Hey N1,
You are in luck!! So Cal is the one place in the US with worse traffic than DC!
More seriously, traffic here is defintely bad (I grew up here, lived in the Bay Area for 8 years, came back to traffic worse than I had ever seen in all my years growing up here). If you are going to be on the Hill, and living around there, then you should be aware that DC streets stink. So be warned if you have aftermarket rims and suspension (my old car was not too comfortable driving around in DC).
Parking is like any city... expensive and limited compared to CA.
Some of the people on the list had snow tires for the winter with the IS and the car did fine and handles well. It doesn't snow enough here to need an SUV or anything, so an IS with snow tires would do just fine, me thinks.
So in summary:
Traffic - bad, but probably about the same as you are used to around LA.
Streets - horrible in the city, great most everywhere else
Snow - nothing to get scared with... IS300 w/snow tires will do fine (though I haven't tried it since I have a SUV that I drive if I need to)
Hope that helps.
IS300Fool
You are in luck!! So Cal is the one place in the US with worse traffic than DC!

More seriously, traffic here is defintely bad (I grew up here, lived in the Bay Area for 8 years, came back to traffic worse than I had ever seen in all my years growing up here). If you are going to be on the Hill, and living around there, then you should be aware that DC streets stink. So be warned if you have aftermarket rims and suspension (my old car was not too comfortable driving around in DC).
Parking is like any city... expensive and limited compared to CA.
Some of the people on the list had snow tires for the winter with the IS and the car did fine and handles well. It doesn't snow enough here to need an SUV or anything, so an IS with snow tires would do just fine, me thinks.
So in summary:
Traffic - bad, but probably about the same as you are used to around LA.
Streets - horrible in the city, great most everywhere else
Snow - nothing to get scared with... IS300 w/snow tires will do fine (though I haven't tried it since I have a SUV that I drive if I need to)
Hope that helps.
IS300Fool