I'm about to buy an '04 or '05 TL and was wondering how the car is in the snow. I'm in upstate New York so winter driving is a fact of life. Does anyone who lives in a snowy area have any thoughts to share? How about snow tires? If you've invested in snows would you recommend them and if so, what brand did you buy?
Thanks.

 

Welcome to the forum. You will enjoy your TL.

You should take a while and search the forum since there are endless posts about snow tires. If you are looking for an 04 AT rather than an 05 you might also want to search about transmission "droning" issues that I think were limited to the 04s. I have an MT so don't quote me on that.

The short of it is:

• Yes there are many that live in snowy areas.
• Many, including me, have opted to get 4 snow tires.
• If you own an AT then you can get steel wheels and even go down to a 16" rim
• If you own an MT then you will either need to get a second set of 17" alloys that clear the Brembo brakes or use the OE rims and do changeovers.

I am a big advocate of snow tires. Better grip on the road is key. All the ABS, TCS, VSA, blah blah blah can't make up for lousy grip. I chose Blizzak WS-50s and like them. The certainly do not handle as well as summer of other super hi-performance snow tires but the trad off is worth it grip in snow and ice is great.

 

I've had no issues with a poorly-rated set of all-season tires (Goodyear Eagle RS-A) that came with my 05 TL.

In WI we don't have any snow now, but in early December we got a lot of snow and I didn't have any trouble starting, stopping, or going around curves.

 

I've driven in the snow with my re750's. Probably not the greatest tire to be on snow with but the car seemed ok. Just don't go fast

 

I just put 4 michelin pilot alpins on my 2006 TL AT. They seem to handle very well so far in wet and dry (but no snow yet to test them in) and are pretty quiet at higher speeds. I mounted them on the stock wheels.

 

I'd hope that's common sense when it comes to driving in the snow/slush/ice.

 

Welcome to Acurazine!

Some helpful threads (you may be able to search for more...)

https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/three-go-1000-a-128690/
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131463

and these are just two threads with opinions on driving the TL in the snow.

I owned my 2004 TL for three years and went through three winters. I had no problem with reasonable driving and decent all-seasons.

 

Just like any fwd car, it has a distinct advantage in snow conditions over rwd. rwd's are a mess unless you have snow tires. Depending on convienence and your comfort, you can either get dedicated snow tires + steel rim, or you can pick up some all seasons which have good snow ratings.

for snows, I'd get blizzaks
for all seasons, I'd get continental contiextreme contacts (i own) or bridgestone poles

 

jpesnel,
The TL is very good in snow. The fact that it is FWD helps alot. Regarding snow tires, I put a set of Viking Snowtec's on. They are a Scandanavian company that is slowly coming to North America. Not too many people know about them.

 

jpesnel,
The TL is very good in snow. The fact that it is FWD helps alot. Regarding snow tires, I put a set of Viking Snowtec's on. They are a Scandanavian company that is slowly coming to North America. Not too many people know about them.

-Matt

 

Snow tires will make and already great car even better. Tires can make or break the car. Im a huge advocate of snow tires myself. Even the best all season cant compare to a good snow tire. The Dunlop Wintersport M3 (now the 3D) is a very very good snow tire.

 

You shouldn't be driving as if the road is dry when it isn't dry, snow tires or all-seasons. Buying snow tires so you can drive like you would in the summer is foolishness incarnate.

 

You should be able to guess my location....

The TL is marginal in snow because of the high power to weight ratio and the wide tires. I bought the alternate size wheels and snow tires (16" steel wheels and narrower tires with a higher aspect ratio) from Tire Rack. Of course, there's no snow this year (so far). Jury's out, but it should improve the snow capability dramatically.

 

The car handles very well in the snow.

 

The car does handle very well in snow, I live in Colorado... But everytime it snows out here I have a Beater car AWD,haha besides that I use the michelins MXM4 the stocks one's does nice.
~Jason

 

I'm pretty surprised that many people said this car handles snow well with the stock tires. Last winter, I drove my 1990 Volvo 740 (RWD, all-season tires) when it snowed. That car sucks in the snow, but it was better than the TL with the all-season tires.

Last night, we got a good 10"-er. I was amazed at the difference the snow tires made. Stopping performance was far better, but the launch performance was what was most obvious. This morning, the scraped off roads were pretty icy, but the Firestone Winterforce tires handled it quite well. I was going to buy Blizzaks, but the reviews on Tire Rack's website sold me on the Firestones (at a savings of over $30 per tire).

 

We went through the ice storm that hit the midwest earlier in the week over the past weekend...and winter has returned to Syracuse. 5" of Lake Effect snow on top of the ice made for an interesting commute today. I watched a Saab spinning its front wheels madly at an intersection. I wanted to see if my ealier impressions were correct. I went through the same spot and accelerated like I normally do on dry pavement - not WOT but aggressively. VSA light did not illuminate and I couldn't detect any spin or loss of directional control. Yup, the snows made a HUGE difference.

 

Get some 16 inch steel wheels, some Blizzak snow tires and drive carefully!

 

Drive carefully? Hmm... that's all you need to do with a FWD car.. and by far the best advice regardless of vehicle.

 

I can't comment on snow tires as I don't have any on my TL, but I've been very pleased with how my TL has handled snow and ice. I haven't had her in real deep snow yet, but over the weekend we got some ice followed by a few inches of snow and she handled it as good as any front driver I've ever had.

When it came time to go to work on monday morning and there was still 2-3 inches of hard packed snow on most of the roads I would travel on I still chose to drive my TL instead of one of the 4x4s. With a good set of snow tires I don't think I'd have any qualms about driving it in the real nasty stuff.