Lexus At Last!

[Peter_1879]

Hi All,

After many years of driving around in a battered 99 Mondeo Zetec I finally took the plunge and upgraded to a proper car with my Lexus IS200. Had the car for 3 months now and aside for having to get a new Battery its been spot on.

My query is around the cars performance in winter. Are there any issues that I should now about and will the car handle / respond differently in ice and snow conditions as my old Mondeo (or similar type car would have done)? The obvious thing that jumps out is that my IS200 is an automatic compared to a manual but is it really that different?

Any advice would greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

[lex2oos]

Congrats man! Welcome to forums

mondeo is FWD right? Lex is RWD and that is quite a difference in handling.

For start - dont hit throttle when going in turns, car can spin out easy. and in winter take it to frozen lake, or snowy/icey parking lot or stadium and see how car responds how it handles etc. that is what i did :)

[Rory]

we don't get frozen lakes with thick enough ice to hold a car on lol, however everythin else lex2oos is exactly spot on, the IS is not great in the snow at all, i'm looking to getting some standard 16's for snow/ice and i'll be taking it easy, had an IS since Jan 07 and been absolutely fine in winter just takin it easy

[Garthy]

Be sure to use the Snow button! :P

[mattc]

When I ussed mine in the snow last year.

Hit the snow button and turn of the traction control as well. I found this gave me less revs to play with which was good to stop the rear end spinning out and I always felt control in those conditions were better

[lex2oos]

...or have 2 people sitting in the back. this will give you tons of grip :)

or else, get some bags with sand and carry them around in your trunk. they will add weight in the rear and be useful once you get stuck.

I just love my lex in the snow. powersliding all the time.

I have 16'' Borbet CA rims and Dunlop Graspic DS-2 tyres on them.

And today it is snowing in my country :hehe:

[ninzor]

As others have recommended earlier:Proper winter tires, Snow mode ON, Traction control ON and large sand bags in the trunk if you don't need the boot.

[TigerFish]

As others have recommended earlier:Proper winter tires, Snow mode ON, Traction control ON and large sand bags in the trunk if you don't need the boot.

It is better with traction control OFF in snow.

[lexynik]

we don't get frozen lakes with thick enough ice to hold a car on lol, however everythin else lex2oos is exactly spot on, the IS is not great in the snow at all, i'm looking to getting some standard 16's for snow/ice and i'll be taking it easy, had an IS since Jan 07 and been absolutely fine in winter just takin it easy

we do get icy asda car parks which are often empty at night to try the car out on - (rory struggled in the summer tho !!! - sorry couldnt resist)

[Rory]

we don't get frozen lakes with thick enough ice to hold a car on lol, however everythin else lex2oos is exactly spot on, the IS is not great in the snow at all, i'm looking to getting some standard 16's for snow/ice and i'll be taking it easy, had an IS since Jan 07 and been absolutely fine in winter just takin it easy

we do get icy asda car parks which are often empty at night to try the car out on - (rory struggled in the summer tho !!! - sorry couldnt resist)

no fair, my trouble was braking with worn brake pads lol, when the hazards are less obvious people generally take less care, I was fine in winter, theres one junction I turn at which I religiously kick the back end out on if its icy cos it looks good to anyone watching drifting thru the town centre lol

[lexynik]

was only joshing ya rory - keep up the goodwork with the road drifting youre right it does make good spectacle - but hey , in the words of hill street blues " lets be careful out there"

[Peter_1879]

Thanks for the replies guys. The old Mondeo was a FWD.

Thankfully my job allows me to work from home if needed so if I wake up to 2-3 inches of snow I don't plan on driving. This weekend I plan to buy a shovel and a bag of rock salt to leave in the boot in the event I ever get caught in snow.

Hopefully this winter won't be as bad as last year!