another car, use that instead of your F so it won't get banged up from the ice and snow on the ground.

ERDoc74

PLEASE NOBODY MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I MADE AND WRECK THEIR ISF!!!!
This happened last winter (Feb) about 6 weeks after I bought my F (only about 1500 miles on her.. )
I had asked the dealer to change the OEM potenzas to all seasons when I purchased the car in Dec. but the salesman talked me out of it saying that "all the other F drivers in town use summer tires" and "just be careful"....
Well I was coming home from a night shift one morning I was on the interstate and went from a dry lane to a lane wet with melting snow that was pushed up on the concrete median... Was going about 75-80 and temp was 40 degrees.. Next thing i know the back end starts fishtailing and then my front end hits the median...... the car bounces off and starts doing 360's (i think i did about 2 or 3) and finally came to a stop facing oncoming traffic in the middle lane... I had just passed a truck and ALMOST got drilled while fishtailing/spinning...... anyway, have since learned that even without snow/wet conditions in the cold... summer tires become "greasy" and are not reccomended.... I now have winter tire/wheel setup to avoid this scenario again in the future....btw bumper and front left wheel had to be replaced...

Valkirk

Wow sounds like you were lucky! Especially only needing a new bumper and wheel!!

Yep once you get below 7 deg C Winter tyres are the way to go regardless of if it's snowy or not.

TyreKckr

I'm in my second season of winter driving my IS-F and am generally pleased with how it performs, although I still leave it in the garage and take our Pathfinder as much as possible. With four decent snow tires and "snow" mode engaged, you are unlikely to have much issue getting from point A to point B, as long as conditions aren't too extreme. On the other hand, you'd have to be insane to drive it more than a few blocks in true winter conditions on summers and I'd be a little queasy even on all seasons.

One issue I've encountered on a few occasions: in really low-traction situations - say, 6" of fresh, unpacked snow or "wet ice" (ice that has slightly melted - the combination of "snow" mode and traction control will sometimes shut down rear wheel spin completely, such that you actually have to disengage "snow" mode to get any traction.