Here comes the snow!
12-21-09, 08:31 AM
#31
At the first sign of snow or ice, the Lexus stays in the garage. Our Honda Pilot with AWD is surprisingly good in the snow and I've got a 96 Toyota Camry that I can put chains on and get around too. With that car, a little fender bender just adds character.
No sense in trying to force a Lexus 430 to operate in those conditions. Odds are that even if we keep it under control, the 21 year old driving his rear wheel drive Chevy Camaro with bald tires is going to get us.
No sense in trying to force a Lexus 430 to operate in those conditions. Odds are that even if we keep it under control, the 21 year old driving his rear wheel drive Chevy Camaro with bald tires is going to get us.
12-21-09, 03:59 PM
#32
Well, I fared no better this year with the Primacys than I did last year with my Continentals. The LS is not really a "snow" car, and certainly not a "packed snow/ice" car. In SNOW mode or not, it stinks. It will remain in the garage, and ready to serve me on better days.
The '98 ES was great, though, and I have to worry less about idiots sliding into it.
The '98 ES was great, though, and I have to worry less about idiots sliding into it.
12-21-09, 06:13 PM
#33
Lead Lap
Well, I fared no better this year with the Primacys than I did last year with my Continentals. The LS is not really a "snow" car, and certainly not a "packed snow/ice" car. In SNOW mode or not, it stinks. It will remain in the garage, and ready to serve me on better days.
The '98 ES was great, though, and I have to worry less about idiots sliding into it.
The '98 ES was great, though, and I have to worry less about idiots sliding into it.
We happen to have a fully optioned 98 Camry V6 with the same ABS and TRAC systems that were on the 98 ES300.
Our 2000 LS400 with Blizzak snow tires does incredibly better in heavy snow than our 98 Camry with all season tires. If the weather is really bad snowy/icy, we leave the Camry in the garage and just use the LS. If some A-hole on all season tires hits us, I'd rather be in an LS than an econobox.
The only downside I've found with putting heavy duty snow tires on an LS is that one tends to start feeling invincible and cocky -- it is soooo much fun to pass stuck 4WD SUV's!
Watch this Tire Rack video showing two identical BMW's -- one on Bridgestone Blizzak snow tires and the other on all season tires: http://www.tirerack.com/videos/index...&AID=10398365&
The difference is just as dramatic on a 98-up LS400/430 with VSC.
12-21-09, 06:46 PM
#34
Okay, I hear ya on the Blizzaks, but I have a question ...... I'll be taking the LS to Kansas in March. March in Kansas - What should I expect weather-wise ?
Walt
12-22-09, 04:42 AM
#35
NJ to KS
So the blizzaks on my LS should be good on snow then? I still won't try it, just emergency use. My RX will always do snow duty, until we replace it with another AWD (GX460 perhaps)
12-22-09, 04:57 AM
#37
12-22-09, 12:30 PM
#38
Lead Lap
March in the Kansas City metro area at the eastern edge of Kansas where we live are usually quite mild although we can still get a few inches of snow in late March and even in early April. I usually take my snow tires off the first day of Spring but have put them back on a few times due to a late snow. We do quite a bit of driving a few hundred miles north where having snow tires is more important -- XMAS will be in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
There can be far more snow to the west of us. I've got stuck in western Kansas maybe five times due to blizzards - usually for no more than a day - while en route to Colorado for skiing. Got snowed in at Oakley Kansas in March in about 1987 -- lucky to get the last motel room. Couldn't get out of the motel room for three days due to snow being drifted to the top of the motel room door and the blizzard being too bad for anyone to dig us out. We had emergency food with us and the motel staff passed us a bit of food through a small access window from an inside service hallway. The snow was drifted all the way up to the overpass over I-70 by the motel -- a 15 to 20 foot snow drift.
It took us hours to dig out our car after we found it. We gave up on continuing to Colorado and were first in line when they opened the entrance ramp "snow gate" to I-70. Barely made it back home ... I-70 was closed by another blizzard a few hours later and remained closed for several more days.
12-22-09, 01:18 PM
#39
Walt
12-23-09, 03:44 AM
#40
12-23-09, 05:17 AM
#41
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