Lexus Models Strut Their Stuff In the Canadian Snow

Winter Is Coming

Lexus has long been known for producing luxurious and dead-reliable vehicles. But its offerings are also quite popular with folks that live further north, thanks to their inherent winter driving capabilities. To demonstrate just how capable these machines are in the snow and ice, the automaker recently invited a group of journalists, including The Car Guide, to a special winter driving event at Mosport in Bowmanville, Ontario.

Photos: Lexus

IS Fleet

Along with the new Lexus fleet, Russ Bond brought along his collection of 15 IS models that compete in the Lexus Sport Cup in Minden, Ontario. Bond says that the 2001-2005 IS is the perfect vehicle for his series thanks to its reliability and the fact that it's "built like a tank," and several of the cars have anywhere from 300k-400k kilometers showing on the odometer.

Photos: Lexus

>>Join the conversation about this Canadian luxury show right here in the ClubLexus forum.

Old to New

The Car Guide was able to test out a variety of new all-wheel-drive Lexus models as well, including the brand new 2021 IS, which the tester came away rather impressed with. "Despite not riding on studded tires, the latest IS proved quite effective at handling the slippery conditions, even when stability control was turned off," he said.

Photos: Lexus

>>Join the conversation about this Canadian luxury show right here in the ClubLexus forum.

Spotting the Differences

As one might expect, all-wheel-drive Lexus models account for a whopping 93 percent of the automaker's sales in Canada. It currently offers nine different AWD vehicles, four of which can be bought with a hybrid drivetrain. What's interesting is that the AWD systems in hybrid Lexus models is different than those found in regular ICE-powered models.

Photos: Lexus

>>Join the conversation about this Canadian luxury show right here in the ClubLexus forum.

Decided Advantage

"Right away, we observed that the many driver assistance features on Lexus vehicles are highly effective, whatever the powertrain, allowing you to maintain control even in tough conditions," The Car Connection said. "However, when we turned them off, gas-powered models with mechanical AWD proved faster and more agile than the others."

Photos: Lexus

>>Join the conversation about this Canadian luxury show right here in the ClubLexus forum.

Driven by Wire

As it turns out, the reason behind this is fairly easy to explain. "When it comes to hybrid variants of the NX and RX crossovers, the front wheels are driven by the combustion engine, while the rear wheels rely on the electric motor," The Car Connection explained. "There is no mechanical link between the two axles. This is why Lexus hybrids are slower and less agile on snow and ice when the electronic nannies are deactivated. They always feel a bit more hesitant since the only connection between the front and rear wheels is driven by wire."

Photos: Lexus

>>Join the conversation about this Canadian luxury show right here in the ClubLexus forum.

Quite Capable

Regardless, every one of these models proved to be more than capable on the slippery stuff, and few are going to disable traction control when they're driving in the winter, anyway. Unless you're like us and you prefer to take advantage of the reduced traction, that is.

Photos: Lexus

>>Join the conversation about this Canadian luxury show right here in the ClubLexus forum.

For help with your maintenance and repair projects, please visit our how-to section in the forum.