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corky
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hi,

is the IS really that bad in the snow. we are having some snow for the first time since i got the car so im just wondering just how bad it really is. will have to go out in landrover if its really as bad as you say it is.

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I never found it that bad the few times I drove in icy / snowy conditions.

A lot of it is about how you drive.

If you are not careful, you can spin the wheels in the first 3 gears easily.

Use the snow button, start off in second gear, and keep a gentle toe on the pedals.

And of course the gold rule for driving in snow - ask yourself "Do I really need to make this journey?"

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it really is that bad....

But it has more to do with your tyres and driving style than anything else...

If you have the dunlops, then your in trouble, they dont like standing water at the best of times, and really struggle with snow..

But, just be careful, and progressive with the controls, and you'll be fine.. I managed to drive from Bristol to Cumbria on Christmas Day in the blizzards with no more than a little slippage..

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I had a near miss last year driving in snow thru Belgium. It was snowing quite heavily but there was a clear track on the inside lane of the autoroute. I was following about 100m behind another car, doing around 50mph, in "snow" mode.

A Merc 4x4 SUV came steaming along past me and threw up a bunch of wet snow to my offside. The Lex's arse end lost it immediately and I found myself desperately trying to control it by turning into the direction of the slide. I must have come within mm's of the armco barrier. Until the snow got lighter I kept the speed down to 30.

Wonder if the new IS250/350 come with a 4x4 option? One of my European buddies reckons Lexus will never take off in Northern Europe until they do a 4x4 option a la Audi, VW, etc.

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its no worse than a bmw or similar sized saloon, ive seen more accidents with bmw`s than lexii, maybe thats just because there so :tsktsk: common :lol:

having said that iv commandiered the wifes land rover for the next week :winky:

your right the lexus it is a prestige car and i want to keep it that way

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My father in law assures me the GS is much worse than the IS in snow. A small amount once left him stranded half way up a hill. It was auto and the traction control could not decide and eventually gave up giving enough power to the wheels as it thought they were slipping.

Put the IS in snow mode and drive slowly and smoothly, not too much power in corners and it'll be OK

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I don't know really. It isn't THAT bad.

Last week we had approx. 25 cm of snow here in Sweden! I was stuck with a loaner, an IS200 auto. equipped with 17" with snow tires. It was OK I guess, but the anti-spin system was very eager!

The day after that I got my own car back, a BMW 3-series (current model) and I must say the BMW was handling better but not that much better.

My BMW was equipped with 15" winter tires and I guess if I had driven the Lexus with 16" winter tires the difference wouldn´t be that much.

So... The Lexus is the same or a little worse than the BMW but both of them are better than my Jaguar Super8 but they are all worse than my wifes X5 4.8iS and my fathers Saab 9-5 3.0 v6 turbo.

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I don't know really. It isn't THAT bad.

Last week we had approx. 25 cm of snow here in Sweden! I was stuck with a loaner, an IS200 auto. equipped with 17" with snow tires. It was OK I guess, but the anti-spin system was very eager!

Snow tyres being the IMPORTANT word there! :lol:

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My father in law assures me the GS is much worse than the IS in snow. A small amount once left him stranded half way up a hill. It was auto and the traction control could not decide and eventually gave up giving enough power to the wheels as it thought they were slipping.

yeah - I had a real problem on Christmas Day trying to get up a hill to get home (it haile / snowed while we were out).

fortunately, as it was Xmas day, there was no traffic behind me, as I crawled up like an arthritic pensioner. :blush:

It was a fine line indeed between enough gas to keep moving - and too much gas causing the wheels to spin and back end to slide around.

Once I made it up though - was OK the rest of the trip.

As has been pointed out in the thread though - a big difference is the wheels and tyres. In places that regualrly get a lot of snow, people wouldn't dream of driving around on big, wide wheels with high performance tyres on.

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I must admit mine was awful the only time I've driven it in snow... Rear wheels scrabbling around like crazy and going anywhere but in a straight line trying to go forward up a slight incline! :D

Then again I do have and auto and 18's with not much life left in the tyres!!!

Aah well, I'll have to skive or something if it gets real bad...

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I had a near miss last year driving in snow thru Belgium. It was snowing quite heavily but there was a clear track on the inside lane of the autoroute. I was following about 100m behind another car, doing around 50mph, in "snow" mode.

A Merc 4x4 SUV came steaming along past me and threw up a bunch of wet snow to my offside. The Lex's arse end lost it immediately and I found myself desperately trying to control it by turning into the direction of the slide. I must have come within mm's of the armco barrier. Until the snow got lighter I kept the speed down to 30.

Wonder if the new IS250/350 come with a 4x4 option? One of my European buddies reckons Lexus will never take off in Northern Europe until they do a 4x4 option a la Audi, VW, etc.

50mph in the snow???... thats about 80 km/h and than you find it strange that you almost crashed on the belgium high way... :blink: no more a joke... :lol:

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Rob (fluff34567) drives in the snow a lot and says the snow tyres make a massive difference to the IS and it's fine in the snow with those - you might as well forget it with summer tyres but the clue is in the name after all....

To be honest I was petrified last time it snowed as I'd just had the car suspension all done, bigger alloys, coilovers etc and I thought it would be shocking, but in all fairness it behaved better than when it was standard - wouldn't have thought that should have been the case?!

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I've used my IS several times, namely today in icy/snow conditions and didn't find it that bad. It's not going to be no worse than any other rear wheel drive car.

Just take it steady.

And its funny alot of you rip BMW for being comon cars, well yeah, they make pretty dam good cars and should sell alot, there biggest fault aside from the ugly things their bringing out now is there addiction to facelift. But Lexus would love to sell this amount in the UK which accounts for most of Lexus Europe sales.

:tomato:

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