Anyone from Chicago dealing with this snow? I left my house around 5:30 am this morning....drove about a block and a half....lost the back end and almost hit a curb...did a U-turn and went back home....got in the faithful Camry. Did any of you guys get snow tires for your IS300? If so which tires do you recommend? I'm really thinking about it now. Does anyone know if sandbags in the trunk helps? Please reply.
Chicago Snow!!
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scary stuff!
I just called my tire guy to order some snows....I'm not going to take any chances in wrecking a $35,000 car because I wanted to take corner fast on the dry pavement during the winter months!
It is SOOOO not worth it. I would much rather sacrifice December - February hard driving then sacrifice 12 months of no car
Chris
I just called my tire guy to order some snows....I'm not going to take any chances in wrecking a $35,000 car because I wanted to take corner fast on the dry pavement during the winter months!
It is SOOOO not worth it. I would much rather sacrifice December - February hard driving then sacrifice 12 months of no car
Chris
It's not the damage from the roads that I'm worried about. I'm more worried about them putting the tire on. I've heard some scary stories about rims getting scuffed from tire installation. Anyway, I think I made a big mistake with getting low pro tires in the first place. I should have got the stock all season tires and then when spring rolled around I could have bought some bad ass rims. Oh well I guess you live and learn. Whatever you do, don't think that you can get away with the stock low pro tires in the winter. Atleast not in chicago!!! Good luck to all you and drive safe!
I purchased rims and tires for the Chicago area winter... purchased Artic alpin's for $ 79.00 at discount tire in naperville, IL..
the rims $100.00 (check pricing on the discount tire homepage..usually cheaper than driving up to store, and they usually honor the online price...)
total was around $870.00 with new lugs and free replacement insurance.. Key thing to remmeber is to find the right bolt pattern/size and a rim that will accomodate the four piston calipers on the IS....cheers!!!
the rims $100.00 (check pricing on the discount tire homepage..usually cheaper than driving up to store, and they usually honor the online price...)
total was around $870.00 with new lugs and free replacement insurance.. Key thing to remmeber is to find the right bolt pattern/size and a rim that will accomodate the four piston calipers on the IS....cheers!!!
OMG..............SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
almost a foot already and i cant even see my IS outside....i thought i had a Black Is but now its WHITE.....ALL WHITE....
My IS is not going anywhere for a while....it took my wife 2 1/2 hours to go 15 miles to work...........UGH...ugh
I HATE SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Later
ONYX 01
Discount tire in Naperville, IL does not have a problem mounting my summer tires for free, and switching back and forth. Also, rotating and balancing is free of chagre for the tires purchased....So, you may want to find a shop that goes the extra mile for customer service. Discount tire Co. has been pretty good to me so far...
I initiated the same discussion in the Owner's forum but there seems to be more responses over here.... I think that I am in the same boat as most of the drivers in trying to decide whether to mount snows on the stock rims or get new rims for the winter. One of my friends brought up a good point -- why would you pay money for rims that you are going to run in the snow and salt? If you are going to spend money on the rims, why not get nice rims for the summer and using the factory rims (which every IS owner has) for winter driving?
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Peabers
'01 IS300 Graphite Grey Pearl/Black Cloth LSD
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Peabers
'01 IS300 Graphite Grey Pearl/Black Cloth LSD
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Ahhhh, perhaps winter IS the best time to live in Seattle! They SAID it might snow last night, but it didn't! (I lived in Chicago for two years...I leave it (and that nasty salt) to you guys...with pleasure.
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yes, I thought about that, and orginally decided to go with cheap steels wheels, since I like the stock wheels for the summer(graphite polished).. the problem is with the calipers being larger than the norm, a typical steel wheel will not fit..at least the ones we tried fitting.. So, I downsized to the 16's for better traction and found a decent set of wheels to go with the alpins...
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I purchased a tire/wheel package from www.discounttiredirect.com
I bought the 17x7 Konig Reign wheels that look very similar to the stock ones, and 215/45R-17 Pirelli Winter Ice tires. They have performed awesome. Trying to drive on the stock tires in snow is almost impossible. I purchased this package for $1041.00 including shipping and lugnuts which is a pretty reasonable price. I wanted to have a spare set of wheels/tires and didn't want to keep switching tires on and off my stock rims. I was contiplating a 16" wheel/tire package, but didn't mind paying the extra $140 or so to upgrade to the 17" package in order to keep the "stock" look. Performance wise, the 17" package works just as well as the 16" one, but people usually go with the smaller one because of cost. In this case, the 17" package wasn't that much more money which I was happy about.
I bought the 17x7 Konig Reign wheels that look very similar to the stock ones, and 215/45R-17 Pirelli Winter Ice tires. They have performed awesome. Trying to drive on the stock tires in snow is almost impossible. I purchased this package for $1041.00 including shipping and lugnuts which is a pretty reasonable price. I wanted to have a spare set of wheels/tires and didn't want to keep switching tires on and off my stock rims. I was contiplating a 16" wheel/tire package, but didn't mind paying the extra $140 or so to upgrade to the 17" package in order to keep the "stock" look. Performance wise, the 17" package works just as well as the 16" one, but people usually go with the smaller one because of cost. In this case, the 17" package wasn't that much more money which I was happy about.
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p.s. And for the traction control, it's awesome. It engages right away when any spinning occurs from the back wheels. I put the pedal to the floor, and it limits the amount of power being sent to the wheels. It totally avoids sending the tail of the car out of control.
Got the Pilot Alpins on 16" Miglia Spiders ($801.xx at tirerack). I'd go with the Artic Alpins ($15/tire cheaper) if you don't plan on doing any rural highway driving with speed in excess of 99 mph (...on dry clear days, let's be careful out there).
It's more convienent to change them since all I need is good jack. I don't have to make an appointment somewhere and haul the tires in to get mounted (unless they store them for you). Mounting and balancing costs about $16/tire.
Car is warm, clean, and safe in the garage right now, so not sure how the tires work in the deep stuff. But, they were fine last week when it snowed a little.
It's more convienent to change them since all I need is good jack. I don't have to make an appointment somewhere and haul the tires in to get mounted (unless they store them for you). Mounting and balancing costs about $16/tire.
Car is warm, clean, and safe in the garage right now, so not sure how the tires work in the deep stuff. But, they were fine last week when it snowed a little.
Also check with www.tirerack.com. I have purchased 2 sets of snows from them. Great service, good selection, and reputable.
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i went with Toyo Garit H rated tires on the stock 17' rims (same profile tire) - cost about $1125 CDN = $620 USD (including installation) - road feel is pretty good for a winter tire - but no matter what tire you use,
RWD + snow/ice + hard acceleratio = trouble
be careful and i hope everyone has a safe winter...
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I am wondering if the "SNOW" button works for the 17" stock summer tires when driving on snow. If not then what is it used for?
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